“Unfinished Business” quotes from Criminal Minds

King George VI: We all suspected it.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: These papers must never see the light of day, Winston. Ever.

Winston Churchill: Publication could do grave harm to the national interest.

King George VI: The gravest. What is written here brings the greatest shame upon this family. Our people would, rightfully, never forgive us.

Queen Elizabeth II: [to the Duke of Windsor after learning he plotted with the Nazis to undermine both her father and Britain during the Second World War] We all closed our eyes, our ears to what was being said about you. We all dismissed it as fabrications, as cruel chatter, in light of your decision to give up the throne. But when the truth finally came out ... The truth! It makes a mockery of even the central tenets of Christianity. There is no possibility of my forgiving you. The question is: how on earth can you forgive yourself?

Tommy Lascelles: I hope Your Majesty understands the context in which this discreet reconnaissance work was done, and that it in no way represents a prurient, moralistic or censorious position. Mr. Armstrong-Jones is perfectly entitled, in his private life, to make those choices he wishes. Indeed to live as he wishes. However, as with a great many artists, the conventional approach to life doesn't appear to fit. It seems that what makes his work notable is his willingness, his appetite to break barriers and conventions as he pushes his medium, uh photography, I believe, to its boundaries. And, um, as in art, so, it would appear in life.

Queen Elizabeth: I see.

Tommy Lascelles: The narrow path, the straight, Christian path is not to his taste. [long pause] To the best of our knowledge, he is currently conducting no fewer than three other intimate relationships.

Queen Elizabeth: What? With whom?

Tommy Lascelles: [handing over photographs] With a Miss Jacqui Chan, an oriental dancer and singer, with Gina Ward, an actress, and with Miss Robin Banks, his former assistant.

Michael Adeane: These, we should add...

Tommy Lascelles: ...are just the natural ones.

Jackie Kennedy: I've often wondered how someone who hates attention as much as I do ended up in a goldfish bowl like the White House. But I realize there's actually a perverse logic to a cripplingly shy person ending up in this position.

Queen Elizabeth II: Oh, you'll have to explain that one to me.

Jackie Kennedy: Well, a shy person will seek out someone strong to protect them.

Queen Elizabeth II: Yes. I'm with you so far.

Jackie Kennedy: And a strong character is often one who enjoys public life. Who thrives on it. And then, before you know it, the very person you've turned to in order to protect you is the very reason you are exposed. Jack's idea of heaven is a crowd. Campaigning, fund-raising, speechmaking. That's when he comes alive. He'd far sooner speak to ten thousand people under the glare of spotlights than be alone with me.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: Didn't you say how unhappy she was? In the marriage?

Queen Elizabeth II: Yes. That's the thing about unhappiness. All it takes is for something worse to come along and you realize it was actually happiness after all.

Louis Mountbatten: You may hate him now, but one day, God willing, you will be a father yourself. And you will fall short, as all parents do. And be hated. And you will know what it is to pray for the forgiveness from your own son.

Harold Macmillan: I hope you haven't come to dissuade me. The situation is quite hopeless.

Queen Elizabeth II: That's not my understanding. The doctors told me that the tumor was benign.

Harold Macmillan: It was the size of an orange.

Queen Elizabeth II: While that causes inconvenience and discomfort that largely...

Harold Macmillan: I'll still require a long period of convalescence, not be in a fit state to undertake the arduous duties as PM. I'm afraid my decision to resign is final.

Queen Elizabeth II: That's very disappointing, especially after our conversation.

Harold Macmillan: As to who should succeed me, as sovereign you have the prerogative to consult, but there's only one man, in my opinion. The Earl of Home.

Queen Elizabeth II: Alec? Yes, we're all very fond of him, but...

Harold Macmillan: He's the right man. A decade younger than me, steel painted as wood, and the old governing class at its best. I would call Alec to the palace right away, ma'am. No sense dragging things out.

Queen Elizabeth II: Is that an order, Mr. Macmillan?

Harold Macmillan: It would be my advice, ma'am.

Queen Elizabeth II: Do you know, I've been Queen barely ten years. And in that time, I've had three Prime Ministers. All of them ambitious men. Clever men. Brilliant men. Not one has lasted the course. They've either been too old, too ill, or too weak. A confederacy of elected quitters.

Prince Philip: There are two types of people in life. Those whom one imagines to be trustworthy and reliable, who turn out to be treacherous and weak, like Mr. Macmillan. And those who appear to be complex and difficult, who turn out to be more dependable than anyone thought. Like me. I know exactly what my job is. Your father made it perfectly clear. You are my job. You are the essence of my duty. So here I am. Liegeman of life and limb. In, not out.

Michael Adeane: Everyone at the Post Office is delighted with the new profile, ma'am, which they feel to be an elegant reflection of Her Majesty's transition from young woman to...

Queen Elizabeth II: Old bat?

Michael Adeane: Mother of four and settled sovereign. The Postmaster General himself commented that the two images, the young and the slightly older Queen, are almost identical.

