Johnnie is more interested in his father's pet parrot, Charlotte. The following morning Johnnie receives a rare meeting with his father King George, who shows him his treasured stamp collection. The assembled dignitaries are chattering feverishly about the poise with which the Queen has dealt with the intrusion of a suffragette, who has confronted the Queen to demand her support for women's suffrage.ĭuring the banquet Asquith and Lloyd George are called back to Downing Street to receive the news that is to prove to be the catalyst for the start of the First World War. During his stay he is taken by his brother George up to the minstrel's gallery looking down on the banqueting hall of Buckingham Palace, to observe a grand state occasion. Johnnie is brought to London to be re-examined by the doctors. Asquith and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George. Then one day, to the acute embarrassment of King George V and Queen Mary, he speaks his mind at a tea party held for Prime Minister H. Although lonely, he always takes an optimistic view of life. Johnnie, now a few years older, is deprived of the company of any children and finds the schooling of his tutor, Hansell, unfathomable. His sibling, Prince George, who has always treasured Johnnie, swears to protect him. The two of them are to be sent to Sandringham, where Johnnie is to be prevented from encountering anybody but the closest members of his family. Lalla volunteers to look after Johnnie to prevent him being sent to an institution. Queen Mary, Johnnie's mother, summons doctors to examine him and their diagnosis confirms her and Lalla's worst fears.
While the populace of the capital gaze into the night skies to catch a glimpse of an approaching comet, Johnnie's parents are called to Buckingham Palace to be by the King's deathbed.ĭuring the funeral attended by many of the heads of state of Europe, including Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, Johnnie has a serious epileptic seizure. It is clear also that his nanny, Lalla, is reluctant to reveal the seriousness of his medical condition. His ailing grandfather, King Edward VII, loves him for his frankness. It is clear, even at this stage, that Johnnie, a charming and attractive boy, has an eccentric view of the world and is uninhibited in a way that is alien to his parents. The Russians entrance Prince John with their exotic splendour. When summer arrives there is much excitement again as Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, and their children, visit their relatives, the British royals, on the Isle of Wight.
Poliakoff explores the story of John, his relationship with his family and brother Prince George, the political events going on at the time (such as the fall of the House of Romanov in 1917) and the love and devotion of his nanny, Charlotte Bill (Lalla).Ī spellbound young Prince John gazes as his family attend an elaborate birthday party for his pampered and indulged grandmother Queen Alexandra in December 1908, held at Sandringham in Norfolk during the winter. John had epileptic seizures and an autism-like developmental disorder, and the Royal Family tried to shelter him from public view the script did not present the Royal Family as unsympathetic, instead showing how much this cost them emotionally (particularly John's mother, Queen Mary).
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