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Screenplay by Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine
| SCENE 2
EXT. STREETS OF THE CAPITAL - DAY
Led and followed by an escort of OUTRIDERS, RICHARD'S staff-car
drives through some unidentifiable, rubble-filled, war-torn
streets of the capital, unnoticed by CITIZENS dourly adjusting to
normality.
SERGEANT RATCLIFFE, RICHARD'S loyal batman, is at the wheel.
From the back seat, RICHARD looks straight ahead, expressionless. |
scene 2. It was unnecessary to
go to the expense of dressing-up London, when the more important
point was to have a look at Richard. The simple shot of returning
to civilian life took a couple of hours driving round the
anonymous official buildings behind Whitehall, London. My car was
loaded onto a larger vehicle which also pulled along the camera
and crew. |
| SCENE 3
INT. STAIRCASE - THE PALACE - DAY
A young liveried FOOTMAN carries two of the heavier bags; a
middle-aged LADY-IN-WAITING grasps one suitcase-handle in both her
hands. LADY ANNE, in mourning black, follows them down the long
corridor, banging her bags along the carpet and endangering the
Ming vases below the royal portraits, which dominate the walls.
This is no longer her home. A new dynasty is taking over. |
scene 3 was filmed but RL judged
it too confusing among all the other introductions to the
principal characters. Lady Anne's first entrance is more effective
where Shakespeare has it in the play, just before she meets
Richard in scene 22. |
| SCENE 4
INT. RICHARD'S VEHICLE - DAY
RICHARD'S right hand selects an Abdulla from his monogrammed
silver cigarette-case and lights up with the ultimate in tasteful
30s lighters. |
scene 4. I had
remembered from the theatre programmes of my youth
"Cigarettes by Abdulla" and made them Richard's
preferred brand, not realising that they were no longer in
production. Diligently, the property department located the six
surviving packets of Abdulla in London and bought one of them
intact. Even so, I smoked non-nicotine herbal cigarettes as, for
this shot alone, I had to light about twenty, one after the other.
The 30s lighter showed its age and regularly refused to spark into
life. |
| SCENE 5
INT. THE QUEEN'S BATHROOM - THE PALACE -DAY
Her Majesty, the American-born QUEEN ELIZABETH, has only just
moved into the Palace but already looks at home. A LADY-IN-WAITING
is trying to get her ready for the evening but the new Queen, in
her chic undies, is more interested in her 7-year-old son PRINCE
JAMES, who is having his hair washed by his NANNY. The naughty
Prince, in nothing but his drawers. flicks water at his mother,
who shrieks with laughter. |
scene 5 was shot at Richmond
Fellowship (built by Halsey Ricardo in 1906). The film shows
little of the effect of politics on the general population (cf.
the whole national view of Henry IV parts l & 2) -
rather it is the backstage story of a powerful Establishment.
Hence this domestic introduction of the new Queen and her son
off-duty. Although he's not named in the dialogue, we had called
him "Prince James" on the cast-list, as confusingly his
real name was "Richard." |
| SCENE 6
INT. THE KING'S DRESSING-ROOM - THE PALACE - DAY
The new King, His Majesty KING EDWARD, half-dressed for the
Victory Ball, is in skittish mood but he has to take his medicine.
He is sitting at a dressing-table, with his VALET standing behind
and knotting the white bow-tie. KING EDWARD offers his tongue, on
which a nubile NURSE tentatively places two blood-pressure pills.
As KING EDWARD swallows them down, with the aid of a tumbler of
Scotch-and-soda, the NURSE flinches. The royal hand is working its
way steadily up between her thighs beneath her crisp starched
frock. |
scene 6. This reference to King
Edward's lechery in preparation for Richard's accusations in scene
74 seemed unnecessarily confusing for the first time he is seen.
