History Film / TheKingsSpeech

** Following his 1934 Christmas speech, George V tells Bertie that they face grave threats with "Herr Hitler intimidating half of Europe, and Marshal Stalin the other half." Hitler consolidated power in 1934 and did not make territorial demands until a few years later. While the Soviet Union had supported a number of revolutionary movements, by the 30s, these had been abandoned, largely due to the rise of fascism, and they were focused on internal matters which culminated in the Great Purge.
** George V references the two men who threaten the stability of Europe: [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Herr Hitler]] and [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Marshal Stalin]]. However, Stalin did not award himself the title of "Marshal" until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. At the time, he would have been addressed as "Comrade Stalin," or even "Secretary Stalin," as he was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

** Logue is made a BunnyEarsLawyer in this film, but there's no record that he ever swore in front of the king, called him "Bertie" or subjected him to so many shenanigans.

** George V is shown to be rather curt and impatient with Bertie, implying a basic lack of respect, but George V generally preferred his second son to his eldest, and during the First World War, he and Bertie had become very close when the latter (who was serving in the Navy at the time) had to spend a long time out of action because of various gastric conditions, including appendicitis and a stomach ulcer. They exchanged very fond letters to each other, and it was at this period that the king came to think so highly of Bertie. However, the complexity of this relationship is only hinted at in the film.

** George was a strong supporter of UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain's appeasement policy (though the film doesn't really say otherwise, since it more or less skips over the 1937-1939 period), going so far as to breach protocol and endorse Chamberlain's policy prior to the sitting of the House of Commons. However, this was the consensus attitude for the period, something most people tend to overlook in favour of just blaming Chamberlain. (This attitude makes a great deal more sense when you remember that Britain had only just started to recover from the devastation of WWI.) The film also has UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin resigning over misjudging Hitler, which wasn't the case; he was simply ready to retire after fifteen years as leader of the Conservative Party.

* ArtisticLicensePolitics: UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin is shown informing George VI that he is resigning, and that he will be succeeded by UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain. Technically that decision isn't Baldwin's to make, but rather George's; the most that Baldwin could do was advise George who should succeed him, and by tradition the monarch always accepts that advice, but Baldwin ''telling'' the monarch who the next PM was going to be would be seen as a serious breach of protocol.[[note]](In fact, Baldwin of all people should remember this part of the process, seeing how George V selected him as Prime Minister over Lord Curzon when UsefulNotes/BonarLaw was bedridden and close to death, and thus unable to offer any advice on who should succeed him)[[/note]]

** Not to mention several characters making vaguely xenophobic jibes against Logue's Australian background.

* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: The story Bertie tells his daughters near the beginning. Presumably it's a joke on the black-and-white suits of the day. (The story is actually based on one that Colin Firth would tell his children.)

* YoungFutureFamousPeople: George VI's daughter [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Elizabeth]] definitely counts. While she's mostly a background character during the film, her eventual ascendance is highlighted when Lionel tells Albert that if he takes the throne Elizabeth will become Queen. Albert, who is in firm "I ''don't'' want to be king" mode right now, [[ItWillNeverCatchOn tells him to put such silly thoughts out of his head]].

''The King's Speech'' is a 2010 period film, directed by Creator/TomHooper and starring Creator/ColinFirth, Creator/GeoffreyRush, and Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter.

* AllGirlsLikePonies: Bertie's daughters. They have a whole "stable" of stuffed horses. TruthInTelevision, as the future Queen Elizabeth II is an enthusiastic equestrienne.
* AlwaysSecondBest: Bertie to his father and brother. Neither had a speech impediment, to start.

** George V references the two men who threaten the stability of Europe: [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Herr Hitler]] and [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Marshal Stalin]]. However, Stalin did not award himself the title of "Marshal" until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. At the time, he would have been addressed as "Comrade Stalin," or even "Secretary Stalin," as he was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
** George V is shown to be rather curt and impatient with Bertie, implying a basic lack of respect, but George V generally preferred his second son to his eldest, and during the First World War, he and Bertie had become very close when Bertie (who was serving in the Navy at the time) had to spend a long time out of action because of various gastric conditions, including appendicitis and a stomach ulcer. They exchanged very fond letters to each other, and it was at this period that the king came to think so highly of Bertie. However, the complexity of this relationship is only hinted at in the film.

