This year's is the Queen's most painful message yet - and every picture you can see in the background tells the story of why

[mongo]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7823301/This-years-Queens-painful-message-picture-tells-story-why.html

For many millions, it is as integral a part of Christmas Day as roast turkey,
mince pies and exchanging presents.

Tomorrow, families all over Britain will gather around the television at 3pm to
watch the Queen's annual message.

It is always one of the most watched programmes on TV and this year, with Her
Majesty's acknowledgement of the 'bumpy' path the Royal Family and the nation
has experienced in the past 12 months, it is likely to be more compelling
viewing than ever.

After so many broadcasts the Queen, of course, is comfortably familiar in front
of the camera, but even so this year she will quite possibly deliver her most
difficult, her most painful and perhaps, from the monarchy's point of view, her
most crucial Christmas message ever

Viewers will search for obvious clues in her words about the family crises that
have rocked the royals, from Prince Andrew's catastrophic television interview
about his friendship with a convicted sex offender to Prince Harry and Meghan's
struggles with living in the royal spotlight, and ongoing worries over Prince
Philip, who has spent the past four days in hospital.

Speaking about the difficulties of the last year in which Andrew had to step
back from public duties, she will acknowledge the importance of 'small steps' in
overcoming problems.

Her words will be addressed primarily to the country as a whole following a year
of political turmoil over the election and Brexit, but royal sources say they
will also speak to the problems in her own family.

The comments – albeit thinly-veiled – are nonetheless her first public reference
to the personal turmoil endured by her family this year.

As well as Andrew, Philip faced a police investigation over a car crash which
injured two women, while Prince Harry admitted to tensions in his relationship
with his older brother William. Inevitably they will be compared with another
difficult domestic year for the Queen – 1992, which she dubbed her 'annus
horribilis'.

That was the year of three royal marriage break-ups – including Charles and
Diana – as well as the Windsor Castle fire and the public row over who would pay
for the repairs.

But on that occasion she used another speech marking her 40th anniversary as
monarch to speak out. Her Christmas message, however, referred only to the fact
that her family had 'lived through some difficult days this year'.

With her references to a path which 'is not always smooth, and may at times this
year have felt quite bumpy, but small steps can make a world of difference',
observers believe she may also have been drawing on a verse quoted by her father
for his Christmas message exactly 80 years ago.

In December 1939 Britain had just embarked on a world war and no one knew the
outcome. King George VI quoted Minnie Louise Haskins poem God Knows, which tells
of a man who wishes to 'tread safely into the unknown'.

It was also used at the Queen Mother's funeral.

But every year the Queen also goes beyond her mere address to convey a broader
message through the careful curating of family photographs strategically placed
on the desk at her side or on tables close at hand.