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Session 8. "Sleep, Dearie Sleep": three actresses, one life

The Crown, Season 6, Episode 10: the last scene, and the end of a reign.

Key question: How do we tell the end of a life that was entirely public, and how do we separate fiction from history?
55 minutes: Recap 5 min · Point du professeur 10 min · Document 8 min · Vocabulary 7 min · Grammar 12 min · Figures and idioms 6 min · Task 7 min
Key words for today
Recap · marked /3

What we already know

Quick quiz (one point each)

  1. Place: Royal portraits show age. (seldom)
  2. Size of Freud's portrait?
  3. Meaning of "a far cry from"?
Answers
  1. Royal portraits seldom show age.
  2. 23.5 × 15.2 cm.
  3. very different from

1Le point du professeur10 min

Pour le professeur

Faire le bilan d'une vie et se projeter demandent toutes les formes du futur, y compris vues depuis le passé : will, be going to, présent progressif à valeur de futur, be about to, be to, futur progressif, futur antérieur. On part de la question que la série prête à la reine : Will I hand over to Charles? puis on se place en 1953 : By 2022 she will have reigned for seventy years.

Starting point

In 1953 nobody could say: "By 2022 she will have reigned for seventy years."

Future forms

Future continuous and future perfect

Second conditional and wish + past

If she abdicated, Charles would become King. I wish I had more time.

Help: future perfect = will have + past participle: by then it will have happened.

2The document8 min

Official video: The Crown: Season 6 | Part 2 Trailer | Netflix (Netflix, YouTube)
The official trailer of the final episodes (released 14 December 2023). No official clip of the last scene is published.
But what about the life I put aside? The woman I put aside when I became Queen.The Crown, Season 6 Part 2 trailer, Netflix, 2023.
When fate summons, even monarchs must obey.Same trailer.
Official video: The Crown's Final Farewell | Netflix (Still Watching Netflix, Netflix's official channel, YouTube)
A six-minute official look back at the series across eight years.

The last scene. In the final episode, written by Peter Morgan and directed by Stephen Daldry, the Queen (Imelda Staunton) imagines her own funeral in St George's Chapel and is joined by her younger selves, Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, who argue for and against handing over to Charles. According to Variety, the chapel scenes were filmed in York Minster, and all three actresses were physically present. She finally walks alone towards the light.

The real end. Elizabeth II died at Balmoral on 8 September 2022, aged 96, after 70 years and 214 days on the throne, the longest reign in British history. Two days earlier she had appointed her 15th prime minister. In April 2020, during the first lockdown, she had told the nation: "We will meet again."

Rumour or verified fact?

Fact-check each statement. Say verified or false, and give the source.

Understanding the document

  1. What dilemma does the final episode dramatise?
  2. Why are three actresses in the same scene?
  3. What does "the woman I put aside" mean?
  4. Where was the scene filmed?
  5. When and where did the real Queen die?
Answers
  1. Whether the Queen should abdicate and hand over to Charles or carry on to the end.
  2. They embody three ages of the same woman, her inner debate, and the history of the series itself.
  3. Her private self, sacrificed to her public role.
  4. In York Minster, standing in for St George's Chapel, Windsor.
  5. At Balmoral, on 8 September 2022.

3Building your vocabulary

WordMeaning
a legacywhat someone leaves behind
to outlive, to outlastto live or last longer than
to look back onto think about the past
to hand over, to pass the torchto give a role to a successor
to lie in state(of a coffin) to be displayed publicly before a funeral
a reign, to reigna period on the throne
an eraa long period of history
a disclaimera statement that something is not entirely true or official
a dramatisation, to fictionalisea story based on reality but partly invented
artistic licencethe liberty artists take to change facts

Exercise 1. Definitions

Which word?

  1. What someone leaves behind.
  2. To live longer than somebody.
  3. The right of an artist to change facts.
  4. A statement that a story is partly invented.
  5. To give a role to a successor (idiom).
Answers
  1. a legacy
  2. to outlive
  3. artistic licence
  4. a disclaimer
  5. to pass the torch

Exercise 2. Rumour or verified fact?

Fact-check. Give your verdict and the source.

  1. Netflix describes The Crown as a "fictional dramatisation".
  2. In 1982 the intruder Michael Fagan and the Queen had a long conversation on her bed, as in Season 4, Episode 5.
  3. Churchill's 80th-birthday portrait by Sutherland was really destroyed.
  4. At his investiture, Charles secretly gave a defiant speech in Welsh written against the government's wishes.
  5. In 1947 the future Queen needed clothing ration coupons for her wedding dress.
  6. Philip refused to kneel to the Queen at the coronation.
Answers
  1. Verified. Since October 2022 Netflix's description reads: "Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II...", added after criticism from Judi Dench and John Major (BBC News).
  2. False, according to Fagan himself: "She went past me and ran out of the room" (2012 interview; see The Telegraph, 2020). The long conversation is fiction.
  3. Verified. Lady Churchill had it destroyed; it became known after her death in 1977.
  4. False. He studied Welsh at Aberystwyth and spoke in Welsh, but the secret defiant speech is invented by the series (see WalesOnline).
  5. Verified. On 22 October 1947 the House of Commons was told that one hundred coupons had been issued to her for the wedding (Hansard).
  6. False as history. The series shows him resisting, but on 2 June 1953 he paid homage to her, kneeling, as the first layman to do so.

