The British monarchy on screen

Abstract

This volume is the culmination of a project begun in the sixty-fi rst year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth and Queen Regnant

of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as sev- eral Caribbean countries, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.

Among the many public celebrations that marked that Diamond Jubilee year,

the Queen opened the 2012 Summer Olympics in partnership with the cur- rent James Bond. As BBC viewers looked on, Daniel Craig’s 007 arrived at

Buckingham Palace and briskly climbed the stairs to the Queen’s private receiv- ing room, where she worked at her desk in a dress of pink velvet. From there,

trailed by two faithful corgis, he escorted her to a waiting helicopter that glided above Big Ben, St Paul’s and the Tower of London to the illuminated Olympic stadium, into which the MI6 agent and his monarch, signature handbag on arm, duly parachuted to the surf-rock riff s of the James Bond theme. The collaboration of the longest-reigning British sovereign with one of the longest-running fi lm series in history raises issues that will be considered in this study. Central to them is the continuing role of royal representation in fi lm and television as patriotic signifi er and entertainment commodity. What political meanings – of Crown and Parliament, Empire and Commonwealth, sovereign

and subject – do these moving images convey? How are these meanings assimi- lated to the commercial signifi cance of royalty? Or indeed to the commercial

imperatives of the media industries that portray them?