''A Royal Night Out'' is a 2015 British romantic

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Julian Jarrold Julian Edward Peter Jarrold (born 15 May 1960 in Norwich, Norfolk) is a BAFTA Award-nominated English film and television director. Early life Jarrold was born into the family which founded Jarrolds of Norwich in 1823. He was educated at Gresha ...

and written by Trevor de Silva and

Kevin Hood Kevin Hood is a playwright and screenwriter who is perhaps best known for contributing scripts to the BBC television series ''Grange Hill'' and the 2007 film ''Becoming Jane''. Career A successful playwright from 1987 to 1998, Hood wrote the plays ...

. The film stars

Sarah Gadon Sarah Lynn Gadon (born April 4, 1987) is a Canadian actress. She began her acting career guest-starring in a number of television series, such as '' Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' (1999), '' Mutant X'' (2002), and ''Dark Oracle'' (2004). She also ...

as the teenaged Princess Elizabeth, who, with younger sister

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...

(

Bel Powley Isobel Dorothy Powley (born 7 March 1992) is an English actress. Powley was born and raised in London, where she was educated at Holland Park School. She began acting as a teenager on television, starring on the CBBC action television series ''M ...

), ventures out of Buckingham Palace to enjoy the

VE Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...

celebrations.

Plot

– 8 May 1945 – as

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

celebrates the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in Europe and peace being declared across the continent, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are allowed to join the celebrations, against the Queen's wishes. The King, impressed by Elizabeth's pleading, asks her to report back on the people's feelings towards him and his midnight speech on the radio. Each girl, incognito, is chaperoned by an army officer with an itinerary to be back at Buckingham Palace by 1 a.m. Soon realising the Queen's planned itinerary does not fulfil their expectations of fun and meeting the ordinary people, Margaret is the first to slip away from her escort, followed by Elizabeth. The princesses are separated on two different buses. Margaret is befriended by a naval officer seeking to take advantage of what he believes is just an ordinary girl, and Elizabeth by an airman who is

absent without leave Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which ...

. Margaret is led by her naval officer into a world of nightclubs, gambling, spiked drinks and brothels. Elizabeth and her airman have their own adventures trying to catch up with Margaret, which take them far beyond the 1 a.m. deadline into the early hours of the following morning.

Cast

The character of Pryce is credited as a Lieutenant, but is shown as, and referred to as, Captain Pryce throughout the film.

Relation to actual events

The two officer escorts and the airman in the screenplay were fictional creations. In reality, the princesses in an organised group of 16 went out at 10 p.m. to mingle with revellers, and returned to Buckingham Palace at 1 a.m.

Release

''A Royal Night Out'' was released in the United Kingdom on 8 May 2015 and on DVD on 7 September 2015. The film was released in the United States on 4 December 2015 and released on DVD on 3 May 2016.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has a 74% approval rate of critics based on 73 reviews, with an average quality rating of 5.8/10. The site's consensus states: "Undeniably slight yet thoroughly charming, ''A Royal Night Out'' uses a fascinating historical footnote as a springboard into a fun dramedy diversion."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reports a 58 out of 100 rating, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Night Out 2015 films 2010s historical comedy-drama films 2015 romantic comedy-drama films 2010s historical romance films British historical comedy-drama films British romantic comedy-drama films Cultural depictions of George VI Films about Elizabeth II Films directed by Julian Jarrold Films set in 1945 Films set in England Films set in London Films shot in Brussels Films shot in Derbyshire Films shot in Yorkshire British historical romance films Biographical films about British royalty Lionsgate films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films