Film Friday: A Royal Night Out

As VE night approaches, and the nation celebrates victory over Hitler, the two princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, beg their parents to let them go out and enjoy the celebrations.

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As you might expect the evening does not go as planned, and the girls end up in various bars, clubs and pubs, experiencing something of ‘normal’ life. When it comes time to hear the king’s speech, Elizabeth is sitting in a pub, having been ‘rescued’ on a bus by Jack, when she had no money to pay the fare. She is nervous about how well her father will do, and whether folks will appreciate him.

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The girls have many adventures as Elizabeth does her best to keep up with her partying sister, and all the time Jack has no idea that he is with his future queen. Royalty on the loose among the people. Thousands of years before this a king went out in disguise – an incognito God – living amongst his people and experiencing their kind of life. Like the girls here he had many adventures, going to parties and social gatherings, riding buses (or the equivalent) and walking the streets. Like Elizabeth in this pub he opened himself to people, experiencing their various responses to life and God. People did not always behave appropriately around him, but he was willing to risk that, wanting to meet people in their world, with their world-views. As he still does today.

Jesus described himself as bringing life in its fullness – and that got him into trouble. The religious looked down on him for the kind of parties he went to and the way he behaved with people. I struggle to live life to the full if I’m honest, but I continue to be heartened and encouraged by the risk-taking king who holds the key to extraordinary (yet not necessarily easy) life, and is continually nudging me to experience a little more of that.
To end here’s a happy clip of the princesses living it up in a moment of freedom, doing the dance they had hoped all night to do.

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