[lighter clicks]
[woman puffing, coughing]
[exhales]
["C'est Si Bon" by Dean Martin plays]
[coughing]
♪ Si bon si bon ♪
♪ C'est si bon ♪
♪ Si bon si bon ♪
♪ Lovers say that in France ♪
♪ Si bon si bon ♪
♪ When they thrill to romance ♪
♪ Si bon si bon ♪
♪ It means that it's so good ♪
♪ Ah c'est si bon ♪
♪ Si bon si bon ♪
♪ So I say it to you ♪
♪ Si bon si bon ♪
♪ Like the French people do… ♪
[man on TV] Here they come, all the regulars.
All the furs and diamonds on parade.
I wonder how many of them are aware of the tension behind the scenes.
Some of these people have paid a thousand pounds for a ticket.
All that remains for the performers
is to sort out their makeup, put on their clothes,
maybe have a sandwich, and sit and worry.
Word gets passed around
that the royal car is just around the corner.
The Queen, we're told, is just moments away.
And right on time, the royal car pulls up to a crowd of well-wishers.
The Queen, the real star of tonight,
steps out onto the red carpet
to be greeted by the much-loved theatrical impresario Lord Delfont,
president of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund.
For tonight is the night
when the worlds of show business and royalty
come together for a good cause.
[nurse] For you, Annette.
[man on TV] Joan Collins from the television series Dynasty.
A big smile from the Duke of Edinburgh.
[nurse] All right then, George.
-[man] And now the national anthem. -["God Save the Queen" plays on TV]
[nurse] Oh, it's started, has it?
♪ God save our gracious Queen ♪
♪ Long live our noble Queen… ♪
[nurse] Right then, Katherine. Here you are.
And you, Nerissa.
♪ God save the Queen… ♪
[nurse] Good girl. Swallowed?
[Katherine gulps]
[nurse] Well done.
How are you doing?
♪ On her be pleased to pour… ♪
[nurse] Nearly bedtime.
♪ Long may she reign… ♪
-[bicycle bell pings] -♪ May she defend our laws ♪
♪ And ever give us cause ♪
♪ To sing with heart and voice ♪
♪ God save our Queen ♪
[theme music plays]
["Let's Dance" by David Bowie playing]
To the Royal Variety Show.
♪ Let's dance ♪
♪ Put on your red shoes And dance the blues… ♪
[Margaret laughs]
-♪ Let's dance ♪ -[laughing]
♪ To the song they're playing On the radio ♪
♪ If you say run ♪
♪ I'll run with you ♪
[laughing]
♪ If you say hide ♪
♪ We'll hide ♪
♪ Because my love for you ♪
♪ Would break my heart in two ♪
-I have come tonight with a gift. -Oh.
Gossip.
My favorite.
Is it wicked?
Very.
Is it about someone famous?
Yes. But I must ask you to keep it a secret.
Oh, don't be coy.
I'll be the judge of that when I hear it.
-Ma'am. -Dazzle.
You're not taking this seriously.
Mm. How can you tell?
[laughs]
-This is a huge secret! -[gasps mockingly]
It's virtually a state secret.
I'm…
I'm all ears.
And eyes.
-And lips. -All right.
-Did you say lips? -[chuckles lightly]
[both chuckling]
I'm feeling… naughty.
Yes, I can see that.
Mm-hmm.
Ma'am, I have greatly enjoyed the last few months.
So have I.
And the closeness that has developed between us.
-Not closeness. Intimacy. -Oh God…
[inhales sharply]
Please.
[Margaret] There was a time when the men I loved
would simply leave me for other women.
Now they leave me for the Church.
[Elizabeth] Who?
-[Margaret] Derek Jennings. -[Elizabeth] Dazzle?
-[Margaret] Yes, Dazzle. -What were you doing with him?
Falling… slightly in love.
-Oh, Margaret! -Mm.
Colin Tennant said we were the two most impossible people he knew,
that we should be kept apart at all costs in the interests of public safety.
Like nitrogen and glycerin.
But… he's so handsome.
Yes.
[Margaret] Has an unkind word for everyone.
-Which I adore. -[Elizabeth laughs]
And… a touching vulnerability.
And because he has found… happiness as elusive as me,
so we discuss all the different ways that we try to find joy and calm.
-A good brisk walk, I say. -[Margaret] Mm.
-Yes. That might work for you. -It does, every time.
But it might not be enough for the rest of us.
And Dazzle has found the thing that works best for him.
Which is?
The priesthood.
-Catholic priesthood? -Yes.
