The Queen watches her speech alone

An ITV documentary on 25 December celebrating 50 years of televising the Queen's Christmas Day message reveals that she sometimes leaves the room at Sandringham when her pre-recorded speech is being broadcast so she can watch it away from her family and see whether it has come across in the right way.

It is certainly much easier to concentrate alone on watching a film of yourself speaking. Many famous actors hate to watch their performances, even with loved ones; some never watch them at all!

When I started teaching public speaking classes, I was asked by one of my bosses why I didn't video students' presentations and then show these films for the whole class to watch and comment on. My reply was simple: because I wanted them to come back the following week! I know there are presentation skills training firms offering intensive courses which involve using video in this way but I always found that gentler alternatives achieved excellent results - without embarrassing students so much that they dropped out!

I told my students that they would never be asked to do anything more embarrassing than give a short talk in front of a small class who were all 'in the same boat'. I mentioned that they were welcome to tape their own talks in order to study these recordings at home later, along with anything I said, but not the presentations of others present.

Back when I was training as an adult education tutor, I was on a teaching course and a lesson was being filmed. The whole class, including some highly experienced lecturers, clammed up. Then we learned that there had been a fault with the camera so nothing had been recorded - and it was as if a cloud had lifted!

Public Speaking Tip #105: A public speaking course should be challenging enough to greatly improve your presentations but should not embarrass you to the point where you no longer wish to participate. Find out what is involved in any training before you enrol and, if you are happy to meet these challenges, throw yourself into them wholeheartedly for some astonishing results!

Over the years, I have been filmed a few times and have watched - and benefited - from seeing these recordings but I would not have felt comfortable viewing them for the first time in the presence of others. Facing a large audience and speaking for up to an hour is just so much easier than sitting watching yourself for a few minutes with a couple of other people!

Public Speaking Tip #106: It is useful to see a film of your presentation and study and learn from it - in private.