The Diary of The King's Speech

As you all know, I love historical tidbits. Sometimes just a simple, random historical fact can set my imagination mill running at full speed. Some of my best story ideas come from these. Today, I thought I'd share the back story of a recent historical film: The King's Speech.

This film came out in 2010, but the story was only discovered a year or two before that. No one knew this inspiring story about King George VI. I watched a behind-the-scenes documentary about the film where they explained that the speech therapist (played in the film by the amazing Geoffrey Rush) that helped King George (played by Colin Firth) kept a detailed diary. That diary was in a dusty attic for fifty years. eventually, the therapist's great-great grandson found it and turned it over the man who ended up making the film. As soon as the film maker read the story, he pounced on it, snatching up the movie rights. He knew that it was such an inspiring story--one that no one knew about--that it was only a matter of time before it went to the big screen.

In essence, he called dibbs.

Two years later, voila! An Oscar-award winning film that was seen by hundreds. Isn't it geeky fascinating to think about the fact that no one knew this story even five years ago? That it was sitting in a dusty attic between the pages of a seldom-read book just waiting to be discovered?

Remember, knowledge of our past is our inheritance. What we do with that knowledge will shape our destinies.

What do you think of The King's Speech? Did you see the film?

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