WHEN THE QUEEN CAME TO TOWN
***
Director: Maurice Murphy
Screenwriter: Maurice Murphy
Principal cast:
Queen Elizabeth II
Bert Newton
Lorraine Bayly
Country: Australia
Classification: G
Rating: ***
Runtime: 79 mins.
Australian release date: 27 November 2014
Director, producer, writer and actor, Maurice Murphy has a long career in film and television, both in Australia and the UK and When The Queen Came To Town is his latest documentary. It’s a nostalgic film, made to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the visit to Australia by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh in 1954; it combines both original newsreel footage and a wealth of home movies (long before everyone carried their own personal recording devices in the guise of mobile phones) that captured an important moment of history. It also captured a country still sleepily emerging from the horror of WWII.
The year after the Coronation in 1953, the Royals set off on a six-month journey around the world to visit all the Commonwealth countries. Bert Newton narrates and the visit takes us around not just Australia but New Zealand and the Pacific islands too, mixing original footage with recent interviews with those who were there and who still speak fondly of the Royal visit. The visit to the Land Down Under included not only the capital cities, but also many country towns, large and small. It was the biggest event on everyone’s social calendar and was organized like a grand scale military manoeuvre. Murphy splits the story into 12 chapters introduced by Lorraine Bayly, who reads from a giant book to a group of bright-eyed young girls who are asked questions like, “Does anyone know what etiquette means?” Not many could answer that one today! The obvious comparison is that the visit was like a fairy tale come to life. Regrettably, it’s a device that doesn’t add much to the mix and it makes you wonder just who Murphy’s target audience is.
When The Queen Came To Town is an interesting documentary that, no doubt, will be embraced by monarchists and anyone interested in seeing how Australia looked sixty years ago. Most of the footage is in excellent condition and there is a lot of it. However, it would work much better with some further editing for it does become a tad tedious, as one imagines the whole experience must have been for Her Majesty! Being hauled out day after day, to view yet another parade in the unrelenting Australian heat, must have taken its toll on the young Queen. And it was an achievement, too, for all those who participated in the organizing of the events, the soldiers, marshals, drivers, police escorts and planners for it was all done on a truly massive scale involving planes, ships, trains and cars. So all encompassing, in fact, that almost the entire population was enthralled by the magic of the monarchy and, according to Newton, by, “the transference of fame by proximity or, as we call it now, celebrity, that invisible ingredient which overtook the world in the next sixty years”. Worth watching with a cup of tea and a lamington.
Screenwriter: Maurice Murphy
Principal cast:
Queen Elizabeth II
Bert Newton
Lorraine Bayly
Country: Australia
Classification: G
Rating: ***
Runtime: 79 mins.
Australian release date: 27 November 2014
Director, producer, writer and actor, Maurice Murphy has a long career in film and television, both in Australia and the UK and When The Queen Came To Town is his latest documentary. It’s a nostalgic film, made to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the visit to Australia by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh in 1954; it combines both original newsreel footage and a wealth of home movies (long before everyone carried their own personal recording devices in the guise of mobile phones) that captured an important moment of history. It also captured a country still sleepily emerging from the horror of WWII.
The year after the Coronation in 1953, the Royals set off on a six-month journey around the world to visit all the Commonwealth countries. Bert Newton narrates and the visit takes us around not just Australia but New Zealand and the Pacific islands too, mixing original footage with recent interviews with those who were there and who still speak fondly of the Royal visit. The visit to the Land Down Under included not only the capital cities, but also many country towns, large and small. It was the biggest event on everyone’s social calendar and was organized like a grand scale military manoeuvre. Murphy splits the story into 12 chapters introduced by Lorraine Bayly, who reads from a giant book to a group of bright-eyed young girls who are asked questions like, “Does anyone know what etiquette means?” Not many could answer that one today! The obvious comparison is that the visit was like a fairy tale come to life. Regrettably, it’s a device that doesn’t add much to the mix and it makes you wonder just who Murphy’s target audience is.
When The Queen Came To Town is an interesting documentary that, no doubt, will be embraced by monarchists and anyone interested in seeing how Australia looked sixty years ago. Most of the footage is in excellent condition and there is a lot of it. However, it would work much better with some further editing for it does become a tad tedious, as one imagines the whole experience must have been for Her Majesty! Being hauled out day after day, to view yet another parade in the unrelenting Australian heat, must have taken its toll on the young Queen. And it was an achievement, too, for all those who participated in the organizing of the events, the soldiers, marshals, drivers, police escorts and planners for it was all done on a truly massive scale involving planes, ships, trains and cars. So all encompassing, in fact, that almost the entire population was enthralled by the magic of the monarchy and, according to Newton, by, “the transference of fame by proximity or, as we call it now, celebrity, that invisible ingredient which overtook the world in the next sixty years”. Worth watching with a cup of tea and a lamington.