HOW THIS ROYAL OFFERED ME THAN TEA & SYMPATHY ..#nostalgia #history #royal

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:04]One of the thing about Queen Elizabeth, I often think about exactly the length of her reign and the way that she must have dealt with people, you know, obviously slightly differently when she came to power in 1953.

[00:00:16]You know, when you think about it, her first real British Prime Minister was the fearsome, in many respects, Sir Winston Churchill. But, as I pointed out in previous videos, all thanks to his huge friendship with her father and her mother, Queen Elizabeth and King George, he really did stick out and look after her and guide her through some rather difficult times. What you have to remember is the 1950s was a totally different world, controlled by men, government. You know, this is a long time until 1979 until Mrs. Thatcher sort of came to power. Yes, we had all the prominent women in Parliament, but nobody leading the charge. Winston Churchill was definitely that man. He was very, very supportive of the Queen and she turned to him in their weekly audiences more than he turned to her.

[00:01:02]Remember, he'd seen England through our darkest hour. But, what's interesting and what you find out about certain stories is whether, of course, you know, all of these books that are now coming out about the Queen and already in production about her life, I'm going to be fascinated, but the things that I'm interested in are exactly what happened in those famous sit-downs that she had every week with the leading powers that be. You know, this is, of course, the audience with the monarch, which is set aside, I think it's around about an hour depending on how well it's going, to discuss the problems that the Prime Minister might have, update her on policies and all of that sort of stuff.

[00:01:39]And then she might offer a few words of advice. It remains impartial. It's the only thing in the week where nobody else is in the room. It literally is just the Prime Minister and the monarch where they can speak freely and off the record. Many have made the mistake, including people like the right honorable Boris Johnson and others, Tony Blair, who spoken out of turn and said, "Oh, the queen said this to me." Or "I remember when you should never do it."

[00:02:04]That was the point of it. David Cameron learned the lesson the hard way. What's interesting though is that she was more than just a monarch. She was also, many might suggest, a shoulder to cry on, a person who literally looked after other people's problems, seemingly without getting paid. As ever, let me explain.

[00:02:22]Morning, nice to see you, chums. Thank you so much for joining me today and welcome one and all. You know, the it's always fascinated me because, as I say, I've I've interviewed many prime ministers and they always say that's the most nerve-racking bit because they've got to explain to the monarch why it's going right or wrong. I mean, can you imagine what it's going to be like currently with the British Prime Minister at the time of recording this, that's still in power, Sir Keir Starmer, with His Majesty the King, right? You know, you've really lost, but you're staying. Yes. That must be a short conversation, don't you?

[00:02:52]>> [laughter] >> You just sort of think, right, you know, it doesn't really bode well, does it?

[00:02:56]And as I've told you before, the queen got on very well with Margaret Thatcher.

[00:03:00]And my belief, and this is interesting because I met you know, obviously I met Mrs. Thatcher, but I also met her press secretary, Bernard Ingham. And he was a lovely man, an olden quite blunt, quite brusque, but he said the reason why they really bonded, he said it was the fact that, you know, times the queen felt sorry for Margaret Thatcher because she was reminded of how tough it was for her at the beginning. And I thought, yeah, I could yeah, you could understand that really, you know, because she said, "Look, a woman in a man's world." She said, "Margaret might come across as tough, but you know, we all have that moment." And I thought, yeah, very sweet, you know. Now, another person that she was very close to and really helped along the way was the former British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan. And Harold Macmillan, you know, was a famous man that came up with the phrase, "You've never had it so good." Remember in the '50s? And they really hadn't, when you think about it, you know, Elvis was around, seemingly now the war was it a memory, money was coming through. However, he had a lot of personal problems because he'd been married to a lady since 1929 who was associated with aristocracy at the Devonshires, right? Do you know the Duke of Devonshire, etc. Dorothy. The problem is that Dorothy, right from the off, had continued an affair with a man called Lord Boothby. Now, Lord Boothby also came into the news rather wrongly or rightly. But according to this excellent source who knew this particular very well and in the notes for Harold Macmillan, very often the Queen would have to sympathize and listen to a lot of Mr. Macmillan's personal problems because of what was going on. You see, as I said, she was very forcefully not wanting to give up this particular affair. Now, you have to remember that Harold Macmillan had already had something of a breakdown. The Queen was very delicate with him and often would just go for a walk in the grounds of Windsor or indeed in Buckingham Palace so they could even have more privacy.

[00:04:49]And Harold Macmillan's own record is saying she was the most kind, caring individual that never talked about her problems, but allowed you to talk about yours. Of course, what happens in life, and I think this is what's fascinating, is everything comes a full circle, right? Lord Boothby, by default, even though he'd been having an affair with Macmillan's wife for many years, well, he was sort of ousted all thanks to his attachment to the infamous Kray twins.

[00:05:17]You want to look that up. The story is incredible in itself and suddenly there was the Profumo scandal and the Queen felt very, very sorry for Mr. Macmillan.

[00:05:24]It seemed to be one problem after another. He left office in 1963.

[00:05:30]However, the Queen clearly held him in great affection because like she went to the uh the funeral of Margaret Thatcher, she also went to the memorial for Harold Macmillan at Westminster Abbey in 1987, telling an excellent source of mine, he was a wonderful man who deserved far much more happiness, but he very much tried his best for the good of our country, something we both had in common. Very telling, eh?

[00:05:57]Neil Sean, Kensington, London.