So what does amuse The Queen?
LAST Of The Summer Wine we already knew about or if we didn’t, we might have guessed. Waiting For Godot, the play with no plot, originally written and staged in French, featuring two grumpy tramps and which is either deeply profound or just plain bonkers – well, that came as a bit of surprise.
“The Queen has something to say to everyone,” said actor Peter Sallis this week, recalling the proud moment when he collected his OBE from her. “ As she was sticking the medal on me she said, ‘I love Last Of The Summer Wine. And Waiting For Godot.’”
It was an intriguing insight not only into the cultural tastes of our monarch but also her cultural life. For there is
no mention in 89-year-old Peter Sallis’s long list of theatre credits of an appearance in Samuel Beckett’s
modern stage masterpiece.
The Queen’s comment is more likely to be a pointer to the fact that she is an avid theatre lover. Over the past 60
years she has, says one prominent West End theatre critic, probably seen a more complete collection of London’s classic performances than Peter Hall, the now legendary director who first staged Waiting For Godot in
the UK at London’s Arts Theatre in 1955. If Peter Sallis has ever performed in a West End production of the play,
then she is very likely to have seen it.
“It’s quite common to come out into the foyer of a theatre and hear the back-room staff saying ‘Wasn’t it
nice she came and with so little fuss?’” says the critic.
“When she hears about a really excellent production she tries to fi nd a way to get there without scaring all the performers half to death.”
And this is just what she and the Duke of Edinburgh did last autumn when War Horse, the moving dramatisation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel about the First World War, was on at the New London Theatre.
“She arrived just as the lights were about to go down and apologised to the people already seated so that they
could get to their places. She was recognised and applauded at the end of the evening but it’s quite common for
her to go unnoticed by the audience.” It’s unlikely, however, that the Queen saw any production of Waiting
For Godot, even incognito, in the Fifties when it was fi rst staged. It was considered vulgar because of some of its
language. There’s a reference to a woman having “the clap”, for instance. Because the Lord Chamberlain still
had the power to censor all public performances at the time, some words had to be changed.
One titled theatregoer, Lady Dorothy Howitt, even wrote to the Lord Chamberlain asking him to ban it.
“One of the many themes running through the play is the desire of two old tramps to relieve themselves. Such a dramatisation of lavatory necessities is offensive and against all sense of British decency,” she wrote.
There is no doubt that had the Queen been spotted watching the play 50 or so years ago, Lady Dorothy and many like her would have been utterly scandalised.
“But I think it likely that she saw ground-breaking productions such as John Osborne’s Look Back In Anger,
and saw private screenings of similar films such as Room At The Top and A Kind Of Loving,” says the critic.
“People forget that her sister Princess Margaret and brother-in-law Lord Snowdon were very much part
of the late Fiftie s art scene and she heard about their admiration of the so-called ‘angry young men’ of the time. I don’t think it’s all racing pages and dogs for her .”
At 84 the Queen is still carrying out more than 400 public engagements a year, which suggests that a night off is still a rather rare event. Some of her engagements do involve screenings and theatre visits and last year she
attended a Royal Command Performance variety show and was treated to a performance by Lady Gaga in a PVC
Elizabethan dress.
No less extraordinary is the rumour that among her favourite reality-style TV shows is ITV’S baddie-chasing Police, Camera, Action. And when- ever Her Majesty heads to Balmoral for her summer break, her staff always order a good supply of recordings of the types of shows she likes to watch.
IT’S CLEAR from that list that she enjoys a good action thriller, a detective story or at least a bit of mystery. The Inspector Morse series has been followed by its successor Lewis and has been given the royal sealof approval. David Suchet’s Poirot is another favourite, along with
John Nettles’ Midsomer Murders and more recent drama New Tricks with James Bolam and Denis Waterman.
The Queen is also said to be a big fan of Doctor Who. A couple of years ago when she was
preparing to holiday at her Scottish residence she is said to have ordered a DVD box set of the series starring Christopher Ecclestone. According to aides she loves the new show .
A source said: “She asked the BBC to send her copies so she could watch it again during her stay at Balmoral.”
And the monarch has apparently followed the cult show since it began in 1963 with William Hartnell as the first of 11 actors to play the eponymous time-travelling hero. Equally surprising is the revela- tion that Her Majesty is a wrestling fan. The fact that one of her foot- men, David Hintz, became a British wrestling champion last year has
certainly helped her keep abreast of the big fights.
At the time Hintz’s promoter said: “The good thing is that the Queen has always been a wrestling fan. The palace has been really supportive of David. When he first told me what he did for a living, I was a bit nervous but they’ve been great.”
The one entertainment that doesn’t much interest her, however, is musical theatre. She’s never likely to be caught sneaking into Phantom Of The Opera on a night off. Certainly there’s more to her than is suggested by the rather cosy list of classic TV sitcoms usually rolled out when her taste in entertainment is discussed. Dad’s Army, The
Good Life, Fawlty Towers, Keeping Up Appearances and The Vicar Of Dibley have undoubtedly
been anticipated with delight over the years on the Queen’s nights in.
But her busy mind also likes Channel 4’s word and numbers classic Countdown. Former host Des O’Connor revealed that when he received his CBE two years ago the Queen told him: “Thank you for
many hours of enjoyable entertainment.” When it comes to enjoying an absorbing plot, the recently- axed police soap The Bill was always considered something of a firm favourite. The same can be said of TV drama This Life, which chronicled the messy love lives of a group of young lawyers. When it was dis- covered that the complete box set had been sent up to Balmoral, it raised more than a few eyebrows.
And some were bemused when actress Meera Syal and husband Sanjeev Bhaskar returned from a Buckingham Palace reception with news that the Queen was intimately acquainted with all the family members of The Kumars At No 42, asking Meera how painful it was taking off her grandma make-up.
“The Queen does take an interest in programmes that give her an insight into the day-to-day lives of the people she serves,” says one of her biographers Robert Lacey by way of explanation.
There is also, of course, the pos- sibility that she simply likes funny sitcoms. And maybe even really funny films – for there is one other possible explanation for the comment she made to Peter Sallis. As any Wallace And Gromit fan
knows, the lives of the legendary Plasticine dog and his man are filled with items that bear some resemblance to life as the rest of us know it – Gromit’s degree from Dogwarts Academy, for instance, and the
“Smug” fridge in Wallace’s kitchen. And then there’s the book on the cheese-obsessed Wallace’s book-
shelf as he runs his finger along the titles – Waiting For Gouda. Did Peter perhaps mis-hear Her Majesty?