That's the second reason he was never the right man for you.
[coughs]
The first being?
Well, he's, you know…
a friend of Dorothy.
-Dazzle? -Famously, yes.
Are you sure?
But the way he looks at me sometimes…
[Elizabeth] Hmm.
Describe that.
With great big adoring eyes.
I think you'll find that's because you're a royal princess,
and he's a raging snob.
Am I that stupid?
[coughs]
Or desperate?
-I don't like the sound of that cough. -It's fine.
You've been struggling with your chest for a while.
[Margaret] Should have realized when he kept suggesting going to the opera.
[coughs]
Oh.
[respirator hissing]
[newsman] Princess Margaret is undergoing investigative surgery
at the Royal Brompton Hospital.
The 54-year-old princess, who was admitted this afternoon,
is unlikely to learn the results of those procedures for several days,
but royal sources say
she has not been suffering from any specific ailment.
The hospital has declined to release further details
on the princess's condition.
It's thought that Princess Margaret was smoking as many as 60 cigarettes a day
and that would go against…
I think we'll switch this off, shall we? It's a bit…
[newsman] Princess Margaret will stay in hospital…
[nurse] Princess Margaret will be fine. Princess Margaret is in good hands.
-[man] You all right, Katherine? -[nurse] John. Come on.
-Don't be difficult now. -[man] Katherine, come on.
[nurse] Right.
-[man] Come on. It's bedtime. -Dolly needs to go to bed, doesn't she?
All together.
There we go.
Beddy-byes, Katherine. You're in this one.
[respirator hissing]
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday, dear Edward ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
Well done!
[cheering]
[nurse] Happy birthday, Katherine!
[Philip] Children-wise, we seem to do things in twos in this family.
I can honestly say I never wanted four.
[scoffs] A brace would have been quite enough for me,
but, um, the boss put her foot down,
and after a tough negotiation
on the yacht in Lisbon in a storm…
-Do you remember? -Yes, I do. [laughs]
…along came, um, another two…
The B-team!
-Yes, the second 11! -[laughter]
[Philip] …who have been very special.
Not that the first lot aren't special,
but they were expected, I suppose.
Duty.
Whereas the second lot came out of…
I was going to say "pleasure," but that's maybe not the right word,
judging by Anne's face!
[laughter]
-[Philip] What's the word I'm looking for? -Joy?
[Philip] Exactly.
Joy.
They were conceived in reconciliation,
and they have bound us all together and brought great joy.
So please raise your glasses.
Are you sure?
[Philip chuckles] Come on, Margot.
-Steady on. -Here.
[Philip] Many happy returns to, um…
-I'm sorry. What's your name again? -[laughter]
The runt of the litter,
dear Edward.
-Happy birthday! -Thank you.
-[nurse] You want the big piece? -[Katherine] Yeah!
[nurse] You can't have all of that! Come off it.
I'll chop it up in two.
Seeing as it's your sister's birthday,
you get the extra big piece.
[respirator whirring]
Has everyone seen it?
[respirator clicks off]
I remember the day that one was christened.
-Other way round. -You don't play.
-Shall I play? -[Anne] You don't play!
There's a photograph of us with our babies.
Yes.
You were holding yours as if it were a bomb.
-[laughs] -[trombone sounds]
You looking terribly glum, having just had another huge row with Tony.
-[Margaret] Mm. -He was never the right man for you.
Well, I've come to the view that there is no right man for me.
-Don't say that. -No, it's true.
Love is a tender kiss for most people.
For me, she saves her sharpest ax.
Well, I am ready for a new chapter…
without men,
without… cigarettes, without…
[server] Ma'am?
I'm finally ready…
to focus on the one thing that won't let me down.
What's that?
Us.
My position as a royal.
My duty.
So I come on bended knee
with a familiar request.
Give me as much responsibility as you can.
As many jobs, as much work.
What your sister needs to stay afloat…
is a sense of meaning.
Mm-hmm.
-Look how big his head is. -You look ridiculous.
[indistinct chatter]
[Elizabeth] Hello, you.
Hello, you.
And hello, him.
-Your Royal Highness. -Not interrupting, are we?
No, not at all. René is coming at noon.
Oh, a new beau?
No, a new hairdresser.
-Another friend of Dorothy's. -Ah.
Other than that, nothing, no.
The day stretches before me like a great yawning void.
So…
What do you want?
It can't be good news,
or you wouldn't have brought Lurch.
Ma'am, we've come to talk to you about the 1937 Regency Act,
which created a list of senior royals who could be called on
to deputize for the monarch on formal occasions.
