Cultural depictions of George III

The 1969 music theatre piece Eight Songs for a Mad King by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies depicts the increasing madness and eventual death of the king as he talks to birds. George's insanity is the subject of the 1986 radio play In the Ruins by Nick Dear (adapted for the stage in 1990 with Patrick Malahide as George) and the 1991 play The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett (with Nigel Hawthorne as George in the premiere production, for which he received the Laurence Olivier Award). Dear's play centres on George looking back on his life in 1817 (the year before his death), whilst Bennett's concerns George's first bout of insanity in late 1788 and early 1789, which those in the royal court, including his own son, use as a way to sidestep regal authority. Hawthorne reprised his role in the film version of the play.

George appears as a comic relief character in the Broadway musical Hamilton (played by Jonathan Groff in the original Broadway cast[1]) to sing three short musical numbers. Here, he is depicted as a cross between a scorned lover and a manchild who lightheartedly comments on the start of the American Revolutionary War, its aftermath, and finally John Adams' succession as President of the United States. He also appears briefly during The Reynolds Pamphlet, seen silently throwing around copies of the title document. While most of the play's songs are in the style of hip-hop, R&B, contemporary pop, or soul, George's numbers mimic the popular music of the British Invasion.[2]

George appears as Prince of Wales and later king in the play Mr Foote's Other Leg by Ian Kelly (who played George in the play's premiere production in 2015).

King George III appears in the following novels:

• The Prince and the Quakeress (1968) as well as The Third George (1969) by Jean Plaidy (being the fourth and fifth novels of her Georgian Saga series). The former novel tells the story of George III as a young Prince of Wales and his supposed relationship with Hannah Lightfoot, and then in the latter novel is of his life married to Charlotte and his role as king.
• The Dirk Gently series and Life, the Universe and Everything (1982) by Douglas Adams; in the latter, the character Arthur Dent refers to trees as "those things people think you're mad if you talk to? Like George the Third".[3]
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2004) by Susanna Clarke, where the character of Jonathan Strange attempts to cure him
• Victory of Eagles (2008) by Naomi Novik, where he is encountered by William Laurence, the protagonist, while on an errand in Edinburgh Castle.
• George III appears in the novel God Save the King (2012) by Laura Purcell. The book was later published in the United States under the title Queen of Bedlam.
• A Darker Shade of Magic (2015) by V. E. Schwab and its sequel A Gathering of Shadows (2016) when the Antari Kell visits him (and George IV of the United Kingdom) while in Gray London.

On film, George has been portrayed by:

• Arthur Donaldson in America (1924)
• Henry Mowbray in The Pursuit of Happiness (1934)
• Olaf Hytten in The Bill of Rights (1939, Short)
• Raymond Lovell in The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
• Frederick Valk in Mrs. Fitzherbert (1947), based on the novel by Winifred Carter
• Robert Morley in Beau Brummell (1954), based on a play by Clyde Fitch
• Eric Pohlmann in John Paul Jones (1959)
• Roger Booth in Barry Lyndon (1975), based on the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Nigel Hawthorne in The Madness of King George (1994), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, based on the play The Madness of George III, in the premiere production of which George was also played by Hawthorne
• Robin Soans in the Spanish comedy Sabotage! (2000)
• Dave Reitze in the American video Kidz History: The Revolutionary War (2003)

George appeared in the final episode of the British radio comedy Revolting People in 2006, played by Timothy West, where he is almost convinced into calling off the American Revolutionary War.[7]

There are several extant statues of the king, not only in London (at the junction of Pall Mall and Cockspur Street, near Trafalgar Square, and in the courtyard of Somerset House titled George III and the River Thames) but also elsewhere - on London Street in Liverpool, on the Bargate in Southampton, at one end of the Long Walk in Windsor Great Park (The Copper Horse) and the painted King's Statue in Weymouth, Dorset.

The American statue of George III at Bowling Green, New York City was toppled on 9 July 1776 by Sons of Liberty during the American Revolution. A replica of the statue exists at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.[8]

Besides depictions in works of art, students for years learned the length of a mile through the mnemonic "George the Third said with a smile / 'There's seventeen sixty yards in a mile.'", 1760 being the year he came to the throne.[9][10]