The 1939 president's picnic that led to the US-UK 'special relationship'

As the Nazis were advancing in Europe, President Roosevelt invited King George VI and his consort for a visit to his country home. It was the first time that a British monarch had set foot on US soil. Over hot dogs and beers, the conversations that took place helped shape the course of history – as a new play explores.

In early 1939, US President Franklin D Roosevelt followed events in Europe with growing dismay. In March, the Nazi army invaded Czechoslovakia, shattering the Munich Agreement brokered a mere six months previously. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's bid for "peace in our time" had come to nothing.

Roosevelt, 57, was certain Britain would soon be forced to stand up militarily to Adolf Hitler, and the US's aid in the armed struggle would be vital. But the president knew, also, that a majority of his fellow citizens were strict isolationists – they wanted nothing to do with another European war.

His solution? Roosevelt – or FDR as he was widely known – invited the young King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth to his beloved country home in upstate New York. A reigning British monarch had never before visited the US. The president envisioned a casual, "just folks" occasion to demonstrate to Americans how the royal couple were not grand remote figures, but friendly representatives of a democratic nation that deserved support. 

The focal point of the weekend visit was to be an outdoor picnic in the grounds of the Roosevelt estate, at which hot dogs – that decidedly un-regal US summer favourite – would be served. The historic meet-up is the subject of a new play, Springwood, at London's Hampstead Theatre, praised as a "timely tale of a British monarch's mission to the US" by The Guardian. So how did this moment help shape history – and why does it resonate particularly right now? 

Playwright Richard Nelson chose as his title the official name of the house in the Hudson Valley village of Hyde Park where the president was born in 1882, and where his elderly mother still resided at the time of the royal visit. Nelson, who lives nearby, previously wrote a screenplay about that long-ago June weekend. It was made into a movie – Hyde Park on the Hudson, starring Bill Murray as the president – released in 2013. The playwright was inspired to return to the material because "today we are in a somewhat similar situation as in 1939, what with the war in Ukraine," Nelson tells the BBC. "Then, as now, there is a large element in the United States which is isolationist." 

In his movie script the action was narrated by Daisy Suckley, FDR's distant cousin and close friend. Nelson's new play focuses more tightly on the political – and emotional – stakes for the two couples, royal and presidential.

King George VI, 43, was prone to bashfulness and insecurity. Thrust on to the throne in December 1936 when his older brother abdicated in order to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, he felt ill-prepared for his role. He suffered from a stutter, which made public speaking difficult. And he suspected he came up short in comparison with the former king, known after the abdication as the Duke of Windsor. "Especially in America," Diane Kunz, a historian who has........

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