[Margaret] Yes, I know all about that. I've been stepping in for her for years.
Yes.
Uh, but there is a… specific number of those senior royals,
just six.
Go on.
[Charteris] Well, the recent 21st birthday of Prince Edward
means that he is now of age,
and as a child of the sovereign's…
well, he ranks higher than you in the line of succession.
And you will therefore…
be required to relinquish your role as Counsellor of State.
Don't take that away from me. It's all I've got.
-Oh, Margaret. -It makes no sense.
I have the maturity. I have the wisdom,
not to mention the experience.
Edward's a boy.
He's an immature, useless boy!
That may be, but we have to play by the rules.
You will have time to concentrate on your convalescence.
Would you leave us, please?
Leave us.
[door opens]
[door shuts]
I don't want more time.
Don't you… see?
[whispers] Time, it scares me.
It fills me with dread.
I want…
I want something to fill it with.
-Well, you still have your interests. -Oh please!
-And your friends. -Friends!
The ones worth knowing, they're fed up with me.
-Your charities. -Charities? They don't want me either.
No, not now we have the Princess of Wales,
who's younger, she's nicer, prettier.
-No. Nobody wants this. -Oh, Margot.
I asked you for just one thing.
To give me work!
A purpose! Dignity.
Yes, and if it were up to me, I would have given it all to you,
the whole show, gladly, from day one.
But it's not.
-So we have to live with it. -No.
I will have to live with it, not you. I will!
[sighs]
No.
Ah!
Anne.
Welcome, ma'am.
-Everything all right? -No.
[Colin] It turns out my objection to the Marcoses
has caused a terrible stink with the board of directors.
"What board of directors?" I hear you sensibly ask.
The island is a limited company, it needs a board of directors.
You ever heard anything so absurd? It's in no one's interests anyway.
[printer beeps]
[Anne] Welcome, Your Royal Highness.
[Anne] Ma'am?
[indistinct chatter]
Ma'am?
[Margaret] Ta-da!
All dry.
[clears throat] Lunch?
[Charles] What a wonderful spot.
You should have seen it in its heyday.
It's rather sad now it's neglected, gone to seed.
Look at these heliconias.
Is that a silk cotton tree?
Hmm?
Yes.
"The challenge for any gardener is the pruning."
"You need very nimble fingers."
Roddy. [clears throat]
-The garden or the neglect? -[chuckles]
-Sadly, both! -[chuckles]
[Charles] Thank you.
Diana's pregnant again.
Congratulations.
Which one might imagine would lift the spirits.
Instead, an even deeper gloom seems to have descended on both of us.
We hardly see one another anymore, and when we do,
we quarrel more than ever.
It's so depressing,
corrosive.
[Margaret] Mm.
And it's left me with no option but to… start seeing someone.
Yes, I think we all know about that.
No, not Camilla.
I meant…
a professional.
A therapist, to help with the moods.
A headshrinker?
Aunt Margot, you can't call them that.
Has it helped?
It hasn't made things worse.
Mm. Not much of an endorsement.
The reason I bring it up is I promised Anne
that I would urge you to try seeing someone too.
Are you both ganging up on me?
We both care.
Why not try back in London?
Anne thinks she's found someone good.
It's outrageous that I, an HRH, should travel to see her.
[Anne Tennant] I gather it's part of the process,
that the patient accept that they are a patient.
Apparently, the healing cannot start until the grandiosity is diminished.
What grandiosity?
I'm so far down the royal pecking order these days,
I'm virtually an untouchable.
[Anne] Here we are.
[Margaret] I had therapy once before
in the early days of my marriage to Lord Snowdon.
The problem we face is I'm…
Well, I'm so opposed to all of this.
I find it pathetic. It violates everything I was brought up to believe.
[doctor] What were you brought up to believe?
Self-pity won't get you very far.
You've just got to get on with it.
[doctor] Well, that's a very common attitude.
It's also quite old-fashioned.
Did you just call me common? And old?
Because that would not be a good way to start.
So, what made you want to try again?
Ma'am.
Because…
Well, I'm ashamed to say I've been feeling…
a little low…
for a while now.
And…
this current slump…
seems to have resisted every…
attempt I've made to muscle through.
Are you aware of anyone else in your immediate family
struggling with mental health issues?
The Prince of Wales. He has his ups and downs.
But I wouldn't say that's a condition. That's just marriage.
The Duke of Gloucester, my uncle.
He got low from time to time.
