To my beloved PEOPLE
THE queen’s annual 3pm Christmas broadcast became as much of a tradition as turkey and tinsel, mince pies and mistletoe.
The tradition was started by her grandfather King George V as a radio message in 1932 and was first televised in 1957 – but it took some convincing before the queen allowed BBC TV cameras into the hallowed halls of Sandringham, her beloved Christmas retreat.
The royal family were coming in for increasing criticism from the media and the public for their perceived aloofness and for being out of touch with the reality of their subjects, many of whom were still struggling to overcome the severity of the war years and battling unemployment.
Critics had also begun to lay into her remote manner and the way she spoke to the people, accusing her of banal platitudes and patronising and alienating a nation.
But it was an article by journalist and editor John Grigg, 2nd Baron Altrincham and known as Lord Altrincham, in his publication The National and English Review that really set the cat among the royal pigeons.
“The personality conveyed by the utterances which are
