The King's Speech

A big congratulations to Colin Firth for winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor recently for The King's Speech. If you haven't seen it yet, I command you to go. Now!

The King's Speech will make an excellent resource for teaching about public speaking, and why good oral skills are important for persuading and positioning an audience. You may, though, have to skip the bits with the swearing!

While we wait for the DVD to come out, here are some resources to use in the meantime:

• The King's Speech trailer
• The King's Speech film official website (some nice pics)
• A recording of the original speech by King George VI (may put students to sleep)

As many a keen-eyed person has noted, the film reunites Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Firth and Ehle  enjoyed sparks both on and off screen during the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice, and are now possibly the most loved Lizzy and Darcy of all time. If you're interested in how the reunion went, this article contains some comments from Colin Firth.