I think the Queen was a very special, exceptional person and these have been days that will no doubt remain in all our memories.
I found the funeral day itself impressive and, indeed, quite moving at times – particularly the journey and the respectful crowds through Windsor Great Park and the service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. It was rather lovely to watch David Connors (Dean of Windsor since 1998) take a prominent role in the service – he was our curate at St Michael and All Angels, Summertown when we lived in Oxford in the early 1970s… we’ve ALL grown old together during the Queen’s reign!
The television coverage of the funeral itself was excellent, but I have to admit I had to mute the BBC’s coverage whenever they resorted to comments from their studio ‘guests’ or, frankly, Huw Edwards. Nevertheless, I have to say that I’m mightily relieved that the mourning period and the funeral have now come to an end. I found the whole wall-to-wall media frenzy in the run-up to the funeral day completely over-the-top.
As far as BBC television was concerned, for example: Why the endless queue of patronising, studio guests invited along for their ‘special insights’ (essentially being used as a ‘space fillers’ sandwiched between the outpourings from Huw Edwards, Nicholas Witchell and the like? Why the lengthy TV footage of a hearse travelling down the A93/A40 and the like? (I could go on!). Why, for example, didn’t they simply dedicate BBC4 (which the Corporation had effectively ‘relegated’ to an archive channel) to matters associated with the Queen’s death instead of dominating everything over the past 10 days in the way it did?
There were several times when I felt that the studio guests were actually trying to tell ME what I SHOULD be thinking or how I SHOULD be responding… and being constantly told how the events had “brought the nation together” and so on. Exasperating!
I’m certainly NOT criticising or underestimating the individual and collective responses to the Queen’s death - simply the excessive (and at times excruciating) media coverage, especially by the BBC.
I was both impressed and depressed by the pageantry of it all (we’re VERY good at pageantry!). It all felt dominated by an almost embarrassing sense of pomp and privilege… the extravagance, the MASSIVE costs, the uniforms, the rehearsals, the carriages, the security, the 64(?) members of the royal family… and reminders of all the princes, princesses and palaces, the sovereign grant, the civil list, the privy purse, the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall.
But, hey, with a cost of living and energy crisis, businesses going into liquidation, food banks, global warming, a war in Ukraine, MPs absent from parliament and a new Prime Minister (with, for me, her scary ideology), we quickly need to focus on ‘other things’… which I think will bring everyone ‘down to earth’ again very quickly!
The Guardian’s John Crace rather summed up one of the key things for me about recent days/people queuing to pay their respects in Westminster Hall:
“Like so much of the pageantry on display this last week, it was simultaneously absurd and magnificent. And surprisingly moving. Even to a diehard republican. Most impressive of all was the stillness. The silence. The only noise in the hall came from the spurs of the Gentlemen of Arms on the stone floors during the changing of the guard. The visitors’ feet were muffled by carpets. Finally, we had a chance to turn inward. To think what we wanted to think without being judged or told how to feel. After a week of nonsense, I’ve finally had enough of Huw Edwards’ commentary. I think it was ‘The lights on the Yellow Box Storage Company here on the A40 that the Queen loved and knew so well have been dimmed as a mark of respect’ that finally did it for me. Though I could have just made that up. I’ve had enough of being played. Of being manipulated. And it took half an hour in Westminster Hall to feel some kind of peace…”
I know there will be many who will disagree with me (and that’s fine), but I think the last few days have been a celebration of the QUEEN’S life… and NOT, for most of us, a celebration of the monarchy. I think the style of the monarchy desperately needs to change drastically if it is to survive (perhaps to become closer to the Swedish/Norwegian/Danish models?).
PS: How did all the old people in Westminster Abbey avoid trips to the loo during the funeral service?
PPS: Were all the presenters on the telly (eg. even the sport presenters/pundits on the BBC!) given massive clothing allowances to ensure they ALL wore black at all times throughout the 10-day mourning period?
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