Please do enjoy the nursery. There is an easel in the corner that's bigger than a chair. My kids would not even know what to do with that much space -- well, yes, they would. It would become every sports arena imaginable, and possibly a golf course besides.
Anthony Eden and his mustache are feeling very smug about their weeks of recuperation in Jamaica. But I'd rather talk about Mrs. Eden's delicious traveling outfit. She looks like the detective who inspired Princess Anne to GET TO WORK, but wearing a small cake on her head to try and distract everyone from her true purpose.
I couldn't resist this shot because of how DELIGHTED the actor playing Charles looks. Anne is just like, "If I close my eyes, I will HEAR the clues."
In the recap, you'll see the wonderment on Elizabeth's face when she watches Philip in Antarctica; here, it's just pure laughter and joy, something we hardly ever get. That blue cardi and the lighter blue shirt, though, are forever.
Ice tennis! They make Antarctica look like my next winter vacation destination.
Liz always is one for sensible traveling clothes. I love the color of this coat, and that she almost always has a pin of some kind.
I think this is about as much of a smile as Tommy Lascelles can crack.
THAT'S more like it, Tombo.
This scene was amazing and I didn't notice this part until I went back and got these grabs. We're on Tommy saying he doesn't give a fig about saving Terrible Mike and Eileen Parker's actual happiness, then we cut to Adeane listening, and as he does his hand drifts up to start stroking his mustache and he quickly catches himself and drops his hand. Why?
Because TOMMY is stroking his mustache and I think Adeane realized there was a STRONG power of suggestion. That, or that they were both doing near-literal mustache-twirling. But it was hilarious and subtle on the part of the actor playing Adeane. I highly recommend checking it out if you missed it (I did).
Beautiful. The Royal Yacht stuff was all so very well done. The dollars spent on this lush show are leaking off the screen. (I wish they WERE actually leaking off it.)
This is Liz writing a dreamy letter to Philip, and allowing herself a tee-hee moment of flirtation. That yellow dress is one of the show's favorites to put on her, and it's smart here because she is in the springy blush of renewed lust.
The Mustache of Harold Macmillan, the new PM, felt vital to document in an episode in which Philp bitches about The Moustaches.
The women on this show are VERY lipstick-savvy. Eileen is wearing absolutely the right color for that turtleneck. I also love that she has a slightly ugly, run-of-the-mill winter coat that doesn't match her clothes, because guess what, most normal people have run-of-the-mill winter coats that don't match their outfits. It's basically a nice moment of not over-costuming her.
Mrs. Eden comes through AGAIN. She had NO LINES but she said so much.
You can also tell this show spends a lot of cash because they have sets lying around for casual use; we've seen a passing shot indicating Tommy Lascelles has an entire battlefield re-enactment in his sudy, and Adeane here at Sandringham has a snooker table, which is bigger than an American pool table and not cheap to obtain or move. (I wanted one for my birthday one year. It took my parents way longer than it should have to make me understand that you need a LOT OF SPACE around all four sides, and that therefore it was not gonna happen.)
Back to Liz's traveling outfit, which now includes a muddy brown dress that will soon match her mood.
This is maybe my least-favorite suit on her. In this episode, she wars it when she's REALLY depressed, so maybe she's hoping it will swallow her whole.
I noted in the recap, but cannot help repeating, that Terrible Mike often bursts into rooms looking like Intern George in a Coen Brothers movie.
Beard.
And Beard. It's Beard Against Beard, a new quiz show on BBC 1.
Eileen's outfit on this occasion is pleasantly normal.
For this scene, in which Elizabeth is eventually regaled with headlines about the world's interest in her marital drama, Liz is dressed in light colors as if she's the wronged innocent. Which is a nice change from how the show actually does often portray her, which is: angry and really to blame for so much of this because she dared to be born when, and to whom, she was.
And Phil gets dark in his best Brooding Sweatervest.
His beard looks so dumb in this shot that I simply had to include it.
This is the heart-pocked tie that he wore -- or, per the show, was instructed to don -- to meet Elizabeth in Lisbon. I have no trouble imagining the real Philip loathed it unreservedly.
Interestingly, when Phil boards her plane, Matt Smith plays it like Philip is hopeful. He wears this expression, with a glimmer of optimism that maybe she'll turn around and everything will be fine, and it seems sincere.
Instead, Liz turns around LOOKING AWESOME and also totally icy. Now THAT is how you greet your jerkwad, maybe-cheating husband after five months apart.
The look on her face when he leans in to kiss her, and she realizes she needs to duck it, is tremendous.
This is from the scene we first saw atop the premiere, so you've already seen this outfit, but again: I always love a good pin. I'm not sure where her lipstick went, though, given that we know they didn't smooch it all off her face.
I always love showing the tiaras. This one is, I believe, modeled after the Queen Alexandra Kokoshnik tiara, which passed to Elizabeth vis Mary of Teck. It is TALL and thus a delightfully intimidating piece to wear when giving your cranky dilface of a husband the title he foot-stompingly demanded to assuage his tragic male ego. And the necklace is reminiscent of the King Khalid piece.
She looks so regal, and he looks like that slightly sweaty guy from your dorm who is always about 20 percent inebriated at any given moment and who insists on wearing full regalia every time he wins a keg stand contest.
It's always nice for Margaret and the Queen Mum to get in on the hot costuming action. Particularly the QM. Fun day at work, to wear a tiara and glare at Philip all day. I'm being sincere.
While Philip has his portrait taken, the photographer is oozing some poetry that's clearly about a king ruling the land, and I don't think it's lost on Philip that this does not apply to him.
Someone should really talk to Elizabeth about how many sweaters she owns. And NONE of them striped.
And then these two sad old bastards sit around lamenting the end of their roller-coaster of speeding around town in convertibles, holding court at their Thursday Club, probably playing grab-ass with some waitresses, and generally getting away with not caring about a damn thing. Including their wives. BOO HOO, MAN-CHILDREN.