Script Analysis: “Spencer” — Part 1: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

A week-long analysis of the British royalty biopic drama script and movie. Download. Read. Discuss.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown.

Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay:

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire.

For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

• We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.
• By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.
• A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

This week: Spencer (2021). Download the screenplay here.

Written by Steven Knight.

Plot summary: Diana Spencer, struggling with mental-health problems during her Christmas holidays with the Royal Family at their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, decides to end her decade-long marriage to Prince Charles.

Spencer
Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
By Caroline Gray
GoIntoTheStory.com

P. 1–2 It’s Christmas Eve and the kitchen at Sandringham is empty. Members of the military arrive and inspect the kitchens to ensure they’re empty. A fleet of military vehicles run over a pheasant on the road as they pull up to the house. At the same time, a woman is driving a small car on the country roads. As the soldiers unload the boxes of food at the house, we discover the woman in the car is Diana and she’s lost.

P. 2–3 The kitchen staff arrive and check the labels on the boxes of food. We meet the head chef Darren MacGrady and he welcomes the staff as if they were also a military brigade as the soldiers depart. The royals begin to arrive at Sandringham for the holiday, beginning with Princess Anne and Mark Phillips.

P. 3–5 Diana is still lost on the country roads and stops at a petrol station and roadhouse cafe. She is anxious but forces herself to go inside. The patrons and staff are shocked to see her, and Diana confesses she is lost and wants to know where she is. A 6-year-old boy gives her a chip and tells her it’s better to dip it in ketchup. Diana dips the chip and eats it.

P. 5–6 Royals continue to arrive at Sandringham including Diana’s ten-year-old son William. We meet Major Gregory, the Queen Mother’s Equerry, who weighs Princess Anne on the ancient traditional scales in the entrance hall. Anne does a mocking impression of Diana at the scales {“Half of my weight is jewelry anyway”], but Major Gregory is impassive and just informs her Diana has not arrived yet. She is late.

P. 7–10 Still driving on country lanes, Diana stops and shouts at a tractor driver for help, but he ignores her. She talks out loud to herself wondering where the royal family put just driving around on her list of offenses. Darren drives up and asks what she’s doing out there and driving without security. Diana notices a scarecrow wearing her father’s old coat in a field. Even though Darren informs her she’ll be late for sandwiches in fifteen minutes and should leave, Diana goes into the field and takes her father’s coat off the scarecrow. Diana agrees to follow Darren to Sandringham.

P. 10–16 William watches the Queen arrive and then Diana drive up following Darren. The Queen exits the car with her corgis and Phillip and enters Sandringham, then Diana finally enters. In the entrance hall, Diana tries to beg off the royal tradition of getting weighed on ancient scales at the start of the holiday, but Major Gregory insists she be weighed. He says the Queen insists upon it. Diana protests [“I’m half jewelry anyway”] and then interrogates Major Gregory, whom she has never seen before. After Diana is weighed, William arrives to greet her, and Diana tells him her prepared lie about why she is late [“A tractor broke down.”] Discussion of how the bedrooms are always cold, the royals won’t turn the heating up. Her younger son Harry arrives, complaining he is cold, wearing a huge old coat. A footman tells them it’s time for sandwiches, but Diana sends the children and does not go herself. Continuing her pattern of lateness.

P. 16–18 Diana goes to the bathroom and imagines she sees someone with a heavier body than her real body in the mirror. Diana talks to herself in the bathroom, steeling herself for the next three days of the holiday. Diana’s dresser Maggie arrives with racks of clothes she’s picked out for Diana, each with a label for when to wear it. Diana is happy to see her and gives her the scarecrow’s coat for Maggie to mend [“Spencer ancient history.”] Diana stares out the window and remembers when she was 12 years old playing in the scarecrow field with her brother Charles and other children. The other children are firing guns at the scarecrow, named Bertie, but Diana begs them to stop. They run off, but she lingers with Bertie. Diana is always last.

P. 19–21 Diana reminisces about her childhood and the scarecrow in the nursery with William. William asks why they must follow royal holiday traditions and she tells him they have no choice, there is no future at Sandringham, and the past and the present are the same thing. William asks to go to Diana’s childhood home, but Diana says she’s been told it’s boarded up and dangerous. A footman comes for them, and Diana sends William, she’ll stay behind and be late. William is concerned.

P. 21–24 Maids are cleaning up after the royals have opened their presents on Christmas Eve. Diana enters and finds the pearls Charles had gifted her. She tells the maids it’s the same necklace Charles gave “her” [his mistress]. Diana offers to give them to one of the maids, who demurs. Diana catches herself starting to open up about her troubles to the maids before stopping.

