The King’s Speech is an unusual film about a late member of the Royal Family, in that it focuses on one particular aspect of the monarch’s persona. King George VI, aka Bertie, (played by Colin Firth, who won the Oscar for Best Actor), father of the late Queen Elizabeth II, suffered from a stammer, which being the King was a problem with all the speeches he was expected to make. An Australian speech therapist called Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) was engaged to help the King overcome this affliction, and this is the central theme of the film. Here are some of the locations used in three key scenes of the film.
The opening scene depicts the occasion of the closing ceremony of the Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, which took place in 1925. Bertie, still a Duke at this point, gives a speech which proves excruciating as he stammers his way through it, with his wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (aka The Queen Mother, played by Helena Bonham Carter) looking on in distress for her husband. I came across a lost recording of the actual 1925 speech, which, though not great, did not sound nearly as bad as Colin Firth’s version. Anyhow, as to the location of the scene, it was filmed at Elland Road Stadium in Leeds, home of Leeds United football team, with some shots filmed at the Odsal Stadium, home of the Bradford Bulls rugby team. The people of Leeds got an early look at the film when it featured in the 2010 Leeds International Film Festival.
Elland Road 2023 cropped. Photo by Arne Müseler, via Wikimedia Commons.
Following the death of his father, Bertie has to endure the occasion of his Coronation, which in real life took place in Westminster Abbey, but for the purposes of the film the Coronation scenes and the scenes of the preparation for the occasion were shot at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire. The cathedral has been used in a number of top films, including Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Other Boleyn Girl and Macbeth, as well as the Netflix series The Crown.
Ely Cathedral
With Bertie installed as King, war breaks out against Germany, and Bertie is faced with having to make a broadcast to the nation, and Lionel Logue is summoned to Buckingham Palace to prepare him for the broadcast. The interior of Buckingham Palace was filmed at Lancaster House, a government-owned building in London, which was rented at a cost of £20,000 a day for the filming.
Lancaster House from St James's Park London. Photo by Ricardalovesmonuments, via Wikimedia Commons.
Elland Road Stadium lies to the south-west of Leeds, near
the M621. The venue offers
behind-the-scenes tours and the opportunity to purchase club merchandise. Odsal Stadium is to the south of Bradford,
near the A6036. As well as rugby
matches, the stadium hosts live music events.
Ely is one of the country’s smallest cathedral cities, located in the
Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, with a picturesque riverside on the banks
of the River Great Ouse. The cathedral
dates back to the 11th century.
Lancaster House is run by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development
Office. It was formerly known as York
House, having been commissioned by the Duke of York in 1825. Its sumptuous interior includes a Long
Gallery, State Drawing Room and the Green Room.
