The Queen Part 1: Her Diamond Jubilee & her childhood-contains very cute photos!

On the 6th February 1952 the beloved King George VI passed away in his sleep. He was very ill at the time and was hardly seen in public. Princess Elizabeth as she was known then was on a tour with her husband Prince Phillip in Kenya so had to rush back immediately. Not only did she have to deal with her father's death, but she had to take over the country as Queen, blimey I bet she needed a few bottles of Rescue Remedy and lots of waterproof mascara for that.

So on the 2nd June 1952 dear old Queen Lizzie put on a fancy dress and a sparkly crown to sit on that big chair, (no not the red one on Graham Norton) to officially take over the reins of the country from her father King George VI- is it just me or are they all called George or Henry?? So this year it is her Diamond Jubilee- that's 60 years on the throne if your not that great at Maths. The Queen is still going strong and at 86 is still flying around the world on tours, and meeting and greeting people accompanied by a fabulous hat of course.

Celebrations are already being arranged for the Diamond Jubilee, Gary Barlow is organising a huge concert for 10,000 people to watch and a further 500,000 to watch on big screens to watch, plus its free!! The line up includes Paul McCartney, Elton John, Tom Jones and Cliff Richard- all obvious ones, but don't worry all you younguns that might not fancy seeing Elton John sitting at the piano singing Candle in the Wind, other acts include Ed Sheeran, Jessie J, and JLS. The great band Madness will be there, along with Jools Holland, Lang Lang who is an amazing pianist and Alife Boe, who I'm sure will make Grandma Second Hand Rose swoon and jump on the stage, she can be one hell of a groupie.

The act I'm most excited about and would love to see is the fabulous Dame that is Shirley Bassey. Now you may think that I'm a bit too young to adore her and may start wondering if I'm a 50 year old truck driver from Birmingham, but I love her and her music. I think she is amazing and her life story which I have written about in a previous post here, has been full of tragedy but she has picked herself up time and time again and is still fabulous at 75, plus she had an awesome hair do in her hay day. I'd love to get tickets and if David Bowie is announced to be performing, I will actually hunt down anyone who has any tickets and bribe them with a pair of shoes.

If you are interested in getting a free ticket and you are over 18 you can enter the ballot here. If you are not over 18 and can still get away with bunches you can get someone who is over 18 to enter and then if you get tickets you can be their plus one if you are over 13, although you may have to bribe them with chocolate biscuits.

For the next three weeks there is a programme all about the Queen on Monday night at 9pm on BBC1. You can catch up with the first episode here. Its full of lovely clothes, Andrew Marr and occasional glances of Prince Harry, so enjoy. It explores her life through the decades, her reign and how everyone around the world loves her. The Queen was actually never expected to reign due to her father being the second child of her grandparents George V and Mary of Teck. Due to their first son Edward abdicating the throne for his love Wallis Simpson which I wrote about in my earlier post here. Sorry about all the links, I feel like Ryan Seacrest.

So what do you all know about the Queen? If you are around the age of 25 and younger I presume not a lot. Sadly we don't seem to learn about the woman with the great taste in hats at school. Its all about Henry VIII and his passion for chopping heads off or Queen Elizabeth I and her ginger mane, she did have some amazing dresses though. But don't fear Second Hand Rose is here, over the next few months you will feel like I'm your history teacher, except for the cheesy breath and funny taste in ties.
I will tell you all about her life, her family and why she has so many corgi's. In this post I will speak about her normal-ish childhood, I doubt she sat chewing a rusk watching Peppa Pig all day though.

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on the 6th February 1926 to Prince Albert (George VI) and the lovely Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the amazing Queen Mother). She was their first child and was nicknamed 'Lillibet'. Elizabeth's sister Princess Margaret was born in August 1930.

Elizabeth had a love of horses and dogs, that explains the hundreds of corgi's. In her childhood Elizabeth got to live a normal relaxed happy childhood without the pressures of her one day being Queen, I don't think she was allowed to creep out  of their house and go to a party though.
 Elizabeth and Margaret were educated at home by tutors and studied French, Maths, History and Geography. Well at least they didn't have to put up with school dinners, lucky them.

In 1936 when she was ten years old her granddad King George V sadly died, so her uncle became King Edward VIII but only reined for six months. Her father then became King George VI on the 11th December 1936, now that's one hell of a Christmas present.