4Grammar in practice

From recognition to open production.

RecognitionExercise 3. Which future?

Name the form and its meaning.

  1. The funeral is to take place on Monday.
  2. Look at those clouds: it's going to rain.
  3. By then she will have reigned for 70 years.
  4. This time tomorrow we will be watching the procession.
  5. I'm meeting the curator at ten.
Answers
  1. be to: official plan
  2. be going to: evidence
  3. future perfect: completed before a future time
  4. future continuous: in progress
  5. present continuous: arrangement

Controlled practiceExercise 4. Future perfect or future continuous?

Put the verb in the correct form.

  1. By 2015 she (overtake) ______ Queen Victoria's record.
  2. In 2052 people (still / talk) ______ about her reign.
  3. By the end of the series, three actresses (play) ______ her.
  4. By 2022 she (reign) ______ for 70 years.
Answers
  1. will have overtaken
  2. will still be talking
  3. will have played
  4. will have been reigning / will have reigned

TransformationExercise 5. From 1953 into the future

Rewrite as a prediction made in 1953.

  1. She reigned until 2022.
  2. She saw 15 prime ministers.
  3. She became the longest-reigning British monarch.
  4. If she abdicated, Charles would become King. (second conditional, opinion)
Answers
  1. In 1953 nobody knew she would reign until 2022.
  2. By 2022 she will have seen 15 prime ministers.
  3. She was to become the longest-reigning British monarch.
  4. If she abdicated, Charles would become King.

AccuracyAccuracy check. Find the mistake

Each sentence contains one mistake. Find it and correct it.

  1. In 2010 people said: "By 2015 she will overtake Victoria's record."
  2. In 1953 nobody knew she will reign until 2022.
  3. The state funeral is take place on Monday.
  4. Look at those dark clouds: it will rain.
  5. Hurry up, the ceremony is about starting.
  6. This time tomorrow we will watch the final episode.
Answers
  1. "By 2015 she will have overtaken Victoria's record."
  2. In 1953 nobody knew she would reign until 2022.
  3. The state funeral is to take place on Monday.
  4. Look at those dark clouds: it's going to rain.
  5. Hurry up, the ceremony is about to start.
  6. This time tomorrow we will be watching the final episode.

Open productionExercise 6. A dialogue across time

Write a 15-line dialogue between the Queen of 1953 and the Queen of 2022. Use six future forms (including the future perfect and be to), one second conditional and one I wish.

Help: "In seventy years you will have...", "You are to become...".

5Figures of speech

Exercise 7. Identify

Name the figure.

  1. "When fate summons, even monarchs must obey."
  2. "The life I put aside. The woman I put aside."
  3. A film about the making of the film.
Answers
  1. personification (and maxim)
  2. anaphora
  3. mise en abyme

6Idioms

to pass the torch
to hand over a role to the next generation.
From the torch relays of ancient Greek races.
In 2022 the torch was passed to Charles.
the end of an era
the end of a long, important period.
Common in journalism.
Her death marked the end of an era.
heavy is the head that wears the crown
great responsibility brings great worry.
Adapted from Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
Heavy is the head that wears the crown: she never stopped working.
duty calls
an obligation must be fulfilled.
Used humorously when leaving to work.
"Duty calls," she said, and went back to her red boxes.

Exercise 8. Complete

Use an idiom.

  1. When the founder retired, it was ______.
  2. Sorry, I must go: ______.
  3. At sixty, the coach decided to ______ to his assistant.
  4. Leaders rarely sleep well: ______.
Answers
  1. the end of an era
  2. duty calls
  3. pass the torch
  4. heavy is the head that wears the crown

7Expression task7 min

Fact-checkers' desk. In groups, choose one scene of The Crown and present it to the class in two minutes: what the series shows, what the sources say, your verdict (verified or false), with at least two future forms in your conclusion (Viewers will think..., Historians will have...).

Exit ticket · formative check
  1. Future perfect: By 2022 she (see) ______ 15 prime ministers.
  2. Verified or false: Fagan chatted with the Queen for ten minutes.
  3. Meaning of "to pass the torch"?
Answers
  1. will have seen
  2. False, according to Fagan's own account.
  3. to hand over a role

C1+Going further (towards C2)

Fiction and history (C1+). 300 words: "A drama about living people has a duty to the truth." Use Netflix's disclaimer, Judi Dench's criticism (letter to The Times, October 2022) and two examples from this page. Use the future perfect, be to and two sentence adverbs.

HWHomework

Revise all the future forms and prepare the final task (session 9): choose your moment and your voice.