Helen Mirren played her, as did Claire Foy and Olivia Colman: throughout her long tenure, Queen Elizabeth II’s life has provided inspiration for series and filmmakers. They addressed, for example, the Queen’s reserved reaction to the accidental death of her former daughter-in-law Diana (“The Queen” for which Mirren received an Oscar in 2007) or told – as in the series “The Crown” – her life, including scandals and political crises.
The British Netflix series is to have a total of six seasons, which will deal with the life of the Queen from the time she married her husband Prince Philip, who died last year, in 1947. Her father King George VI, who struggled with his stuttering. said Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech” in 2010, in which Elizabeth can be seen as a girl. She herself dared to step in front of the camera in 2012: At the opening of the Summer Olympics, a film was shown in which James Bond actor Daniel Craig wanted to pick up the real queen in a helicopter, after which doubles of the two parachuted during the celebration.
She also appeared in less serious roles that did not correspond to the image of the state monarch at all: In the slapstick film “The Naked Gun” from 1988, an assassination attempt on the queen is planned, her double Jeannette Charles appears alongside Leslie Nielsen on. The monarch was also seen in cartoons, appeared in “The Simpsons”, the children’s series “Peppa Pig” and in the animated film “Minions” from 2015. The Belgian animated film “Royal Corgi – Der Liebling der” was about her furry darlings Queen” from 2019.
A queen is crowned
The beginning of her rule was recorded in the documentary “A Queen is Crowned” in 1953. Countless documentaries, including German ones, were made later: For example, “The Queen – Fateful Years of a Queen”, which presented six decisive phases of her life on the occasion of the celebrations for her 70th throne jubilee in June of this year.
The Queen has also been immortalized in a few pop songs over the decades. These include the Sex Pistols’ famous punk anthem “God Save The Queen,” which was re-released to mark the jubilee. The song, written by Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten, was released in 1977 for the 25th anniversary of the throne. In the text, the queen is accused of a “fascist regime” and certifies that she is “not a human being”. The BBC refused to play the song on radio or television at the time.
The British band The Smiths, who released the song “Elizabeth My Dear” in 1989, also took a critical look at the Queen. In it, the alternative rock band assured that they would not rest until the queen “has lost her throne”. Finally, in 1986, the British band The Smiths dealt with the fascination that the royals exert on the media and the public on their album “The Queen Is Dead”.
The Beatles song “Her Majesty” appeared as a hidden track on the Abbey Road album in 1969. However, the song only lasts 23 seconds and begins with the lines “Her Majesty is quite a nice girl / But she doesn’t have much to say”.