The Queens of the Queen

[PeterRS]

For decades there has been an old joke about Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen's mother. Widowed in 1952, she went on to live for another 50 years, mostly at the elegant Clarence House not far from Buckingham Palace where she had her own staff. Once after waking up from her afternoon nap, she was pissed off that her early evening tipple had not been brought upstairs. She went to the balcony and shouted down, "I'm not sure about you old queens down there, but this old queen is dying for a gin and tonic!"

Given the dear lady's liking for gin, it is probably true. Even more so given that gay men made up quite a number of her staff. One in particular, William Tallon, had entered royal service as a pageboy at the age of 15. He was to serve the Queen Mother for 50 years being called for most of that time "Backstage Billy". Billy was gay, out and unashemdly so. He eventually formed a long time relationship with another member of the household. But he would also have rent boys back at his small house at the entrance to Clarence House. Once one was discovered and it was thought he was finally in for the axe. But the Queen Mother defended him and he continued as the most senior member of the staff almost to her death.

Now showing in London is a play about this odd relationship - the former Queen born into a noble Scottish household and the working class lad. With the wonderful actor Penelope Wilton (remember her as Maggie Smith's foil in Downton Abbey?) playing the Queen, Backstage Billy is at the Duke of York's Theatre until 27 January. 

Set in 1979, just before Margaret Thatcher’s election victory, Marcelo Dos Santos’s script draws soft, safe comedy from rumours that while William “Billy” Tallon worked for “ma’am”, he brought back rent boys. The Queen Mother is a widow, no longer at the coalface of royal duties, now at Clarence House where she is barely visited by the rest of the Firm. Billy is “page of the backstairs” and enjoying life as a queer man, inviting a pick-up, Ian (Eloka Ivo, slowly but satisfyingly socialist), to his royal digs.

According to reviews, there is not much depth here but an amusing evening of irreverent humour.

Photo: Johan Persson

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/nov/07/backstairs-billy-review-the-queen-mother

[Marc in Calif]

Thanks so much, Peter. I'd love to see this production!

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/eloka-ivo-attends-the-press-night-after-party-for-news-photo/1780831499

 

[PeterRS]

For anyone interested, there ws a TV programme made about Backstairs Billy. It's a bit long but does stress that whereas Billy could have made vast amounts of money after the Queen Mother' death with intimate unpublished details about the Royal Family's backstage exploits, he kept all the secrets to himself.