His portrayal in this mini is in keeping with that of Bertie and Elizabeth, and The King's Speech.
shareWallis isn't thin enough, and her hair isn't right (not garish enough), and the signature mole isn't prominent enough.
They made a great choice costuming her in a Wallis-blue dress
http://www.farfarawaysite.com/section/thecrown/gallery5/hires/4.jpg
but they forgot the broomstick.
He surprised me when, in ep 10, he told QEII that he had sympathy for Margaret, but also for her, because of what the monarchy meant to him, and what he knows it means for her. But I didn't quite buy his sincerity. I kept remembering how he called her Shirley Temple.
Something that did not ring true: He dissed Elizabeth after his brother's death, saying she had no education and knew nothing. The Duke of Windsor was notoriously not well-read. Wallis Simpson was way ahead of him in that regard and others (m uch more intellectual). There's even a joke about it in one of the biopics. Simpson is reading Wuthering Heights. He asks her about it, and who this chap "Bront" is that wrote it (not Brontë). He's startled when she tells him it was written by a famous, classic English novelist.
I'm an American so I am just vaguely familiar with the whole abdication thing, but I am enjoying the back and forth between the characters and their underlying motivations (both stated and implied). Did Edward do it for love or was it his way of getting out of a position for which he felt ill suited? Do both Mary and the Queen mum hate Edward because they believe the stress of the job (and the smoking) led Bertie to an early grave, with the Queen mum truly wishing that she had been able to lead a simpler life (yeah, no prominence marrying into the royal family, du0UH!). Did Liz II resent him for also ruining her chance at a normal life, or did she feel much more of a sympathetic family tie to him, based on the scene of asking him for occasional counsel. This ongoing duplicity is making it a bit more interesting as a drama, not that I care about how accurate it is.
My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2
I know from my older relatives that the British public despised him for abandoning them and the crown because they thought that he just wanted to have a good time and that being king restricted his life too much. They sympathised very much with George because this burden had been dumped on him.
The Queen Mother hated him and Wallis all her life because she thought that abandoning the crown to her husband had killed him (people didn't make the connection between smoking and cancer in those days, not even doctors) and I don't believe that scene where Elizabeth asks him for advice because I think she blamed him too. The family all had as little contact with him as possible and appeared never to forgive him.
Gossip has it that Edward had sexual problems but that Wallis was very good in bed and knew all the tricks. So, I don't know if he was in love or in lust with her. They certainly both enjoyed the lazy, gadabout lifestyle.
One might reasonably conclude that forcing someone into the monarchy might not be the best way to do it.
shareThey were invited as a couple to unveil a memorial to Queen Mary in 1967. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roZyok-oTBU
By Wallis' own account the Queen was very good to her when she was over for the funeral of the Duke of Windsor, but they weren't her sort of people, and with her husband dead the connection was lost and she quickly returned to Paris.
The Queen permitted Wallis to be buried at Frogmore with her husband. I'm certain the Queen forgave him as her faith commands her to and their was a visible softening towards them, at least in death.
I'm an American too, though I've read quite a bit and watched a lot of programs and documentaries on this topic. We've had some great discussions about it on the boards for some of the other Edward-Wallis programs.
Why did Edward abdicate? Some believe it was for love, some believe it was because he didn't really want the responsibilities of being king. Still others believe he was extremely needy and had formed a strange attachment to Simpson that compelled him to rely on her for nearly everything. It's a fascinating theory. After ww1, all his mistresses/gfs were married women who knew eventually their relationship would have to end. But Simspon was different because purportedly, she was more of a mommie to him than the others had been, including Freda Dudley Ward. And that is apparently what he liked and needed.
Queen Mary was extremely disappointed in Edward. She felt that he had wrongly put his own needs ahead of his country and his duty. To her, that was unforgivable, after so many had sacrificed so much during ww1. She felt that he should be able to make that sacrifice for his country (remain king, give up Simpson) when others had sacrificed so much more by comparison.
It's interesting to note that Mary of Teck was supposed to marry George V's elder brother, Eddy. Weeks after they became engaged, he died during the flu pandemic that relapsed in 1892. The following year, she became engaged to his younger brother, George, who replaced Eddy in the line of succession. Kinda gives a little background info about royal marriages from Mary's perspective.
The Queen Mother (Elizabeth Bowes Lyon abbreviated EBL) and Queen Mary did both feel that George VI worked himself to death because his brother's dereliction of duty. Additionally, the disrespect toward EBL in the 1930s from both Simpson and Edward VIII (after he became involved with Simpson) left her unwilling to drop the grudge.
And yes, they would have lived a much simpler life if Bertie hadn't had to assume the throne after his brother's abdication. He was not raised to be king as his brother was. Marrying the Duke of York is very different from marrying the heir to the throne.
As for QEII, I don't know. I haven't seen or read much about it. But she was always close to her mother, and I suspect she felt very loyal to her. I have a hard time believing she asked his advice, if fo no other reason than the fact that he wasn't a very good king for the short time he sat on the throne. He frequently slipped away from his duties, snuck away to be with Simpson, dropped engagements that were on the calendar for months, denied important institutions his presence and attention. He used the excuse that he was in mourning for his father, but then sent Bertie to cover in his place (Bertie would have been in mourning too), and then was seen meeting Simpson's train in. Scotland at the time he should have been at said important engagement.
