Unimaginably Awful
The episodic nature of season 3 is never more apparent than when we go from Princess Margaret and President Johnson’s dirty limericks to the darkest episode of the series with “Aberfan.”
To be honest, there are parts of this episode I chose not to watch. I had read about the Aberfan disaster of 1966 and knew I did not wish to see something so “unimaginably awful” dramatized. However, I was interested to see what explanation the show might proffer for the Queen’s delayed response, her biggest regret according to the real-life Martin Charteris.
When the Queen is informed of what has happened in Wales, Martin Charteris suggests she visit, to which the Queen says that the crown visits hospitals, not scenes of accidents. You may remember it was also Martin who had reservations about the speech the Queen gave in season 2 that eventually landed her in a minor constitutional crisis. One would think they might listen to Martin’s suggestions a little more closely at this point.
When Harold Wilson asks her to go, she says that “the sovereign paralyzes any situation she walks into. The last thing rescue workers need is the Queen turing up.”
The days pass and still Elizabeth chooses not to visit Aberfan. Harold Wilson’s political secretary, Marcia Wililams, questions him on why she has not gone, saying Wilson should be highlighting it as “symptomatic of establishment neglect.” He tells her, “maybe she [the Queen] finds that kind of situation difficult,” to which Marcia rightfully replies:
Losing your children is difficult! Losing your brothers and sisters is difficult!
Prince Philip visits Aberfan on the day they bury 81 children. On his return, the Queen asks him if he wept upon hearing the families singing a hymn at the burial. Philip tells her, “anyone who heard the hymn today would not just have wept, they would’ve been broken into a thousand tiny pieces.”
The Queen visits Aberfan on the eighth day. She later tells Harold Wilson that her critics may be right, that she did not give Aberfan what they deserved: a prompt and compassionate response. Elizabeth claims she dabbed a “bone-dry” eye. After recounting for Wilson all the major moments of her life in which she should have been overcome with emotion and wasn’t, the Queen professes there must be something deficient in her.
Wilson then goes on to offer all the ways his public persona does not quite match up with his personal reality: He is the hero of the Labour Party, but he’s never done a day’s manual work in his life; he prefers cigars to pipes, but cigars are emblematic of privilege, so it would not be wise to smoke them publicly, all in the name of an approachable and likable image. He continues:
We can’t be everything to everyone and still be true to ourselves. We do what we have to do as leaders. That’s our job…in a way, your absence of emotion is a blessing. No one needs hysteria from a head of state. And the truth is, we barely need humanity.
Harold Wilson to QEII
While kindly offered, these words probably do not bring the intended comfort to the Queen. Imagine what Elizabeth must be feeling to consider that she is especially suited for this job that requires one to be virtually void of emotion.
Elizabeth, now alone, plays the hymn referred to by Philip earlier in the episode- a recording of the voices of the families. The camera lingers on her back and we wonder what we will find when it shows us her face. Finally, we see watery eyes. There is certainly no weeping. But there is a single tear. For the tragedy, surely, but also perhaps for the painful realization that something within her is indeed missing.
As compelling a drama as The Crown is, sometimes the terrific writing makes one forget that it is, above all, fiction. The actual, undeniable events and circumstances serve only as a backdrop, and beyond that we have mere inferences and imagination, based on sources no doubt, but still, one can never know what was said behind closed doors. This is true and worth remembering for every episode, but perhaps especially so in “Aberfan.”
The Queen’s eight-day delay is historically accurate. According to biographer, Sally Bedell Smith, the Queen initially said,“People will be looking after me. Perhaps they’ll miss some poor child that might have been found under the wreckage.” This tracks with what she tells Wilson, saying that the presence of the sovereign would only delay rescue efforts. In real life, she held fast to this notion and did not go until after the last of the bodies had been recovered, a little over a week later. She and Prince Philip stayed for over two hours visiting with the bereaved families.
The show depicts Queen Elizabeth as being told to show emotion for the sake of the crowds and the press, that she did not have real tears, but that is in conflict with sources who were present and claim that the Queen did show genuine emotion.
In the same biography, Smith recounts the Queen’s words to a grieving mother:
“As a mother, I’m trying to understand what your feelings must be,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry I can give you nothing at present except sympathy.”
It is impossible to say what was actually going through the Queen’s heart and mind when she delayed visiting Aberfan. We do know that Martin Charteris claimed it was her biggest regret. As the end of the episode says, the Queen has visited the site more often than any other member of the royal family. On the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, the Queen said, “I well remember my own visit with Prince Philip after the disaster, and the posy I was given by a young girl, which bore the heart-breaking inscription, ‘from the remaining children of Aberfan.’”
While we can never fully know the Queen’s reasons for her delay, I don’t think those are the words or memory of someone who was not profoundly affected by the tragedy.
Odds and Ends
Most Memorable Soundtrack Moment:
“Jesu, lover of my soul”- The hymn was actually sung at the burial service in Aberfan
Most Memorable Line:
“We can’t be everything to everyone and still be true to ourselves.”
Harold Wilson to QEII
MGC 