25 Years

Anyone staying awake through this compilation celebrating the Queen's Silver Jubilee deserves a medal. What it is, is 'a highly personal selection picked from an infinite variety of home and world events, all jostling for inclusion', designed to show that 'through good times and bad, and there have been many of both, through tumultuous changes for better and for worse, the monarchy in the person of Queen Elizabeth II has provided continuity and stability'. It starts off seductively enough with the Royal Yacht steaming serenely into Boston while the Yanks go ape trying to get ready in time. But then we're into the Pathé News footage, a barrage of Danvers-Walker, making you shut your eyes and stuff up your ears. The Queen looks and sounds fed up throughout, as well she might; horses, investitures, state visits, all are presented as being dull as hell.