Episode 2

Overview

Kwame Kwei-Armah visits Australia and New Zealand as he retraces the Queen's 1953 Commonwealth Tour. Australia was the biggest stage of all: the largest, richest, most demanding nation of the Queen's tour. By the end of her gruelling two-month transcontinental charm offensive, she'd have been seen by an estimated 75% of the population. Australia today is known for its growing republican sentiment, but Australians have yet to make the break: did the Queen have a longer-lasting effect back then than we realise? In New Zealand, Kwame discovers how Elizabeth negotiated a critical path between the Maori people and the Government, re-shaping the nation's destiny, and how she also began to discover her own diplomatic strength.