Time to reflect

It was my first Jubilee moment — Judi Dench on Radio 4’s Today programme suddenly launching into Shakespeare mid-glam (incredibly glam) party. She was talking to Jim Naughtie at the Queen’s gala for the arts at the Royal Academy and bewailing the decline in the teaching of Shakespeare in schools. Mid-sentence, she breaks into Cleopatra’s lament: ‘I dream’d there was an Emperor Antony/O! such another sleep, that I might see/ But such another man.’ It was so natural, so heartfelt, so extraordinary that she could remember the speech line-for-line and give it to us, just like that, with no preparation, no sense of performance or theatrical delivery. I just had to stop and listen; to pause instead of rushing on with the day. Her intense relish in the power of the writing and her desire to get this across was tangible.

Maybe this is the point of the Jubilee. Never mind the trading days lost, the business not reaped, the feeling that the country is going off on an extended junket without thinking about who’s going to pay for it. We need this opportunity to pause and reflect on what the Queen means to this country and how she has succeeded in bringing round some of the most intransigent republicans to her way of doing things. It’s a chance to re-evaluate, and perhaps realign ourselves. Check base and remember that the Queen’s position, neither political nor mere celebrity, has taken not decades but centuries to achieve.

Some of the best programmes in celebration of her 60 years have been on the World Service, collecting memories and thoughts on what the Queen means to the rest of the world, where she is often appreciated far more than at home among us cantankerous, penny-counting Brits.