I understand, too, that Albert and Elizabeth would have lived a much simpler life if Albert had not become king. The interest just wasn't there or anywhere near where it is today.
I've been thinking about the "being king killed Bertie" bit, too. Cigarettes were linked to cancer by the early 1900s. The medical field certainly knew by the 1950s. I don't think that would have mattered to the Queen Mother, though. She just would have said he had to smoke because of the pressure.
I wonder how widely known the link between smoking and cancer was? In the 50s in the UK, doctors were very heavy smokers, even in their GP surgeries. If someone came in with a bad cough, the doctor often offered them a cigarette from the packet on their desk 'to ease their lungs'! My father smoked 80 a day and finally went cold turkey in the sixties after watching the first programme on TV which linked smoking and cancer and showed a surgeon in his operating theatre with a binful of blackened lungs which he had removed during the course of the day. I remember that quite clearly. And, of course, a lot of people were in denial for years.
shareGrowing up in the 1950s I remember a lot of talk about the dangers of smoking but it didn't seem to deter people. Cigarettes were referred to as "coffin nails" and "cancer sticks" but people just kept puffing away. Nicotine is a powerfully addictive substance and addicts are usually in denial.
shareI'm American also, and I've always been fascinated by the abdication. Given all that I've read over the years, it sounds like a very good thing that Edward quit. He and Wallis had distinct Nazi sympathies, and I can only imagine what would have happened in WWII if Edward VIII had still been king. As is said in (I think) episode 4, George VI was a hero. Edward VIII most definitely was not.
http://currentscene.wordpress.com
I can only imagine what would have happened in WWII if Edward VIII had still been king.
he was extremely needy and had formed a strange attachment to Simpson that compelled him to rely on her for nearly everything. It's a fascinating theory. After ww1, all his mistresses/gfs were married women who knew eventually their relationship would have to end. But Simspon was different because purportedly, she was more of a mommie to him than the others had been, including Freda Dudley Ward. And that is apparently what he liked and needed.
I have a hard time believing she asked his advice
I've had a hard time with pretty much everything about him.
First, the way he would give them all names, how he would put all the blame on his family, when although they never accepted Wallis (for very good reasons) and they all made huge sacrifices he refused to make himself.
Second, he's portrayed and says himself how the country and press "supported" his relationship when it is known that he was not liked at all by the "people", especially after the abdication.
He he depicted as living in a dream wherein he changed many of the facts. He might have been that way for real, or it might all be the writers' creative license.
Second, he's portrayed and says himself how the country and press "supported" his relationship when it is known that he was not liked at all by the "people", especially after the abdication.
I'm sure there were some people who thought he should be able to marry whomever he wanted. Certainly Lord Beaverbrook and some of Edw's other friends (e.g. W Churchill, before he changed his position) led him to believe those supporters were in the majority. From what I have read, they were not the majority; but I can easily imagine Edw convincing himself that they were.
He he depicted as living in a dream wherein he changed many of the facts. He might have been that way for real, or it might all be the writers' creative license.
There are accounts stating he did buy into that dream, or at least he pretended to in front of the groupies that he collected on the continent (as depicted in the scene in which he narrates the coronation ceremonies for the little gathering he and Simpson appeared to be hosting).
P.S. The portrayal about the mean nicknames he and Simpson had for the royals, that is true.
There are accounts stating he did buy into that dream, or at least he pretended to in front of the groupies that he collected on the continent (as depicted in the scene in which he narrates the coronation ceremonies for the little gathering he and Simpson appeared to be hosting).
I really liked the scene at the end of that episode where he is playing his bagpipe and is crying. I liked the scene, but it was not enough for me to redeem him in my eyes!
I'm sure that because he was groomed as the heir to the throne and actually became king, even for a short time, it was something difficult for him to let go of.
I'm sure that because he was groomed as the heir to the throne and actually became king, even for a short time, it was something difficult for him to let go of.
Me too. A tragedy for him, but also a relief.
Her telephone call to DoW during the Margaret episodes was an invention too far. The scene and what he had to say was terribly well written but maybe ought to have been put in the words of another character.
Long after the Abdication DoW was forever a thorn in the side of his brother, Bertie, and the Queen would not have been unaware of that. For the most part I believe communication was limited to an exchange of Christmas cards.
I really doubt that she communicated with him. He is a plot device allowing certain issues like the struggle to be sister and Queen to be illuminated. It was especially brilliant to use him as a flippant commentator on the coronation, the ceremony he never had.
Her mother and grandmother despised him, he was little better than a traitor, consorting with Hitler and other German high ranks, when other British royals like Prince Philip were renouncing his sisters , who were never invited to his wedding ,the coronation or anything else. I think it unlikely there was ever any thought of allowing DOW at the wedding or coronation, and His wife was never welcome.
It was a toss-up whether I go in for diamonds or sing in the choir. The choir lost.