Queen Elizabeth II: Postmaster Bevins is very kind. He's also a barefaced liar.

Michael Adeane: Just the tiniest changes, in the hair...

Queen Elizabeth II: A great many changes. But there we are. Age is rarely kind to anyone. Nothing one can do about it. One just has to get on with it.

Queen Elizabeth II: You were my guardian angel. The roof over my head. The spine in my back. The iron in my heart. You were the compass that steered and directed me. Not just me, all of us. Where would Great Britain be without its greatest Briton? God bless you, Winston.

Harold Wilson: Uh, well, I suppose I should kick things off with an apology.

Queen Elizabeth II: Whatever for?

Harold Wilson: Well, winning. I'm aware of your affection for my predecessor and doubtless you'd have preferred him to have continued in office.

Queen Elizabeth II: It is my duty not to have preferences.

Harold Wilson: Well, we all do though, don't we? We can't help it. It's human nature. And I can see the attraction of someone like "Posh Alec." Someone you can chat with about the racing, someone well-bred, highborn, who knows how to hold his cutlery, as opposed to a ruffian like me.

Queen Elizabeth II: Hardly.

Harold Wilson: Still, the country said otherwise. They'd had enough of the mess those Conservatives left us and the havoc they wreaked. Soaring land and house prices, race riots, sex scandals, large-scale unemployment, rejection from the EEC, and an annual trade deficit of £800 million.

Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, it's an unenviable legacy. What will you do about the balance of payments? Will you devalue?

Harold Wilson: No, m-ma'am. A Labour government devalued the pound once before, with little success, and my party cannot risk being seen as the party of devaluation. It is also a matter of national pride. This is still a great country, and the pound is a powerful symbol.

Harold Wilson: Can't have been an easy one to get used to.

Queen Elizabeth II: What's that?

Harold Wilson: Well, you being part of that symbol. Your face on every coin and banknote.

Queen Elizabeth II: No. I remember seeing my father's face on a shilling for the first time and thinking how odd it looked. At the same time realizing I would probably, one day, have to look at my own face. But one never knows what destiny has in store for one.

Queen Elizabeth II: I'm not sure what I was expecting. Each of his predecessors, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, even Alec, each in their own way was formidable. Statesmanlike. But Wilson is neither old nor young, tall nor short, loud nor quiet, warm nor cold. He seems to have come from nowhere and is entirely unremarkable.

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester: Best qualities in a spy.

Queen Elizabeth II: What did you say?

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester: Aren't those the best qualities in a spy? Well, to be forgettable, unremarkable. Not stand out in a crowd. We used to say that about Henry, didn't we, dear?

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester: What?

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester: That you would have made the perfect spy, because no one could remember having met you.

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester: I ... I'd say that was marginally better than everyone having nightmares having met you!

Prince Philip: The very least you could do is quietly crawl away, not force us to live with you under the same roof. But doing the, the right thing, the decent thing, the honorable thing ... You wouldn't have the faintest idea what that was. Well, I am going to be watching you, and one wrong step, you treacherous snake, and I will expose you and have you thrown in jail.

Anthony Blunt: I would think long and hard before I did that, sir. You would do well to reflect on your own position.

Prince Philip: What are you talking about?

Anthony Blunt: You may remember, at the height of the Profumo sex scandal, there was talk of a member of the Royal Family being involved. No one knew who, but it was rumored to be a senior member of the Royal Family. Very senior. When the osteopath at the center of the scandal, Stephen Ward, took his own life, there was speculation that a number of portraits of that senior member of the Royal Family had been found in his apartment. Naturally, a great many people were keen to get their hands on those portraits. Mercifully, someone respected and well connected in the art world was able to make sure they didn't fall into the wrong hands.

Prince Philip: I never saw Stephen Ward in any capacity other than as an osteopath. If he made drawings of me, he would have done so from photographs.

Anthony Blunt: We all tell ourselves all sorts of things to make sense of the past. So much so that our fabrications, if we tell them to ourselves often enough, become the truth. In our minds and everyone else's. And believe you me, I'm happy for your truth to be the truth. It would be better for everyone. Imagine how awful it would be, for example, if those pictures saw the light of day now. The storm it would create. And for what? It's the past.

President Lyndon B. Johnson: Screw the Brits! I don't like 'em. I never liked 'em. If they're not looking down at you through their noses, they're holding their hands out like beggars. And I don't give a crap about any special relationship. Harold Wilson wants my help, he should have thought about that when he refused to support me over Vietnam. You can't screw a man in the ass and then expect him to buy you flowers!

Princess Margaret: [after telling Lyndon Johnson she was "distinctly underwhelmed" by John F. Kennedy] I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong? I do know these days one's not allowed to think anything other than what a great statesman Kennedy was.

First Lady Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson: Say nothing, Lyndon.

Princess Margaret: Of course he'll say nothing. He was his loyal deputy. Which I think I can understand better than most. The frustrations and resentments that can build up from a life as a number two. The support act. Even of someone you adore. You spent three years as Vice President. I've spent my whole life as Vice Queen.