THE QUEEN’S SPEECH

This is The Queen’s Christmas Day Speech.

The Queen’s (King’s) Christmas Message is a broadcast by Queen Elizabeth II made to the Commonwealth at Christmas. The tradition began in 1932 with a radio broadcast by King George V on the BBC Empire Service. Today the broadcast is made on television and radio via various providers.

The idea for a Christmas Message from the Sovereign to the Commonwealth was originally mooted in 1932 by the founding father of the BBC, Sir John Reith. The idea of the speech was to inaugurate the then Empire Service, which is now known as the BBC World Service.

The first Royal Christmas Message was issued by George V in 1932. The King was originally hesitant about using the relatively untried medium of radio to issue a Christmas Message. However he was reassured by a visit to the BBC in the summer of 1932, and agreed to try out the idea. So in 1932 on Christmas Day, King George V issued a Christmas Message from Ilmington Manor to the Empire via “wireless“.

Edward VIII abdicated before his first Christmas on the Throne, and therefore never issued a Christmas Message.

George VI continued the Christmas broadcasts. Perhaps his best known was delivered in 1939, in the opening stages of the Second World War, and contained the famous lines starting: “I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year”.

The tradition has been continued by the present Queen, Elizabeth II. Her first Christmas Message to the Commonwealth took place from the study at Sandringham House at 15:07 GMT on 25 December 1952 and was broadcast to the nation by BBC radio. She has delivered the traditional Message each Christmas ever since with the exception of 1969, and they have been fully televised since 1957. The message is broadcast in the UK at 3pm (15:00 GMT), and broadcast around the Commonwealth. Until fairly recently, a sound version of the broadcast was made on BBC Radio at 9am (09:00 GMT) on Christmas Day. The radio broadcast is now made at 3pm on Christmas Day. It is a shorter transmission due to the additional footage contained in the television version not being included in the radio transmission. In non-Commonwealth countries the Christmas Message can be heard on BBC radio or television, or can be downloaded at any time after 15:00 GMT on the Royal Family’s website or other websites.

TV production

Between 1957 and 1996 the Christmas Message was produced for television by the BBC. In 1995, Buckingham Palace ended the BBC’s monopoly and announced that production of the Broadcast would, with effect from 1997, be shared between the BBC and its commercial rival ITN. The contract would alternate between the two organisations on a biennial basis, with each producing two consecutive Messages. ITN produced the Broadcasts of 1997 and 1998, and accordingly the duty has since alternated every two years.

There is evidence that the decision to bring in a rival to the BBC was brought about by the decision of the Corporation to screen an interview with Diana, Princess of Wales on its current affairs programme Panorama. Philip Gilbert, Head of Events at the BBC in early 1997, said in a memo to Chief Executive of Broadcast Will Wyatt that, “It is widely perceived that the BBC is in effect being penalised because of the Princess of Wales’ Panorama interview, and thus we do not give up our responsibility for the broadcast voluntarily but have to a degree been ‘sacked’”. The memo was released to the public domain by virtue of a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Source www.en.wikipedia.org