THE QUEEN takes audiences behind the scenes of one of the most shocking public events of recent times - providing an illuminating, deeply affecting and dramatic glimpse into what happens in the corridors of power when tragedy strikes. The setting for this fictional account of real events is no less than the private chambers of the Royal Family and the British government in the wake of the sudden death of Princess Diana in August of 1997. In the immediate aftermath of the Princess' passing, the tightly contained, tradition-bound world of the Queen of England (HELEN MIRREN) is abrubtly brought into confict with the slick modernity of the country's brand new, image-conscious Prime Minister, Tony Blair (MICHAEL SHEEN). The result is an intimate, yet thematically epic, battle between private and public, responsibility and emotion, custom and action - as a grieving nation waits to see what its leaders will do.