Abstract

This winter, my wife Laura went to see The King’s Speech with her friend, Jen, a speech therapist who works in a general practice with a wide variety of patients. The movie stars Colin Firth as King George VI of England, who has a speech impediment but has to give a very important radio broadcast — the one that tells Britons they are going to war with Germany. The King is helped by Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. More than once during the movie, as the doctor helped the king, Jen leaned over to Laura. “This,” she whispered, “is the same thing I do today.”