** Churchill and George are depicted as having a friendly relationship, but actually, at the period depicted in the film, George disliked and distrusted Churchill, because Churchill had been one of the most loyal defenders of Edward VIII, and had even suggested polling the people to see if they thought Edward ought to be allowed to continue as King while marrying Wallis. This didn't change until Churchill became PM, which happened after the period shown in the film: once Churchill was reporting to George on a regular basis, they became much more friendly and George came to think that he couldn't have had a better wartime prime minister.

* ExactWords: Throughout the film, Bertie attempts to keep things formal by calling Lionel "Doctor Logue," while Lionel insists on a [[FriendlyAddressPrivileges first-name basis]].[[spoiler: Later, the king is told that Lionel actually has no certificates or qualifications at all. He's mortified and furious, until Lionel gently points out that ''Bertie'' was the one who insisted on calling him "Doctor" and that Lionel has never advertised himself as such.]]

** They eliminated the fact that King George VI wasn't very fond of UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. They wouldn't even become friends until long after the events of the film.
** A lot of the later speech difficulty is likely trumped up. He was known to be at least a decent orator, with Logue's help, as early as 1927, when he opened Australia's parliament on behalf of his father, King George V. Though the stress of coronation did set his speech progress back.
** The radio speech to the nation after the outbreak of war had the stress level ratcheted up as high as it could go.
** All of the events are compressed from a period of fifteen years into just a couple. George VI first started meeting with Logue the year before his daughter Elizabeth was born, while in the film they keep the same child actress for the entire story.
** George was a strong supporter of UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain's appeasement policy (though the film doesn't really say otherwise, since it more or less skips over the 1937-1939 period), going so far as to breach protocol and endorse Chamberlain's policy prior to the sitting of the House of Commons. However, this was the consensus attitude for the period, something most people tend to overlook in favour of just blaming Chamberlain. (This attitude makes a great deal more sense when you remember that Britain had only just started to recover from the devastation of WWI.) The film also has UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin resigning over misjudging Hitler, which wasn't the case; he was simply ready to retire after fifteen years as leader of the Conservative Party.
** The film also gets Churchill's position on the abdication crisis exactly backward; historically, Churchill was one of the few who was supportive of Edward, as Churchill's own mother was an American socialite, and he felt the government was overstepping its bounds by telling Edward who he could or couldn't marry -- albeit Churchill's concerns in the film about Edward's Nazi sympathies were very much shared by his real-life counterpart. This was likely a case of RealityIsUnrealistic at work, as Churchill is such an iconic figure that chances are a lot of British audience members simply wouldn't have believed that he could have been on the "wrong" side of history on such an important matter, and would have accused the film-makers of giving him a HistoricalVillainUpgrade.
** Couple of minor details: George VI did not really have to bounce on "peoples" in the speech [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opkMyKGx7TQ listen here]]. He ''did'' bounce a bit on "a-depth" of feeling a few seconds later. And Lionel was not really seated in the royal box, but in the box just above it, where he and Myrtle had a splendid view.
** The movie doesn't mention it, but Logue and Bertie were both Freemasons; one of the tenets of Freemasonry is that worldly distinctions of rank, class, caste, religion, etc. may exist among Brothers, all Masons "meet upon the Level." This was the basis of his ability to leave his princehood outside the studio.

* {{Corpsing}}: Blink and you'll miss it, but Lionel is laughing heartily during Albert's ClusterFBomb. This wasn't scripted and Geoffrey Rush was just losing his composure at the hilarious delivery, but Tom Hooper thought it was such a great addition that they kept it.

* WhamLine: "What if my husband were the Duke of York?" Cue OhCrap look when Lionel Logue finally recognises that he's talking to the Duchess of York.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Bertie has 'something stronger' than a SpotOfTea after his father dies.

* FriendlyAddressPrivileges: Zigzagged. From the very beginning, Lionel insists on going by first-name basis, which the Duke refuses. Later on, though, as they bond, he seems not to mind "Bertie" any more, though he keeps calling Lionel "Logue" or "Doctor". At the end, in a FriendshipMoment, the King finally addresses Lionel as "Lionel", while Lionel calls him "Your Highness".