Second Hand Rose
XxxX

Let's Fall in Love

Yesterday evening I sat down with my lovely mum and a snoring cat trying to push me off the sofa, to watch a drama looking into the life of the amazing with a capital A,Dame Shirley Bassey. The documentary was called you guessed it,'Shirley' and was a revealing drama into her life. I love drama's like this. It's like an acceptable way to poke into a famous person's life,without getting dirty looks from old ladies, when you are reading a trashy magazine with 'celebs worst bunions' on the front cover.

It started showing Shirley as a child and growing up in a poor household with six other children. Her father was arrested when she was at a young age, so her mother bought her and her mixed race brothers and sisters up single handledly. Shirley left school at fourteen and worked as a pub singer in her hometown Tiger Bay. We see Shirley as a very naive seventeen year old spending her earnings on chips while giving the rest to her mother,desperately wanting to be a singer. Her mother tells her to follow her dreams, so she goes to an audition after only doing a few shows and meets her soon to be manager,Mike Sullivan.The actress that played her Ruth Negga,was absolutely spellbinding.  As soon as he hears her voice,he is bowled over,like I was. Even my cat looked up.Although,my mum was quick to add 'she's not singing that' to the mix. Yes,thank you mother.

Ruth Negga as Dame Shirley

Mike says he will take a chance and take her on,but Shirley has a secret. I didn't know this about her but she had a child,Sharon at the age of sixteen. Shirley had to go through the heartache of deciding whether to follow her dreams of becoming a singer and having her sister Iris,adopt her daughter  or staying in Tiger Bay. Shirley decided to go with Mike and soon she became a star touring around Australia and eating caviar for breakfast and wearing mink coats.That's what her dream was when she was sitting on the stairs in Tiger Bay talking to her mum,to be eating caviar for breakfast.

The film follows the press finding out the truth about Sharon, her marriage and heartache with Kenneth Hume,the birth of her second child and her desperate attempt to play happy families. Shirley was turned down for a role in Oliver! due to being mixed race,despite her amazing success. The film started and ended with her talking to her mum in her dressing room, talking about how she doesn't recognise herself anymore. Over the years you see Shirley go from a naive girl to an extremely beautiful strong,independent women burning her candle at both ends (sorry but I had to include a pun somewhere)-although there are glimpses of the naive Shirley that creep in a lot. I adored the clothes that Shirley was always wearing,with tight fitting dresses that would make even the thinnest person think twice about having another biscuit. I still ended up having a few shortbread though. Ruth Negga did an amazing impersonation of Shirley with her peculiar posturing, that would have chiropractors beating down her door and she did an great job showing that Shirley's amazing array of control and happiness, was sometimes a performance covering lots of pain and vulnerability. The front that Shirley put on all the time had me screaming at the tv, saying just be yourself you silly woman! My cat wasn't too pleased,I woke him up a few times.

I was captivated by the Shirley film and it was a shame it was only seventy minutes long and only showed a glimpse of the amazing women's life. I would recommend any Shirley Bassey fans or anyone really to watch it. In fact I would actually find out where you live,come around your house and force you to put on BBC Iplayer it is that good. For us insomniacs at midnight the BBC put 'Shirley Bassey BBC at the Electric Proms' on and then 'Imagine:Shirley Bassey' an insight into her life and the making of her latest album. I do feel slightly sorry for my family though who have had to endure her songs being on repeat all day and me scarily singing 'Big Spender' at the top of my voice whilst in the bath. Sorry to you as well Shirley, I have probably ruined that song for life now.

Shirley now lives in Monte Carlo and is incredibly private. She has been through inconceivable heartache,with her young daughter Samantha dying at just twenty one and the breakdown of two marriage's. But the lady and she is a lady, has dealt with it all with incredible poise and fenece. Before watching this film I loved her songs, but I didn't know much about Shirley Bassey. Apart from that she was behind one of the biggest hints to men ever known, 'Diamonds Are Forever' with the lyrics 'They are all I need to please me.' If that isn't a big enough hint,then I don't know what is.

If you want to watch 'Shirley' you can find it here:Shirley
You can find Shirley Bassey at the Electric Proms here:Shirley Bassey Electric Proms 2009
You can find the Imagine documentary here:Imagine:Dame Shirley Bassey:The Girl from Tiger Bay

I urge all of you to watch these films or at least listen to Dame Shirley on Youtube and I'm sure like me you will spend the rest of your days in awe of the woman. Obviously no one on this earth can sing the songs as well as Dame Shirley,but here Nan from Catherine Tate singing 'I am What I am' makes a tremendous effort at it. Well, its a lot better then I could do.

Second Hand Rose
XxxX