[doctor] I only ask because I am aware,
through professional colleagues, of… the sisters.
Sisters?
What sisters?
[Margaret] That's when she told me about our cousins.
Our first cousins, Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon.
Third and fifth daughters of Mummy's favorite elder brother…
Uncle Jock.
…being locked up
in the Earlswood Institution for Mental Defectives,
if you please, in Redhill.
Yes, I remember hearing about Katherine and Nerissa
and their… terrible problems.
But they're long dead.
It's my understanding they're both very much alive.
But we can check.
-[rings bell] -What are you doing? That's my button.
Ah. Here we are. Burke's.
-[Elizabeth] Let me do that. I'll do that. -No, I'm fine.
[Elizabeth] Ah.
Here we are. Ooh, heavy!
-Catch! [laughs] -Don't you dare!
Not funny. Go carefully.
P, R, S…
Oh, did I just see it?
Mmm…
Oh, yes. Look, here it is.
Nerissa, deceased 1940.
Katherine, deceased 1961. There it is in black and white.
Both died long ago.
How strange.
[telephone ringing]
[footsteps approach]
-[telephone ringing] -[Margaret] I'm not here.
[butler] Buckingham Palace.
-[phone hangs up] -[clears throat]
Who was it?
[butler] Mr. Jennings, ma'am.
Dazzle? Hmm.
What did he want?
[Butler] To let you know he'd be in London next week for a few days,
in case you had any time.
No.
[Dazzle] Mater misericordiae, ora pro nobis…
-[Margaret] You're not praying, are you? -I am.
Maria, mater gratio… When was the last time you drove a car?
I drive all the time. Well, maybe not this particular model.
Anyway, you're a fine one to talk. You can't drive at all.
At least I recognize my limitations.
I'd have been happy for the chauffeur to drive us,
but then…
[cyclist] What are you doing?
…well, we wouldn't have been alone.
Why is it so important that we're alone?
What if someone asks me who I am?
-They won't. You're a priest. -But I'm not.
Not yet. I'm still just a seminarian.
They don't know that.
You still look suitably clerical and beyond suspicion.
It feels wrong, ma'am.
Deceitful.
You can always confess later. Now go.
[indistinct chatter]
Here we go. Just through here.
[rain pattering]
[breathing heavily]
They are alive, ma'am.
You saw them?
I did.
How were they?
[Dazzle] Like children.
But they know who you are.
And they know who your sister is.
They have pictures of the whole family.
Which they know is their family.
-[nurse] You love that one, don't you? -[Dazzle] Oh yes.
[nurse] Keeps it in pride of place, she does.
[nurse] Aww!
Shall I get your cousins to say hello?
[Dazzle] Did you say cousins?
-Hello. -Hello.
And… there are more.
More what?
[Dazzle] More relatives.
Cousins of theirs, equally afflicted.
-Hello. -[nurse] You can sit down here, love.
Wanna sit on the bed?
-All family together. -[man] Oh, family, yes.
[nurse] You all right, Nerissa?
[indistinct chatter]
Oh, darling!
Oh, what a surprise! You're just in time for lunch.
Not hungry.
Oh. We're starving. We've all been for long walks this morning.
Well, you and I are about go for another.
You don't mind if I steal her away, do you?
No, not at all.
Five.
Five, Mummy!
Five members of our close family locked up and neglected!
What do you expect us to do?
-Behave like human beings. -Oh, don't be so naive. We had no choice.
They're your nieces.
-Daughters of your favorite brother! -They were unwell.
Aunt Fenella was overwhelmed.
Then the way things suddenly changed for all of us,
none of us could have foreseen it.
It? What's it?
The abdication--
No! Not everything that is wrong with this family
can be explained away by the abdication.
Well, the abdication did change everything.
You were too young to understand.
Everything.
It's complicated.
No, it's not!
It's wicked, and it's cold-hearted,
and it's cruel.
And it's entirely in keeping with the ruthlessness
I myself have experienced in this family.
If you're not first in line,
if you're an individual character with individual needs,
and God forbid an irregular temperament…
If you don't fit the perfect mold of…
silent, dutiful supplication,
then you'll be spat out, or you'll be hidden away,
or, worse, declared dead!
Darwin had nothing on you lot.
Shame on all of you.
-Margaret-- -No.
Margaret!
[fireplace crackling]
[door shuts]
[Queen Mother] If I try to explain,
will you at least listen?
The fact is,
the moment that man, your perfidious uncle,
abdicated the throne,
it really did change everything overnight.
