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Cartoonists and the Royal Family, 1953-2003
Created by NHiley on April 1, 2009, 2:23 pm. Report this group | FAQ
This group of cartoons shows the changing representation of Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal family, in the fifty years after her coronation in 1953.
During the first decade of the Queen’s reign, newspaper cartoonists maintained the deference and respect that had been shown to British royalty since the late nineteenth century. Readers would protest if her face was shown in a newspaper cartoon, and Stanley Franklin, who became the Daily Mirror political cartoonist in 1959, acknowledged that “in my first few years on the Mirror you drew only the back view of the Queen.” There were, however, no reservations about drawing her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, and he came to feature in many cartoons.
Contemporaries looked in amazement at the way Royalty had been caricatured a hundred and fifty years earlier, and believed that the difference arose from the character of the present Queen and her family. “The art of impaling Royalty with a political cartoon is lost today,” wrote the journalist Tom Cullen in 1969, “possibly because present-day Royalty lead such exemplary lives that there is nothing visible into which the cartoonist can sink his harpoon.”
A major catalyst for change was the Queen herself, who followed her Press Secretary’s advice and allowed the BBC to film her private life. The resulting two-hour documentary “The Royal Family” was shown in 1969, and was watched by a vast audience of 31 million. For cartoonists the Queen and her family were now fair game, and their deference quickly disappeared. Within twenty years they were treating the Queen as just another public figure whose life was open to comment and ridicule.
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All records in the current group without supporting annotations.
Showing records 1 to 12 of 51.
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Prince Philip - Top of the Royal Pops Ralph SallonDaily Mirror | No caption Emmwood [John Musgrave-Wood]Daily Mail | London Laughs: Crowded Programme. "Well, that's about the lot. We've seen the Coronation, Spithead, ... Joseph LeeEvening Standard | "When did you last see your father?" Michael CummingsDaily Express |
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No caption Trog [Wally Fawkes]New Statesman | "I can forgive them everything, Philip, except these long nights at the opera. Trog [Wally Fawkes]Observer | "This House of decay, incompetence... sorry, that's Bernard Levin's speech." Jon [William John Philpin Jones]Daily Mail | I know where I seen 'im before - on the telly weren't it? Trog [Wally Fawkes]Observer |
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Published caption: "Of course, if you will go lending the coach to any Tom, Dick or Harry, dear..... Giles; Ronald Carl (1916-1995)Daily Express | Prince Charles interviewed by David Frost / By appointment Stanley FranklinDaily Mirror | 'I suppose we DID send them to the right schools' Trog [Wally Fawkes]Daily Mail | 'At least it's free' Illingworth, Leslie Gilbert, 1902-1979Daily Mail |
