You can hate the movie but you can't- I guarantee- hate Colin Firth as King George VI! I don't say that you will like the man- I frowned quite consistently through certain parts of the movie at him- silently reproving the man- but as an actor- Oh, man!- he was the shiniest penny in the room and he would NOT be ignored.
The movie began with a speech in Wembley stadium at the close of the British Empire Exhibition in 1925.
Guess who was supposed to give it?
Oh, you're brilliant! Yes, it was Prince Bertie. In his middle age and very used to his inability to speak in public or even to his family without long pauses and tripping over words.
But his father wouldn't give up trying to cure him of it through forced exposure. King George V believed in tough love and the dutiful Bertie obliged to embarrassing effects.
He stood in front of a thousand men and women of his kingdom and couldn't utter the word 'king'.
His brother Edward fell in love with a Mrs Simpson. It was nothing unusual, the heir-apparent liked married women.



