(The film opens with Prince Albert, Duke of York, known to his wife and family as "Bertie" (played by Colin Firth), the second son of King George V, speaking at the close of the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, with his wife ElizabethHelena Bonham Carter) by his side. His stammering speech visibly unsettles the thousands of listeners in the audience. The prince tries several unsuccessful treatments and gives up, until the Duchess persuades him to see Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian speech therapist in London. In their first session, Logue requests that they address each other by their Christian names, a breach of royal etiquette. He convinces Bertie to read Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy, while listening to the overture from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro on headphones. Logue records Bertie's reading on a gramophone record, but convinced that he has stammered throughout, Bertie leaves in a huff. Logue offers him the recording as a keepsake.