P. 24–32 The scarecrow’s jacket has been repaired and now hangs in Diana’s bedroom like a father she can talk to. Diana examines the rack of clothes she is supposed to wear. She discovers the book “The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn” has been left on her bedside table. Diana talks out loud to her father’s jacket about the fate of Anne Boleyn, she was killed so the king could be with another woman he wanted to be queen. Diana reads the labels denoting when each outfit on the rack is to be worn. Maggie arrives to dress her and Diana refuses to wear the assigned dress, but eventually acquiesces to the dress Maggie has picked out. Maggie warns that the royals are closely watching Diana. Maggie reminds Diana how she wanted to change things in the royal family. Maggie tells her that the staff and the public are on Diana’s side.

P. 32–35 The kitchen staff prepare dinner with military discipline and precision under Darren’s direction. He has a soft spot for Diana and tells the staff he wants her to eat. The royal family is gathered for dinner in the dining room along with Diana. A string quartet plays while they eat their soup and Diana’s husband Charles glares at her angrily. Diana is wearing the pearl necklace and rips it and eats the pearls in her soup. Diana vomits up the soup in the bathroom and it’s revealed she only imagined eating the pearls.

P. 35–38 Diana changes into casual clothes and goes to the kitchens to binge while listening to her Walkman. Major Gregory catches her eating and warns her that photographers are trying to take pictures of her through her open bedroom curtains. Diana compares herself to an insect being dissected and the photographer’s lenses to microscope lenses [“’Oh she really does make a fuss this one doesn’t she.’”] Diana mentions Anne Boleyn, who didn’t fuss the way she does. Diana sends Major Gregory away and he warns her to keep her curtains closed.

P. 39–43 Diana escapes in the dark to her nearby boarded-up childhood home, Park House. She is stopped by a barbed wire fence. She sees herself at 12 years old looking out from a window of the house. Diana gets emotional talking out loud to herself of what has become of her as an adult. Two policemen catch Diana, thinking she’s an intruder. She convinces them to let her go back to Sandringham without reporting that they saw her. One of the policemen says over the radio that it was no one, only a fox. Diana agrees that she is a fox on a wall casting a shadow.

P. 43–48 Back at Sandringham, Diana goes to the nursery and finds the door locked on Major Gregory’s orders. Diana gives William and Harry cheap presents she bought at the petrol station. They get to open them on Christmas morning like normal people — just what they wanted. Diana bonds with her children by playing the “Army game” where each player is questioned and must tell the truth. Harry opens his present and it’s a toy dinosaur. Diana confesses obliquely to William she’s sad about Charles’ affair. She tells the boys Merry Christmas.

P. 48–52 On Christmas morning, Diana showers and again imagines she sees the body parts of a much heavier woman. A dresser named Angela arrives to dress Diana and she demands to have Maggie back instead. Angela reveals Major Gregory has sent Maggie back to London. Diana refuses to wear the outfit labelled “Christmas Morning.” Diana puts on the wrong outfit.

P. 52–56 Diana arrives late to breakfast as Major Gregory reads aloud the extensive menu and goes down the Christmas Day schedule for the royal family. Diana tests Charles to see if he will notice she is wearing the wrong outfit, but he only responds with a chiding comment about her bulimia. The royal family walk to church and all eyes are on Diana, which irritates Charles. Charles’ mistress Camilla is at the church and Diana is upset by her presence, which upsets William. After church, the photographers and public go wild for Diana and she poses for them, proudly showing off the “wrong” dress.

P. 56–58 Major Gregory secretly has sex with a maid in the kitchen storeroom. The staff watch news footage of Diana and the royal family going to church that morning while the announcers commentate. Angela notices Diana on TV is wearing the wrong dress and worries she will be blamed, but Major Gregory assures her everyone knows it’s Diana who makes the mistakes.

P. 58–61 Diana rests in her bedroom and has read half of the Anne Boleyn book. A footman urges her to come to lunch. Diana hears a shotgun fired outside and then hears a woman say “Oh death rock me to sleep…” Then she sees Anne Boleyn in her room and Diana screams. She wakes up from the dream and reads a section of the book then calls Anne her “guiltless ghost.” Outside on the grounds, Charles trains William to shoot clay pigeons with a shotgun. William is terrified and Charles leaves the valets to train him as they only have 24 hours.

