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Every now and then a film comes along that captures the hearts and minds of the population at large. The King's Speech is just one of those films. Loved by audiences around the world, it has won numerous awards, including Oscars and Baftas, for the writer, actors, and director.
The King's Speech is the story of a man with a stammer and his struggle to overcome this in the face of a huge pressure to speak in public. This man, Prince Albert, faces becoming King George VI when Britain is on the brink of entering a Second World War and in a time when broadcasting by radio is increasingly relied upon as a form of communication. With so much depending on the Prince being able to present a strong voice to a nation, he is prepared to do whatever he can, within reason, to be cured.
He is treated by numerous qualified speech therapists, who get Prince Albert to do everything from chain smoking to talking with a mouthful of glass marbles. Each intervention leaves him frustrated and hopeless. His wife, the future Queen Mother, finally visits a pioneering and unorthodox practitioner, Lionel Logue. On meeting Elizabeth, Lionel stresses the rules that would apply if the Prince comes to see him. She is reluctant, but desperate for a cure for her husband, so she agrees to Logue's terms.
When meeting Prince Albert, Logue insists on calling Albert, Bertie, the name he is called by his family, explaining, ‘In here, it's better if we're equals’, revealing how their relationship in itself will play an important part in Bertie's treatment.
Lionel Logue applies his work with those suffering with shell shock after the First World War to working with those suffering with stammering. He views the stammer as symptomatic of a trauma.