I advise you to choose your next words very carefully.
After discovering that the Soviet Union has tested their first thermonuclear weapon, Churchill urges an international summit with US President Eisenhower. At the last minute, though, Churchill suffers a stroke, which inhibits his ability to govern and prompts Lord Salisbury to keep his ailment secret; at the same time, Churchill's deputy Anthony Eden also falls ill. Meanwhile, Tommy Lascelles is due to retire; Elizabeth wants Martin Charteris as her new private secretary but is eventually forced to go for Michael Adeane, who's the more senior of Lascelles's two deputies. Realising that she did not receive a proper education growing up as a princess, she engages a private tutor to improve her studies, which helps her gain the courage to dress down both Churchill and Salisbury after Jock Colville accidentally reveals their deception.
This episodes contains examples of:
- All for Nothing: The palace staff pull out all the stops to prepare for Eisenhower's state visit ... which then gets called off.
- Artistic Licence – History: A few.
- The show portrays Churchill as lying to the Queen about the extent of his health decline. Historically, she was in fact well aware of his extreme ill health, although this was kept from the public.
- During the incapacity of both Churchill and Eden, the day-to-day business of government was overseen by the then Chancellor, R.A. Butler — who does not get a mention, in contrast to Lord Salisbury, a.k.a. Bobbety — who in reality was a more junior member of the Cabinet, although after Eden's resignation he (as the Leader of the House of Lords) was one of the men who was consulted by the Queen as to whether Butler or Macmillan should succeed Eden as Prime Minister.
- The line "history teaches, never trust a Cecil" is anachronistic, as it is reckoned to have been originally said in reference to Bobbety's grandson (who, as Viscount Cranborne in 1998, went behind Tory leader William Hague's back to do a deal on reforming the House of Lords with Tony Blair).
- Mention is made of Eisenhower's preoccupation with the "military-industrial complex". That term did not enter common parlance until years later, when he used it in his farewell address in 1961.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Jock Colville, as befits a civil servant subordinate to Winston Churchill, who's a force of nature even in old age. He at least has the advantage of having being Churchill's aide during the darkest (and finest) hours of World War II.
- Book Dumb: The Queen, who engages a tutor to try and rectify this.
- Canon Foreigner: Professor Hogg, Elizabeth's new tutor who advises her on how to deal with her errant ministers, is fictional.
- Disappointed in You: On the advice of her tutor, Elizabeth strikes this tone with Winston Churchill and Lord Salisbury for hiding the former's strokes from her.Queen Elizabeth II: So what would you have me do?Professor Hogg: Summon them and give them a good dressing down like children.Queen Elizabeth II: Why would they stand for that?Professor Hogg: Because they're English, male and upper-class. A good dressing down from Nanny is what they most want in life.Queen Elizabeth II: Unconventional to the end, Professor.
- Fisher King: Churchill's health problems while in office are juxtaposed with the decline of British power and influence in the post-war world. This is the case for Eden as well, and will be continued once he becomes Prime Minister (had Eden been in good health at the time of Churchill's stroke in 1953, it is likely that he would have become PM there and then, rather than waiting till 1955).John F. Dulles: [seeing Eden slumped in his chair] That, gentlemen, is not just is not a sleeping man, that is a sad metaphor. The second most powerful man in what used to be the most powerful country on earth.
- Hidden Depths: Elizabeth, whose limiting schooling did at least ensure that she has an in-depth knowledge of the British Constitution (which was, of course, the intention). And she totally flummoxes Professor Hogg with her knowledge about Horse Racing (very much Truth in Television).
- Just Plane Wrong: The opening scene states it is 1940 with a large number of bombers flying over Windsor Castle. They are identifiably Lancasters — but in actual fact, the Lancaster bomber was not introduced until 1942.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Happens to Elizabeth when Churchill and Salisbury conspire to keep the former's poor health a secret from her. She finds out when Jock Colville lets it slip when he thinks Elizabeth has summoned him to discuss it.
- Maintain the Lie: A mild example — when Churchill has another stroke, Jock Colville's all for confessing to the Queen, but Lord Sailsbury says that they're "in too deep" and so must keep concealing the PM's health from Her Majesty.
- Mistaken Confession: Jock Colville (who really was the then-Princess Elizabeth's private secretary prior to Martin Charteris) assumes that the Queen's summoned him to discuss the Number 10's conspiracy to hide Churchill's strokes; he immediately apologises for lying about it. Turns out, though, the Queen didn't know about it and actually wanted to discuss who should succeed Tommy Lascelles as her private secretary.
- Not So Stoic: Lascelles is visibly upset when the Queen says that she wants Charteris to succeed him because he would be a friend to her, implying that Lascelles has not been.
- Power is Sexy: After the Queen dresses down the Prime Minister, she encounters her husband who finds her newfound confidence rather arousing. Cut to one of her footmen asking her Private Secretary, waiting outside with her red box, to come back tomorrow.
- Private Tutor: A flashback shows Elizabeth as a child going to Eton to receive private tutoring from a professor in constitutional law while surrounded by his male students, the future leaders of the country, who are learning mathematics and literature. As Queen she feels outclassed by the more intelligent and literate world leaders she has to deal with in the rapidly advancing 20th Century, so she arranges another professor to educate her in general subjects. When this professor tries to establish what level of education she's currently at, the Queen realises that she hasn't received the most basic school education that any of her subjects have access to.
- A Rare Sentence: Eden forces Churchill to admit that he needs him, knowing full well the 10 Downing Street telephone staff are listening in.
- Slippery Slope Fallacy: Lascelles once again brings up the specter of Edward VIII as the reason why he's opposed to the Queen selecting her own Private Secretary, pointing out the disgraced king started by dismissing experienced courtiers in favor of his own sycophants.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Clementine Churchill is appalled when she finds out that Winston's been keeping his health problems from the Queen; Jock Colville is of a similar attitude but, being a mere civil servant, he has a more restrained way of showing it. The Queen's not happy either (once she finds out), and summons the old man to the palace for a strict dressing-down.
- Elizabeth demands to know from her mother why she didn't get a normal education like everyone else, instead of just the skills of a Proper Lady and Royal heir. Her confidence is not helped by the Queen Mother implying that she was regarded as not smart enough to bother making the effort.