P. 61–67 Diana finds Charles in the library and they lecture each other about their respective responsibilities — Diana to Charles about how William isn’t safe shooting guns (parenting responsibility), and Charles to Diana about how she’s not living up to her royal responsibilities of wearing her assigned clothes and keeping her curtains closed. Diana finds out it was Charles who sent Maggie back to London, because she left Diana’s curtains open, vulnerable to the photographer’s lenses. Charles tells Diana the bottom line is that she must fake it for the good of the country [“The thing is Diana, there has to be two of you… There’s the real one and the one they take pictures of.”] A footman arrives and tells Diana she is late again for sandwiches. Diana tells him about seeing a ghost and asks if the house is haunted.

P. 67–70 Diana and the royal family watch the Queen’s Christmas Day speech on TV. The subject of her speech is freedom and breaking free of dictatorship. Harry tells Diana he found his toy dinosaur in the toilet bowl. Diana follows the Queen out into the garden. The Queen tells Diana the dress the Queen wore on TV isn’t the one her dresser recommended. The Queen mentions Diana’s celebrity status and implies it doesn’t matter [“The only portrait that really matters is the one they use to put on the ten pound note…. All you are, my dear, is currency.”]

P. 70–75 The Queen’s speech plays on mute in the staff canteen as Darren runs down the entire menu for Christmas dinner to the staff. Diana walks through the corridors then begins to run, as if running away from the rich food Darren is listing. Diana appears in the staff canteen and talks alone to Darren. She asks about the pheasants shot by the royals on the grounds. He tells her they are bred to be shot and they’re beautiful but not very bright which Diana compares to herself. Darren tells her he put her favorite dessert on the menu. Diana tells Darren about the story of Anne Boleyn and the King beheading her even though the King was the one having the affair. She tells him she saw the ghost of Anne Boleyn. Darren tells Diana information is currency to the Sandringham staff, but they are nice when they talk about her. Diana asks Darren for wire cutters.

P. 75–79 Diana walks through the grounds towards Park House wearing headphones while Major Gregory watches her. Diana sees a beautiful pheasant and tells it to fly away to Kensington. She tells the pheasant it could have her wonderful life there where it would be admired for its beauty. Major Gregory appears and tells Diana to go get ready or she’ll be late for dinner. Major Gregory tells her a story about when he was in the military and saw a fellow soldier pointlessly die in front of him. He tells Diana that they all make an oath of loyalty to the Crown and need to uphold it regardless of the humans inhabiting the royal roles. Major Gregory says the House of Windsor demands she not be late for dinner again. Diana accuses Major Gregory of putting the Anne Boleyn book by her bed and he denies it. Diana runs away.

P. 79–80 Montage. Diana 12 years old runs to Park House decorated for Christmas. Her father calls her to Christmas Dinner, and she laughs and keeps running. Current day Diana runs with no direction. 17-year-old Diana runs wearing a school uniform. Diana at 19 runs, wearing the clothes she wore when she met Charles. Diana runs in her wedding dress at 20 years old. Diana at 24 dances in a field wearing the blue dress she wore when she danced with John Travolta at the White House. Diana dances in the dress she wore when she danced onstage at the Royal Opera House. She keeps dancing at different ages and outfits until a shotgun blast from Charles pulls her out of her reverie. She sees Charles from afar but doesn’t recognize him.

P. 80–84 Diana finds Angela has sewn her bedroom curtains closed. Angela tells her to wear the right dress and Diana won’t let Angela help her get dressed [“How can you help me? No one is here to help me.”] Diana imagines herself as overweight in the bathroom mirror as she holds the dress up to her body and laughs. Diana wears the dress and the pearls from Charles. Diana shocks Angela by asking her to leave so she can masturbate. Diana uses the wire cutters to rip out the threads holding the curtains closed. Diana says out loud as if to her father that her plan is to cut the barbed wire and visit her childhood bedroom at Park House. Diana cuts her arm with the wire cutters and says it’s to be in a safer place.

P. 84–86 Diana changes into a robe and sees the ghost of Anne Boleyn holding the wire cutters to her own throat. Diana runs to the nursery and locks herself in the bathroom. William tries to coax her out of the bathroom and Diana finally comes out. Diana jokes to William that she saw Jane Seymour in church. William is worried Diana will be late to dinner.

P. 86–88 Diana vomits up Christmas dinner in her bathroom. The maid Maria tries to coax her out of the bathroom for dessert. Maggie appears and comforts Diana and encourages her to fight back against the royals with her beauty. It turns out that Maggie is not really there, it’s just Maria. Diana only spoke to herself in the mirror. The maids try to take Diana back to dinner, but she runs away [“Tell them I am not at all well!”] Diana runs through the corridors laughing with the ghost of Anne Boleyn.

P. 88–90 After asking for a pair of Wellingtons and a torch from a footman, Diana reads the plaque on the weighing machine in the entrance hall. It says to weigh oneself often is to be well. Major Gregory is told by the footman that Diana said she is going home. Park House is dangerous and falling apart, but Major Gregory tells him they are going to let Diana go since she just wants to be left alone.

