ON CORONATION Day – June 2, 1953 – a small family gathered around a tiny black-and-white television set in their council house on Ardwick Road, Liverpool.
There were four in the family — dad Jim, mum Mary and their two children, Paul, almost 11, and nine-year-old Michael.
Capturing Queen Elizabeth II — on canvas, on screen big or small — was ultimately an impossible task, like trying to bottle history
Her face, from the 25-year-old Queen to her venerable old age — was instantly recognisable to billions
As a baby, her face beamed from magazines all over the globe
The boys had both received their souvenirs of the special day — commemorative mugs and spoons.
Paul had won a book as a Coronation essay prize.
Like the rest of the nation, the family watched as the young Queen Elizabeth was crowned and became the very first star of the TV age.
Fifty-nine years later, that small boy from Ardwick Road, Liverpool, was Sir Paul McCartney, about to turn 70 years old as he headlined the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert.
And Queen Elizabeth was the most famous person on the planet — possibly the only person who was more famous than The Beatles.
By every criterion of celebrity, she was the biggest star in the world. Her face — from her earliest years to her nineties and at every age in between, from the 25-year-old Queen to her venerable old age — was instantly recognisable to billions.
Her face appeared on an estimated 500billion stamps.
Her face was captured — from life as well as imagination — by artists from Cecil Beaton and Lucien Freud to Andy Warhol.
There were countless attempts to portray her on screen.
Helen Mirren won gongs for The Queen, playing Her Majesty when her family and a nation were negotiating the fallout from Princess Diana’s death.
Freya Wilson played Elizabeth as a young child in The King’s Speech.
In the Netflix series The Crown, Claire Foy was the young Queen Elizabeth, Olivia Colman the middle-aged monarch and Imelda Staunton the older sovereign.
Her Majesty was possibly the only person who was more famous than The Beatles
Anyone who became famous enough eventually entered her orbit
History came to have tea with her
But even the best of them — Mirren’s Academy Award-winning movie turn and Foy as the young monarch — were mere snapshots, classy caricatures of a moment in time.
Because capturing Queen Elizabeth II — on canvas, on screen big or small — was ultimately an impossible task, like trying to bottle history.
‘Immovable sense of duty’
Queen Elizabeth II was famous for so long. As a baby, her face beamed from magazines all over the globe.
You have to be well over the age of 70 to remember a time when she was not on the throne.
She was the longest-living and longest-reigning monarch in British history and one of the longest-serving heads of state in the history of the world.
Anyone who became famous enough eventually entered her orbit. When Bobby Moore collected England’s only World Cup in 1966, she handed him the trophy. She gave The Beatles their MBEs. She knighted Captain Tom Moore.
History came to have tea with her.
The 14 Prime Ministers who served her and came to chat once a week read like a litany of our nation’s story: Winston Churchill. Anthony Eden. Harold Macmillan. Alec Douglas-Home. Harold Wilson. Edward Heath. James Callaghan. Margaret Thatcher. John Major. Tony Blair. Gordon Brown. David Cameron. Theresa May. Boris Johnson.
Such was her immovable sense of duty that she was there to invite Liz Truss, her 15th and final PM, to form a government just two days before her death.
Her Majesty was respected in every corner of the planet. She forged the transformation of the former British Empire — and its 2.5billion people — to the Commonwealth of Nations.
In the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, dozens of nations in Africa and Asia and the Caribbean gained independence from Britain.
But at her passing, she was still the head of the Commonwealth, 56 member states that were mostly former imperial territories — their only connection language, history and an abiding love for their Queen.
The world’s most powerful men were dazzled in her presence. She met every US president — Lyndon B Johnson aside — from Harry Truman in 1951 to Joe Biden in 2021.
Ronald Reagan went horse riding with her. She shared a correspondence with John F Kennedy up until his assassination.
With her handbags and her hats, Her Majesty always seemed to carry the same accessories as your mother or grandmother.
But that ordinary demeanour was misleading, and an integral part of her stardom.
She was respected in every corner of the planet
The world’s most powerful men were dazzled in her presence
Queen Elizabeth was the most famous person on the planet
Her ordinary demeanour was misleading, and an integral part of her stardom
