A scene from “Unfinished Business”

Queen Elizabeth II: Margaret does suffer more than anyone else by not having a more meaningful role. Suffers in health and happiness. She's overlooked. And in terms of ability and character and intelligence and flair, she does not deserve to be overlooked. So, why shouldn't we consider expanding the role, sharing the job a bit more?

Prince Philip: There are two answers to that question. Neither makes for pretty listening. Yes, the system is unequal and unjust and cruel. Primogeniture divides and destroys families. The system stinks. But in its cruelty and injustice, it reflects something else, which is harsh and brutal, which no one is suggesting we rearrange. Life. We all desire equality, but here's the thing. We were not born equal.

Queen Elizabeth II: And what's the second?

Prince Philip: Do you remember I told you once I got drunk with that god-awful monster Tommy Lascelles? Well, that night he shared with me his theory about the House of Windsor. I've never repeated it to anyone since.

Queen Elizabeth II: Go on.

Prince Philip: He asked me to imagine a mythological creature. A Reichsadler. A polycephalus, a two-headed eagle. For the purposes of this conversation, I want you to think of it as representing us. This family. Your family. There have always been the dazzling Windsors and the dull ones. Your father...

Queen Elizabeth II: A saint.

Prince Philip: But dull. Sorry. Your grandfather, too.

Queen Elizabeth II: George V?

Prince Philip: Deadly dull. At the height of the Great War, when the, the Tsar and the Kaiser and the Emperor of Austria were dazzling the world, where was he? He was sticking stamps in his album. His wife...

Queen Elizabeth II: Queen Mary, wonderful.

Prince Philip: Ditchwater. And so it goes, through George V to Queen Victoria and back. An uninterrupted line of stolid, turgid dreariness.

Queen Elizabeth II: Culminating in me?

Prince Philip: Well, yes, but alongside that dull, dutiful, reliable, heroic strain runs another. The dazzling, the brilliant, the individualistic, and the dangerous. And so, for every Victoria, you get an Edward VII. For every George V, you get a Prince Eddy. For every George VI, you get an Edward VIII. For every Lilibet, you get a Margaret. And she may have had a success in Washington, but let's not delude ourselves that serious diplomacy can be achieved through drinking and dancing. Let Margaret have the glory, but let's not rewrite the constitutional rulebook because she got lucky once.

Queen Elizabeth II: And where does that leave my relationship with her?

Prince Philip: Unchanged. You're the Queen. And she's your dangerous baby sister.