It was more important to note his ailing health: cf. Richard's
calumny of King Edward at the end of scene 48 |
| SCENE 7
EXT. RICHARD'S VEHICLE - DAY
RICHARD'S car crosses a bridge on its way to the Palace, in the
distance, situated on the edge of the Thames. |
scene 7. This was my last piece
of filming, on Sunday morning, 8 October 1995, five weeks after
the principal photography was completed. We are on Lambeth Bridge
across the Thames. |
| SCENE 8
INT. DARK ROOM - CLARENCE'S STUDIO - THE PALACE - DAY
CLARENCE, RICHARD'S older brother, wearing an apron over his
dress-shirt, with bow-tie undone, removes a photograph from the
developer and adds it to the row of family photographs pinned
above him. He suddenly notices the time, takes off his
steel-rimmed bifocals and hurries from the studio. |
scene 8. The developing image is
of three very different royal brothers - King Edward, Clarence and
Richard. |
| SCENE 9
INT. CLARENCE'S STUDIO - THE PALACE - DAY
CLARENCE removes his apron, puts on a jacket, leaving his
bow-tie undone, and walks across the room to get his Leica camera
equipment and hurries out. |
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| SCENE 10
EXT. COURTYARD - THE PALACE - EVENING
Through the windows of the Palace facade, the chandeliers are
being lit, as RICHARD'S car and escort roar into view. |
scene 10. The Palace exterior is
of St Pancras Chambers, designed by George Gilbert Scott (1868),
which until 1935 was the Grand Midland Hotel at the rail terminus
for trains going north. It has been removed by film-magic from
Euston Road to the south bank of the Thames. |
| SCENE 11
INT. THE QUEEN'S QUARTERS - THE PALACE - EVENING
KING EDWARD. QUEEN ELIZABETH and their son, the 7-year-old
PRINCE JAMES, are now dressed to the nines. 15-year-old PRINCESS
ELIZABETH, is a little nervous in her first ball-gown. KING EDWARD
coughs asthmatically.
CLARENCE, now in evening dress, arrives, with his mother, the
DUCHESS OF YORK, on his arm. She is, tiara-to-toe, an Edwardian
matriarch and proudly curtsies to her eldest son, KING
EDWARD.
PRINCESS ELIZABETH kisses her uncle and adjusts his ill-
knotted white tie. |
scene 11. The Queen's Quarters
were found in the fantastically decorated Strawberry Hill House,
which in 1748 Horace Walpole converted into a small Gothic castle
on the Thames at Twickenham. |
| They are joined by RICHARD, magnificent
in full dress uniform of the army's Commander-in-Chief. The Royal
Family is complete, as RICHARD bows to his brother, the King. |
As Richard approaches the Duchess of
York with a friendly greeting, she almost snubs him. |
| SCENE 12
EXT. PAN-AM TRANSATLANTIC PLANE - EVENING
EARL RIVERS, the new Queen's American brother, appears at the
exit from the aeroplane, just landed from the USA. He grins at the
PAN-AM AIR HOSTESS, who flashes her sexiest smile. In time to the
jolly dance music on the soundtrack, the waggish playboy shakes
off his jet-lag with a skip-and-a-dance down the stairs of the
gangway.
He ends with a wave to the appreciative AIR HOSTESS, who waves
back. |
scene 12 was
filmed at Shoreham Aerodrome on the same day as scene 99. The
airfield at Shoreham is the oldest public licensed airfield in the
country still operating (1910). The terminal building was built in
1936. In the play, Queen Elizabeth's Woodville Family are reviled
by Richard as provincial outsiders to the metropolitan
power-centre. A 30s equivalent was to make them American: witness
the British Establishment's outcry in 1936, when King Edward VIII
wanted Wallis Simpson to be his queen.
EARL RIVERS (whose title might be a
credible first name) has to be established as an American visitor.
An earlier draft had Rivers looking out of the window of his
first-class cabin, as the aircraft was coming in to land. From his
point of view, the city of the film was spread out below. |
| SCENE 13
INT. GRAND STAIRCASE - THE PALACE - EVENING
KING EDWARD, QUEEN ELIZABETH, PRINCE JAMES, PRINCESS ELIZABETH,
the DUCHESS OF YORK and RICHARD are grouped on the landing of the
grand staircase, overlooking the balustrade.
CLARENCE is on the landing below. He sets the self-timer, and
runs up the stairs to join the family group photograph.
END OF CREDITS |
scene 13 shows a remnant of the
interior grandeur of the old Hotel and a useful shot identifying
the new royal family. |
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