FITZROY   In the drawing room, gentlemen.

INT. KEW. DRAWING ROOM. DAY.

FITZROY   The doctors, Your Majesty.

BAKER   Good afternoon, Your Majesty. And how are we today?
The King says nothing, sulking. Warren examines his head, while Baker reads the bulletin.

WARREN   The blisters have healed up very nicely. Which won’t do at all.
He forces them open again with his fingers. The King screams out. Greville and Papandiek turn away in disgust.

KING   Get off me, you barbarian.
Willis looks reprovingly at the King, who sighs and goes over to the restraining chair, where he allows himself to be gagged and strapped in.

WILLIS   (handing Warren the bulletin) Bulletin.

WARREN   (reading) Much better? Well, I can’t see it.

WILLIS   Do you doubt my word, sir?

WARREN   (screwing up the paper) I’ll write it.

PEPYS   Could we mention the stool this time?

WARREN   (writing) Oh, the stool, the stool. My dear Pepys, the persistent excellence of the stool has been one of this disease’s most tedious features. When will you get it into your head that one can produce a copious, regular and exquisitely turned evacuation every day of the week and still be a stranger to reason?

INT. HOUSE OF COMMONS. DAY.

Close-up on the bulletin. Pitt has it on the Dispatch Box in front of him. The Prince of Wales and Warren sitting smugly in the gallery.

PITT   Mr Speaker. I will not trouble the House with the detailed contents of the latest – and I may say generally optimistic – bulletin, but honourable members would, I am sure, like to know that while His Majesty has had his ups and downs, his health continues … steadily to improve.
Fox is on his feet. The Prince of Wales and Warren are outraged.

WARREN   Barefaced lie!

FOX   Ups and downs? Ups and downs? Mr Speaker, I can – with your permission – quote from a copy of the same bulletin handed to me by Dr Warren. Some of these ‘ups and downs’: His Majesty’s obscenities; his blasphemies; his interminable ramblings …
Uproar.
Suffice it to say that this optimistic bulletin concludes thus: that while His Majesty has had lucid intervals, he remains periodically demented and incapable of rational thought.
In the gallery the Prince of Wales nods in approval.

INT. KEW. DINING ROOM. DAY.

This and the following scene are intercut between Kew and the House of Commons. At Kew preparations are being made to shave the King. As bowls of water and a shaving brush are placed on the table, we see behind him rows of drawings, all dated and pinned to the wall. Papandiek clips the King’s beard before sharpening the razor.