P. 90–91 Diana cuts the barbed wire surrounding Park House with the wire cutters. She forces her way into the house through a hidden locked service door with rotten hinges. The house inside is dilapidated [“The skeleton of what was once a family home.”] Diana uses her finger to draw in the soot above the stone fireplace — a glass of milk, a glass of whisky for Santa, a raw carrot for Rudolph and a mince pie.

P. 91–93 Venturing upstairs in Park House, Diana sees spots where there used to be portraits and chandeliers. Diana almost falls through a broken stair. The stairs are falling apart but she continues upstairs anyway. She sees an orange light in a window and when she goes to look out she sees down in the garden herself at 12 years old sitting beside a fire. Diana remembers at 12 she thought she saw a ghost in the window where she is now standing. 12-year-old Diana and current day Diana wave to each other. She calls the girl Diana Spencer [“Spencer. Ancient history.”] Diana sits on the floor and cries.

P. 93–94 Diana lets herself fall through a hole in the rotten staircase. She is about to hit the floor when she hears Anne Boleyn shout her name and Diana wakes up. She is still standing at the top of the stairs. Anne Boleyn tells Diana her husband, the King, also gave Anne and his mistress the same gift to wear around their necks. Anne Boleyn tore it off. She tells Diana to be free [“Go. Run. Live.”] Diana tears off her pearl necklace and the pearls go flying.

P. 94–100 Diana is surprised to be awoken in her bedroom by the returned Maggie. Maggie is real. Diana and Maggie drive to the beach. They sit in the car and Maggie tells Diana that Charles and the royals are not bad. Maggie points out Diana’s privilege. Diana tells Maggie she has been mixing pills and alcohol. Maggie says the royals think Diana’s behavior is drug-induced, they know she cut herself and they want her to see a doctor. Diana says Anne Boleyn saved her life. Diana wonders if she will be remembered as insane. Maggie says she is in love with Diana. She says what Diana needs is love. Maggie and Diana smoke cigarettes on the beach and Maggie renames her “Diana the Free” because she could just run away. Major Gregory arrives and tells Diana they’re almost ready for the shoot.

P. 100–102 In the Sandringham kitchen, Darren oversees the preparation of an elaborate gourmet picnic for the shoot. Staff remove the shotguns and cartridges from the armory. A fleet of Land Rovers arrive, and staff load the guns. In the nursery, Charles dresses William for the shoot and kindly tells him to do his best. The picnic boxes are packed in the kitchen. Dogs and picnic boxes are loaded into cars. The royals, absent Diana, leave for the shoot.

P. 103–107 Men who flush the pheasants, called “beaters,” arrive in a field on the edge of a wood. On the other side of the wood, the royals arrive. The beaters flush the pheasants out of the woods and the dogs bay as the royals sip tea. Diana stops her car next to the scarecrow field and she can hear the shoot going on. Diana instructs Maggie to drive her car back to the house and leave the keys inside. Diana compares herself to the pheasants, telling Maggie she would rather be free than caged. Diana marches through the shoot and they hold their fire. Diana calls out that she has come to take William home and Charles tells him to go and help her. Diana leaves with William and Harry.

P. 108–109 Diana jokingly weighs herself with William and Harry on the scales in the Sandringham entrance hall. Diana tells the footman to mark down for Major Gregory that she’s gained weight over the holiday as instructed. Darren catches up to Diana and the children as they are about to leave in her car which Maggie has left in the servant car park. Darren offers them food, but Diana says she has promised the children a real treat. Diana doesn’t know where she is going but says she will just drive. She is sorry to have missed Darren’s souffle. Diana finds a note from Maggie in the glove compartment [“It’s not just me who loves you.”]

P. 110–113 Diana drives away with William and Harry. William urges Diana to stop for directions in country town but she doesn’t want to be recognized. The car arrives at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in London and Diana orders them meals and gives the name “Spencer.” Charles tells the senior royals at Sandringham he has made a decision. In the Sandringham library, Major Gregory puts the Anne Boleyn book back on the shelf. Diana and the boys eat KFC unrecognized among the tourists on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, where she married Charles. Just like in the beginning of the movie, there are chips and ketchup. William asks if Diana is not hungry, and she decides she actually is hungry and eats a bite of William’s chicken leg. They look like an ordinary family on the cathedral steps.

Writing Exercise: I encourage you to read the script, but short of that, if you’ve seen the movie, go through this scene-by-scene breakdown. What stands out to you about it from a structural standpoint?

Major kudos to Caroline Gray for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown , go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Spencer.