Peter Hitchens Expands on Why He Doesn't Like The King's Speech

Foul-Mouthed Kings, and do we know how they spoke in the Past?

Another Critical Look at The King's Speech

Regal Radical Chic
All the King's Clichés
By Andy Nowicki

Tom Hooper Will Not Cut the King's Speech

Why not? If Peter Hitchens is correct and there is no evidence that George VI used the F bomb as a part of his speech therapy, then it's not really necessary to the telling of the story, is it? --Unless it's not really story-telling, but deliberately intended to support the coarsening of manners... (and to give a subversive look at the British monarchy).

Peter Hitchens, The Real King's Story, versus 'The King's Speech'

His blog at the Daily Mail

Peter Hitchens objects to one word of The King's Speech

Something mentioned by Steven Greydanus when he was last on Catholic Answers -- the use of the F-bomb in the movie by the king as speech therapy. Peter Hitchens: Why put filth in the mouth of our King?

As far as I can find out, there is absolutely no historical warrant for the idea that King George VI was urged to use the f-word by his speech therapist during his attempt to cure his stammer.

So why did the makers of the film The King’s Speech feel the need to insert a scene in which this happens?

Even if it did happen, there are other ways of letting us know that it did, apart from showing it.

If the British Board of Film Classification had any courage or resolve, they would have stuck by their decision to give the film a ‘15’ rating and so sharply reduced its market, solely because of this passage.

The producer, director and scriptwriters could not have been certain that the BBFC would cave in. They were prepared, therefore, to risk significant commercial damage for this cause.

I know that, to get their laughs, many modern ‘comedians’ rely almost completely on the f-word’s fading power to shock. But I think there is more to it than that. In much of the entertainment industry there is a militant desire to destroy taboos and upset the gentle, for its own sake. Revolutionaries love to debauch and corrupt.

How better to do this than to portray the trembling, retiring Bertie, who never wanted the throne and was happiest at home with his small family, spitting out dirty words?

I’d say shame on them if I thought they understood words of more than four letters.

The movie has been doing well with critics, garnering nominations for various awards. I was thinking about seeing it, but Mr. Hitchens's comment gives me pause.