I've made this it's own section as I thought it was an interesting point about the way the film portrays historical figures.
Characterisation
Most of the characterisation of the Royals (and Tony Blair) comes to us through the dialogue of other characters. Sure, we have the actors and their representations of these characters to thank for the majority of how we view them, but a lot of the background details come to us via the script and the way that the characters talk about each other.
For instance, one of the Prime Minister's advisors explains the motivation behind Prince Charles wanting to push the modern agenda. We're told that Charles is worried the Royals could become "public enemy #1" and that "he's terrified of being shot". This paints Prince Charles as an eccentric figure (entirely in keeping with the way he is often portrayed by the media in reality) but also avoids depicting it directly. In this respect the film gets around false representation of such private and unknowable figures by using inference and implied characterisation. So when Charles shudders at the sound of a car backfiring, we imagine what it means to him by using the verbal references given to us by peripheral characters, but the film doesn't directly say it from Charles' mouth and hence The Queen avoids being cartoonish, unrealistic or tabloidy.
Other examples include the Queen Mother referring to Blair as "That silly Mr. Blair with that Cheshire Cat grin", or the numerous lines spoken by Cherie Blair - such as suggestions that the Queen hated Princess Diana or her referring to the royal family as "a bunch of freeloading, emotionally retarded nutters".
For more examples, see the Annotated Quotations page.
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