How the Queen's calm confidence can be traced to a single tip from her mother
To anyone who has watched her perform her duties over a lifetime of public service, she is the picture of unflappable poise.
The secret of the Queen’s calm confidence can be traced back to a single piece of advice from her mother, a friend has claimed: to walk through the very centre of doorways.
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, had been acutely aware of her elder daughter’s natural shyness, Lady Penn said, and had gently coaxed her towards being as comfortable in public as her future job would require.
Lady Penn, former Lady in Waiting to the Queen Mother and friend of the Queen, said: “The Queen Mother told the Queen when she was very young to be brave.
“I think the Queen probably when she was young felt walking into a room full of people was rather daunting.
Queen Elizabeth II scrolling timeline
“So she said to her: ‘what you want to do, when you walk into a room, walk through the middle of the door.'
“And I think by that she meant don’t sort of go in apologetically. You walk through as if, you know, ‘I’m in charge’.
“I think that was very good advice.”
Lady Penn shares her recollections as part of a new eight-part documentary series, made by ITN, which sees the Queen’s childhood friends, former staff and politicians from throughout her reign offer their memories of the high and lowlights of the 65 years since the coronation.
The Queen and Prince Philip through the ages
Contributors include two of her Maids of Honour, Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames, former Press Secretary to the Queen Ronald Allison, and friend and cousin of Prince Philip Lady Butter.
The first episode, to be broadcast on Tuesday on Channel 5, sees friends recall the Queen’s early years, from her birth to her unique education and the moment she learned she would one day be Queen.
On the day of the abdication, historian Kate Williams tells the audience, Princess Elizabeth had been attending a swimming lesson.
In a tale that will be familiar to royal-watchers, Williams recounts how, when she and her sister heard the news and realised Elizabeth would one day be Queen, Margaret retorted “poor you”.
As the documentary moves chronologically through her reign, maids of honour Lady Glenconnor and Lady Rayne Lacey describe how the Royal party relaxed afterwards at Buckingham Palace, relaying how a five-year-old Prince Charles nearly made off with a crown.
Ronald Allison, a former Press Secretary to the Queen from 1973-8, shares an insider’s view of the first televised Christmas message in 1957, claiming the Queen described it as “nerve-wracking” and Prince Philip “very much holding her hand throughout all of this”.
Christina Aldridge, the daughter of the BBC cameraman who filmed it, reports her father’s memory of the day, of the Prince pulling “encouraging faces” at his wife to lighten the mood.
Other contributors include: Robin Wilson, who will describe the unexpected friendship between the Queen and his father Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson; Shirley, Baroness Williams; Princess Josephine Loewenstein, a friend of Princess Margaret; former Prime Minister Tony Blair; and numerous historians and biographers.
Elizabeth: Our Queen, will begin on Tuesday, February 6 at 9pm on Channel 5