** Edward and Bertie had three younger siblings (Mary, Henry, George, and John -- the latter died a decade before the events of the movie), who never appear in the movie and aren't mentioned at all. In real life, George was a personal aide-de-camp to Edward and Bertie during their respective reigns, while Bertie and Henry were very fond of each others. The original screenplay involved a conversation between Churchill and the Archbishop regarding the suitability of Henry and George as alternate kings, with them being dismissed as a DepravedBisexual and a dimwit respectively.

** Edward and Bertie had three younger siblings (Mary, Henry, George, and John -- the latter died a decade before the events of the movie), who never appear in the movie and aren't mentioned at all. In real life, George was a personal aide-de-camp to Edward and Bertie during their respective reigns, while Bertie and Henry were very fond of each others.

** George V references the two men who threaten the stability of Europe: [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Herr Hitler]] and [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Marshal Stalin]]. However, Stalin did not award himself the title of "Marshal" until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. At the time, he would have been addressed as "Comrade Stalin."

* DareToBeBadass: More like Dare To Be A Bloody Good King, but you get the idea.

** Also, the idea of Parliament making a big enough deal objecting to King Edward's wanting to marry his twice-divorced girlfriend to resign en masse over it seems an overreaction to a modern audience, but the fact that she was believed to be a German spy kind of justifies their threat. Not to mention, the King of England is also the formal head of the Church of England, a church that at the time did not recognize this kind of divorce as legitimate, and so his intention to marry a twice-divorced woman was in direct contradiction to the church's doctrine. It seems silly from a modern perspective to make such a fuss over a divorce, but the king is not merely a head of state. For a modern comparison, consider what would happen if a newly elected pope came out of the closet. Also, part of the problem was that the Church of England only approved of remarriage after divorce if the other person had died in the meantime, making it the same as if a widow/er was remarrying. Wallis was still married/going through the divorce process with her very much alive second husband, thereby not fulfilling the ‘widow’ part of it.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Or rather, there ''were'' none. Lionel [[TaughtByExperience cut his therapeutic teeth treating the speech disorders of shell-shocked World War I veterans]], and quickly figured out that what they needed most desperately was a friendly ear. And as it turns out, Bertie had never had anyone to tell about the miserable childhood that fostered his stutter, including the fact that it took his parents ''three years'' to notice that the nanny was starving him. [[note]] The incident with the nurse was dramatized for the film; in real life, she didn't starve them, and it was ''David'', not Bertie, whom she would pinch before taking him to see his parents.[[/note]]

* TheFoil: While he only appears in some StockFootage late in the film, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler is this to George VI. They're both heads of European states, but George is a poor public speaker whose role is largely ceremonial, but nonetheless cares deeply for the common man, even if he's not always the best at showing it. By contrast, Hitler was the absolute ruler of his country, and a famously magnetic speaker who was able to create a cult of personality around himself, but when it came down to it, merely saw the people he claimed to love and serve as nothing more than tools to serve his own ends, evidenced to brutal effect during the eventual fall of Nazi regime.

** The film also gets Churchill's position on the abdication crisis exactly backward; historically, Churchill was one of the few who was supportive of Edward, as Churchill's own mother was an American socialite, and he felt the government was overstepping its bounds by telling Edward who he could or couldn't marry -- albeit Churchill's concerns in the film about Edward's Nazi sympathies were very much shared by his real-life counterpart.

* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: The Duchess of York in her initial meeting with Lionel.
-->'''Lionel:''' Am I considered the enemy?\\
'''Elizabeth:''' You will be, if you remain unobliging.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: George V references the two men who threaten the stability of Europe: [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Herr Hitler]] and [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Marshal Stalin]]. However, Stalin did not award himself the title of "Marshal" until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. At the time, he would have been addressed as "Comrade Stalin."

* ArtisticLicensePolitics: UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin is shown informing George VI that he is resigning, and that he will be succeeded by UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain. Technically that decision isn't Baldwin's to make, but rather George's; the most that Baldwin could do was advise George who should succeed him, and by tradition the monarch always accepts that advice, but Baldwin ''telling'' the monarch who the next PM was going to be would be seen as a serious breach of protocol.