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A yearly message of hope
The idea for a Christmas message from the sovereign to the British Empire was first proposed by the founding director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), John Reith, in 1922 when he approached King George V about making a short broadcast on the newly created radio service. The King declined, however, believing that radio was mainly for entertainment. Reith approached the King again ten years later, in 1932, as a way to inaugurate the Empire Service (now the World Service) and the King finally agreed after being encouraged to do so by Queen Mary and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. That year, King George V read the first Royal Christmas Message, which was scripted by Rudyard Kipling; the King was originally hesitant about using the relatively untested medium of radio but was reassured after a summertime visit to the BBC and agreed to carry out the concept and read the speech from a temporary studio set up at Sandringham House.
While his brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated just before his first Christmas as king, King George VI continued his father’s Christmas broadcasts. George’s daughter and successor, Queen Elizabeth II, gave her first Christmas message to the Commonwealth of Nations from her study at Sandringham House, at 3:07 PM on December 25th, 1952, some 10 months after her father’s death. Five years later, the message was broadcast on television for the first time. It has been an annual television broadcast every year since, with the exception of 1969; that year, no message was given because of a special documentary film on the Royal Family.
Sky News recorded the Queen’s Christmas message for Christmas 2012, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, and for the first time it was recorded in 3D. Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the themes and direction of the speech were decided by the Queen and the text was largely written by the Queen herself, sometimes with assistance from Prince Philip. In the later years of her reign, the speeches became more personal and religious in tone.
On the occasion of the outbreak of the Corona virus, Queen Elizabeth II gave a special speech that was a message of hope filled with poignant images and the Queen commended those who worked on the front lines to ensure Great Britain’s continuing survival as its people began a difficult period of lock-down. The line that became famous was a promise from the Queen that people “will meet again”.
Glossary
founding = fondatore
broadcast = trasmettere via TV o radio
decline = rifiutare
script = scrivere
abdicate = abdicare
jubilee = giubileo
theme = tema
largely = prevalentemente
outbreak = diffusione
poignant = struggente
commend = lodare
line = frase
‘We will meet again’ – The Queen’s Corona virus broadcast | BBC