I went from being the wife of the Duke of York,
leading a relatively normal life,
to being Queen
and… wife of a king-emperor.
At the same time, my family, the Bowes-Lyons…
went from being minor Scottish aristocrats…
to having a direct bloodline… to the Crown…
resulting…
in the children of my brother…
Katherine and Nerissa.
…and their first cousins…
Idonea…
Etheldreda…
And Rosemary.
[Queen Mother] Yes.
…paying a terrible price.
Why?
Because… [sighs]
…their illness…
their imbecility--
Don't use those words.
Their professionally diagnosed idiocy and imbecility…
would make people question the integrity of the bloodline.
What?
Can you imagine the headlines if it were to get out?
What people would say?
The hereditary principle already hangs by such a precarious thread.
Throw in mental illness…
and it's over.
The idea that… one family alone has the automatic birthright to the Crown
is already so hard to justify.
The gene pool of that family…
had better have 100% purity.
There have been enough examples on the Windsor side alone to worry people.
King George III.
Prince John, your uncle.
If you add the Bowes-Lyon illnesses to that…
the danger is, it becomes untenable.
[bottles rattling lightly]
[Margaret] It's all a family disease, isn't it?
When they… they tell you you can't marry.
When they strip away your official role.
When they side with your husband as your marriage falls apart.
And now this.
This final…
insult.
That every diminishment,
every…
[sobs] …rotten…
misfortune…
[inhales shakily] …is written…
is written in my blood.
So…
without… tiptoeing to protect me
or dressing things up,
tell me the truth.
As well as being born second…
am I destined to be mad, too?
No, ma'am.
When I heard you'd… made the appointment to come today…
I did a little research.
Now the genetic fault responsible for your cousins' condition
seems to have descended from their common maternal grandfather,
Charles Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton.
This suggests that the recessive gene responsible for their condition
lies with the Clinton family.
So, how did it get to the Bowes-Lyon family?
Through your aunt Fenella,
born Clinton,
who married John Bowes-Lyon.
Uncle Jock.
What your cousins suffer from is a severe developmental disorder.
And whatever issues you may or may not be facing,
that's not the same thing at all.
It hasn't somehow passed…
to my mother, Queen Elizabeth?
No.
But then, if they didn't threaten the integrity of the royal family,
the girls need never have been hidden away.
And what my family did was unforgivable.
[sighs]
Anyway, she prescribed… medication,
psychotherapy,
and increased exercise.
They'll be suggesting giving up alcohol soon.
Giving up alcohol.
You could always just convert and come over to Rome.
-Dazzle. -It's the only thing that's worked for me.
Lifted my spirits.
Before I became Catholic, I attended church.
After I converted, I found a faith.
-The difference is night and day. -Now you're being evangelical.
I feel evangelical. It's not just the beauty,
it's the rigor of the Catholic Church.
It demands complete submission,
which strong, willful characters like mine and, I would suggest, yours, ma'am, need.
[Margaret] Hmm.
One cannot fully receive God
until one has submitted to something larger,
and the moment I did--
Don't tell me. The lights went on, you found happiness?
More than happiness.
Ecstasy.
And the gloom we talked about so many times…
the emptiness…
has gone.
How nice.
So come over.
I would, but in case you hadn't noticed, Dazzle,
I've already submitted to something larger.
The royal family of the United Kingdom.
If I became Catholic,
it would be a national scandal.
There'd be talk of betrayal, second Reformation.
No, they'd make me give up my title and kick me out.
Would that be so bad?
To free yourself once and for all?
To find happiness?
Why would I?
The title,
my seniority, the proximity to the Crown is my happiness.
It's who I am. I don't expect you to understand.
No, I don't understand!
You've just discovered terrible things about your family.
A system that ignored five members of its own to protect itself.
Will that same system protect you? No!
It doesn't protect anything except the center.
-Those away from the center-- -But I am in the center!
I am in the very center.
I am the Queen's sister,
daughter to a king-emperor,
and I will always be in the center.
Now go, Dazzle.
Back to your ecstatic new family,
and I will struggle on in mine.
And I think it would be better if we… don't see one another again.
And…
should you ever… find a moment…
perhaps you will pray for me.
I will.
Your Royal Highness.
[door opens]
[door shuts]
-[piano playing "Fallin"] -[Margaret] ♪ Yeah, I was ridin' high ♪
♪ But then my ivory tower toppled ♪
♪ And I tumbled from the sky ♪
♪ I got a feelin' like I'm fallin' ♪
♪ And you're the reason why ♪
[inaudible]
[vocalizing]