Today is the British monarch’s 90th birthday. She is longest reigning monarch in Great Britain’s history, and the first sovereign to reach the age of 90. I wish her all the happiness one can possibly have with a life as public as her own.
Believe it or not, I do happen to have my own Queen Elizabeth story. A few years back I was working on a TV show for Disney called My Friends Tigger & Pooh. It was a CG (computer generated) series that ran for two seasons on the Disney Channel, and became notorious for eliminating Christopher Robin and replacing him with a little girl named Darby (voiced by a very young Chloë Moretz).
As we were preparing the first season to air, we were told that an aide to Queen Elizabeth had called the head of the Disney Channel to voice an opinion on behalf of the queen. “Queen Elizabeth understands that the new Winnie the Pooh series does not include Christopher Robin. The Queen is not amused.” Apparently Queen Elizabeth had a certain fondness for Pooh Bear because, like the queen, he had also been born in 1926 when his first book was published. Queen Elizabeth and Pooh grew up together.
So, due to that phone call, we included Christopher Robin in just a couple of episodes to appease her royal highness.
Silly old queen.