The role of Queen Consort; Samantha Cameron, Ophelia Lovibond, Women's Institute

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

King Charles the Third is our new monarch. At his accession to the throne, his wife Camilla became Queen Consort, and his daughter-in-law Kate is now the Duchess of Cambridge and Cornwall. Royal Editor at the Daily Mail Rebecca English and historian and author Dr Estelle Paranque join Emma Barnett to talk about what this means for the female royals. Emma also speaks to Diana Parkes about her experience of working with the former Duchess of Cornwall on domestic abuse issues - a cause she has expressed a hope of being able to continue supporting as Queen Consort. Samantha Cameron, the chief executive of the clothing company Cefinn, and the wife of the former Prime Minister David Cameron, will be attending Her Majesty's funeral on Monday. She speaks to Emma about her memories of The Queen, including being given a medal by her for running around Balmoral. She also offers an insight into what it will be like for the former Duchess of Cornwall to be the partner of a man who is taking on a huge new role. Ophelia Lovibond is perhaps best known for playing Izzy Gould in the BBC TV mockumentary series W1A. Later this month, you can see her take on the role of Carrie Symonds alongside Kenneth Branagh as Prime Minister Boris Johnson in This England, set during the Covid crisis. But from Wednesday this week you can catch her in the leading role in new series Minx on Paramount Plus. Set in 1970s Los Angeles, Minx centres around Joyce, an earnest young feminist who dreams of producing a magazine by, for and about women but ends up joining forces with a low rent publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women. Olivia joins Emma. The Women's Institute was formed in 1915, designed to bring together women in rural communities and encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. It has evolved over the years and is now the largest voluntary organisation in the UK with more than 212,000 members in over 6,600 groups. The Queen was its longest serving member of 79 years, joining as a young Princess. She was also president of her local WI group at Sandringham in Norfolk - a position she honoured every year. Ann Jones, National Chair of the WI joins Emma.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:05.3	Hello, I'm Emma Barnett and welcome to Woman's R from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.4	Good morning and welcome to the programme. It's good to be back with you during this unique
0:14.8	moment in the country's history. Today the Queen's coffin moves to London from Edinburgh
0:20.6	before the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall tomorrow, where the lying
0:25.2	in state will begin ahead of the funeral on Monday. It is striking that the first three
0:31.0	people in line to see the Queen's coffin in London and pay their respects are women.
0:35.8	We're also told in a new poll that almost half of Britain shed a tear over the death of
0:40.0	her Majesty and women were more likely to have done so. A lot of people are getting
0:45.5	used to the fact that a constant in their lives and the lives around them, the Queen, is
0:50.1	no more and that it is now a man, a king, that is head of state. One of the Queen's most
0:55.4	striking speeches about women and the progress in women's lives came in 2015 at the Centenary
1:01.1	Celebrations for the Women's Institute. As the group's longest serving member, Her Majesty
1:06.6	had this to say.
1:08.5	In the century, since the first WI groups were formed in North Wales and in Sussex, so
1:16.2	much has changed for women in our society. There has been significant economic and social
1:23.9	change since 1915. Women have been granted the vote. British women have climbed Everest
1:33.0	for the first time and the country has elected its first female Prime Minister.
1:39.5	Well, of course, there have now been two more female Prime Ministers, the most recent Prime
1:44.4	Minister Trust, being invited to form her government by Her Majesty, only two days before
1:50.1	the Queen's death. But to this idea of no longer having a female head of state and the
1:55.8	Queen's connection to women and the charting of how women's lives have changed, drawing
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.