“The family has been reduced to the lowest of creatures – we’ve become actors.” A sad state of affairs indeed, as pronounced by the King of England, George V (Michael Gambon), to his son, Albert (Colin Firth). The realization proves troubling in more ways than one to the stammering Duke of York . The advent of "the wireless," as radio was so quaintly known, meant that it was no longer enough for a monarch or his family to simply look the part and occasionally vouchsafe one of those swively, restrained wave to the masses. A king or queen would have to speak, ingratiate him or herself to their subjects in their homes, their pubs, their places of work. This meant that the Duke of York, paralyzed by that stammer since childhood, would be forced into the acting, the theater of public life. Even worse, the relative safety on which he was counting, playing understudy to his brother, David (as ever, members of the royal famil...