I've Been To London To See The Queen

Well, Chelsea actually. I've been to Chelsea to see 'The Queen' (Stephen Frears, 2006) and she was bloody good.

Helen Mirren must surely be up for an Oscar after her turn as HM, and Helen McCrory (who we saw on stage in 'As You Like It' last year, and she was fab in that, too) was hilarious as a totally disrespectful, unimpressed Cherie Blair.

Now, I'm not much of a Royalist. I've always seen the royal family as a further drain on the tax payer and a poor excuse for dragging the tourists to London, but 'The Queen' has made me a tad more sympathetic - although I'm sure that won't last long. Apparently Helen Mirren has even become a Royalist after putting herself in HM's round-toed shoes.

Cherie Blair and Alistair Campbell come off particularly badly (albeit hilariously), and Tony Bliar is confirmed as the smarmy git we all know him to be - and the funniest line comes at the end when HM assures Bliar that sooner or later there'll come a point when the public turn on him, too. HM is shown to have a sort of heart - she sheds a tear at one point (certainly not over Diana) and admires the beauty of a stag while listening to the gun shots of Philip, who has taken William and Harry off stag shooting to take their minds off their dead mother… a barbaric family riddled with archaic institutions.

'The Queen' was well scripted, well acted, well directed and well put together. The legal logistics of making a film like this, when most of the main characters are not only still alive but also still in power (fingers crossed Bliar is off any day, though), must be a minefield... but hats off to Stephen Frears for pulling it off.