Stars turn out for King’s Speech

Famous names welcomed The King’s Speech to the London stage, around a year after the film triumphed at the Oscars.

I was able to do a lot more of the textural politics that surrounded the personal story and a lot more of the humour

Brenda Blethyn, Dame Kelly Holmes and Gina McKee were among the audience for the show’s official opening at the Wyndham’s Theatre.

David Seidler, who originally wrote the story about King George VI as a play before creating the screenplay, was also expected to attend the performance.

The film, which won four Oscars and seven Baftas, stars Colin Firth as Bertie, the king who overcame his stammer with the help of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush).

The play stars Charles Edwards in the lead role, Australian Jonathan Hyde as Logue and Emma Fielding as Queen Elizabeth.

Directed by Adrian Noble, it also features Joss Ackland as King George V and Ian McNeice as Winston Churchill.

The production had its world premiere last month in Guildford, the first time it had ever been performed on the stage.

Mr Seidler began working on the play in the 1970s and 1980s but abandoned the project when the Queen Mother asked him not to pursue it during her lifetime.

He returned to it after her death and went on to win a Bafta and an Academy Award for the screenplay.

Dame Eileen Atkins, MPs Kenneth Clarke and Harriet Harman and broadcaster Sian Williams were also in the audience.

After the show, which received a standing ovation, writer David Seidler said the performance was “the best I’ve seen it”.

“I don’t think it could have gone any better,” he added.

He said it was “satisfying” to see his story on the stage because the medium allowed him to tell the tale as he had always wanted and to include scenes that were not in the film.

“I was able to do a lot more of the textural politics that surrounded the personal story and a lot more of the humour,” he said.

Despite having initially abandoned the project at her request, Mr Seidler said he thought the Queen Mother would have been pleased with The King’s Speech. “I’ve been told her daughter quite likes it so I hope she would too.

“She had a wonderful sense of humour so I think she would enjoy it.”