The Downton Abbey actor’s performance in Michael Grandage’s production is a gift for all who admire superlative acting, who was Downton’s steadfast Isobel Crawley. It is also a gift for all who admire superlative acting, as Wilton, a dame far less in the spotlight than her colleaguesTwo corgis dash across the stage at the start of Michael Grandage’s sure-footed production of this gently old-fashioned drama and we settle back happily, understanding the milieu instantly.
The year is 1979 and outside the pink damask silk curtains of Clarence House times and politics are a-changing rapidly in a country beset by strikes and race riots. Yet Billy’s proud boast is “I have stopped time for her”, and inside the champagne continues to flow liberally, despite pressure on the Queen Mother to rein in her spending.Guests come and go; Wilton is twinkly joviality wrapped in a light shroud of melancholy.
Yet there is always Billy, fiercely protective of the Queen Mother and all she stands for, on hand to cheer her up. Billy, a gallivanting gay adventurer, brings hook-up Ian back to Clarence House late one night, the ramifications of which move swiftly from humorous to disastrous. The Queen Mother is forced to make a choice and here Wilton demonstrates Elizabeth’s resolution of steel, which borders on cruelty. A Queen and a footman may be firm friends, but there can be no doubting where the real power lies.Barbra Streisand