For many families, sitting down together after their turkey roast and watching the King’s speech is a traditional part of Christmas Day. It’s hard to imagine the festive season without it, but the idea of a televised Christmas message took a bit of persuasion to catch on behind palace doors.
Queen Elizabeth’s first festive TV broadcast took place at Sandringham House in 1957 after Prince Philip “urged” her to embrace the medium over radio. Since 1959 the monarchs have pre-recorded the speech but the Queen’s Christmas TV debut was live.
She was understandably very nervous and Prince Philip stepped in with an extraordinary way of distracting her. Who’d have thought that just before addressing the nation, her husband had been running up and down “brandishing a pair of false teeth”.
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According to Robert Jobson, writing in The Windsor Legacy, “Philip play-acted to ease the Queen’s understandable nerves before making her TV debut”. Courtiers are said to have recounted how the “hallways echoed with her laughter as he ran up and down, brandishing a pair of false teeth to keep and their children entertained”.
The late Prince’s top-tier distraction tactics didn’t stop there, either. He apparently also sent a “playful message” to the broadcast’s director: “Tell her to remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth”. To be honest, I’d have thought she’d be unlikely to forget!
Prince Philip was supposedly also in the room whilst Queen Elizabeth was giving her Christmas speech and he made sure to keep up his good work. Jobson’s book includes a recollection from Christina Aldridge, daughter of Peter Dimmock who produced the BBC broadcast.
(Image credit: Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
“The Queen was rather nervous, and Prince Philip, aware of this, stood behind the camera making encouraging, even ridiculous faces, helping her to relax and smile,” she claimed.
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Despite her anxiety, the Queen’s Christmas Day speech was a resounding success. It helped to connect the public more with their monarch, as, for the first time, they could see a member of the Royal Family from the comfort of their homes and it just felt more personal than radio.
It became a new Christmas Day tradition, although a few years later, Queen Elizabeth started to record her messages ahead of time instead of speaking live. This might well have helped with her nerves, but who knows if she still thought of Prince Philip running with the false teeth to keep her calm and relaxed throughout.
(Image credit: Photo by Max Mumby/Pool/Indigo/Getty Images)
Entertaining his family – particularly the children – was something the Prince loved to do and often did so in very un-royal ways like this. Speaking in the BBC’s 2021 documentary, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, Prince William shared a story about the messy prank his grandfather used to play with mustard at the table that got him into “trouble” with the Queen.
“He used to take the lid off [the tube] and put it in your hands… and then he’d squish your hands together to fire the mustard onto the ceiling,” he said, adding, “He used to get in a lot of trouble from my grandmother”.
“He enjoyed those jokes, he enjoyed messing around with the children and being a grandfather,” William declared.
