What's the moral of the story?

TOM TILLEY:

One of the stories I like is when Old Tom goes to meet the Queen and he goes to the garden party at the palace and he's playing up a little bit as Old Tom is, you know, want to do. But the Queen actually singles him out and it's him and Angela that get to stay the night in the palace. Is that a little, like… a celebration of naughtiness, saying that it's kind of… can be more fun than just being stiff and polite, like most of the other guests? 'LEIGH HOBBS: No, I didn't think of it like that. I thought of it like… I know that kids would like it more. Whereas some people that write kids' books… You know, the books about bums and things, that's another sort of humour. Mine is, even though it's subversive, and a lot of people think it's edgy, in fact, I think there's almost like a… not a moral thing, but, like, I never send-up Angela because she's the mother figure, and, in fact…

TOM TILLEY:

She stays respectable.

LEIGH HOBBS:

Yes, but… You know that you could criticise your mum but if anyone else did it, you know, you'd spring to her defence. And I learnt this from parents 20 years ago, they said, 'It's good because we love the fact that Old Tom is naughty but Angela always stays dignified.' And so with the Queen, the Queen is above, you know, in the sense of the story, the Queen is above any sort of naughtiness. She doesn't notice it because, in a way, she's this sort of… the being that sees nothing but Old Tom's ultimately good side.