Television introduced Queen Elizabeth II to the world. It was only natural that television would kick her out of there.
The Queen’s 70-year reign spanned almost exactly into the modern television age. Her coronation in 1953 ushered in an era of her worldwide video spectacle. Her funeral on Monday was a full-color pageant accessible to billions of people.
It was the final display of the power of two institutions: the condensed grandeur of the British monarchy and the amassed power of television to take viewers to all corners of the world.
“I have to be seen to be believed,” Elizabeth once reportedly said. It was an acknowledgment of modern duty rather than boasting. 1 had to see, whether you like it or not. It was a source of her authority when the king’s power no longer came through fleets, and how she provided her country with a sense of security and predictable stability. was.
King George VI’s final funeral was not televised. Finally, Elizabeth was first. With the new magic of broadcasting, he will take to the world stage with a resolute face. She left it as a bejeweled crown atop a purple cushion, eventually transforming into a pure visual symbol.
Americans who got up early (or stayed up, depending on the time of day) on Monday morning saw a plethora of striking images on every news network. A breathtaking God’s perspective from the top of a coffin in Westminster Abbey. A constant stream of world leaders. A dense crowd along the procession to Windsor throws flowers at the motorcade. Corgi.
Viewers also saw and heard unusual things in the television news environment. It’s a long stretch of unnarrated live-action—words of prayer, the clatter of horse hooves—and moments of silence. This is notable in BBC World News’ coverage of his Whisper of Golf. This was a scene like loading a coffin into a gun carriage played silently, and the screen was bare with his 3 caption in the usual lower third.
The service’s distant relative, a commercial American network, filled the gap with snippets of chatty history and analysis. (On Fox News, reality TV’s Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne criticized Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s media business.) The “royal commentator” analyzes the protocol’s key points and acts like an auction appraiser. I investigated the materials and symbolism of crowns, scepters, and orbs. .
But even American television kept quiet during the funeral. Cameras drank in the Gothic arches of Westminster Abbey, soaked in choir hymns, gazed at royal jewels, and lingered on the solemn face of Charles His III. Finally, I watched from above as the bearers carried the coffin step by step across the black and white diamond floor like ornate chess pieces.
The quiet viewing was a sign of respect and a kind of tourist awe. we’ve come this far Of course, we wanted to capture the spectacle.
Elizabeth’s reign was marked by unprecedented visibility, for better or worse. Her coronation in 1953 prompted the British to buy television sets, ushered the country into the age of television, and invited the masses to events once reserved for the upper classes.
This changed something essential in the relationship between the masses and the monarchy. Once it was no longer exclusive, everything else in the relationship between the ruler and the populace became subject to negotiation.
The young queen resisted letting the camera in. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was concerned about turning the ceremony into a “theater”. However, Elizabeth could not stop the power of the media.
Television undermined the mystique of royalty, but it also popularized its image, expanding the virtual reach of the queen even when colonial empires dwindled. But the Windsors were the default royals of television and the main characters of generational reality TV soap operas. They became global celebrities through scandals, weddings, deaths, and “The Crown.”
The coronation also had a worldwide impact. The era of television bringing the world live to your living room has begun. At least it’s close to it. In 1953, with live trans-Atlantic broadcasts still not possible, CBS and NBC raced to fly the event’s kinescope across the ocean on planes with the seats removed to fit editing equipment. (they both Lost to Canadian CBC, took that footage home first. )
Times of the next day foretold the event As “the birth of international television”, it is surprising that American viewers “saw more than perhaps peers and aristocrats in the seats of the transept”. Boy, did they: Coverage of NBC’s “Today” show, which carried the radio feed of the coronation including appearance By J. Fred Muggs, our chimpanzee mascot. Welcome to show business, Your Majesty.
One of the camera restrictions at Elizabeth’s coronation was ritual oil of the new queen. By 2022, viewers will take divine omniscience for granted. If you can think of it, you should be able to see it.
It was a glass hearse designed and lit so that after Elizabeth’s death, the convoy from Balmoral Castle in Scotland to London could be monitored and the coffin could be seen. Westminster was able to see the Queen lying in her halls from different angles on a live video feed. Faces came and went, with the Queen’s grandson joining the tribute, but the cameras were on constant alert.
But 70 years later, television has also lost its monopoly empire. As the most-watched event in history, traditional television shared the funeral audience with the internet and social media, even as it broadcast something plausible but vague.
The mediums that defined Elizabeth and her reign were both the kind of unifiers we may never see again. provided a certain sense of her troubled country.
So? Writer, editor, and royal watcher Tina Brown asked on CBS, “Will there ever again be someone so beloved in the country?” She can also ask: Will next year’s Charles’ coronation be about as big as his event in the global media? (You can also ask if there is an event like this should do it consume everything. The news on American television was wall-to-wall with funerals abroad, while Puerto Rico was flooded and had no power in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona.)
Monday’s service felt like the culmination of two eras. One day, we saw the glitz the Crown could command and the global audience display TV could.
American TV spent the morning with the Queen. (Well, mostly: CBS aired the season premiere of “The Price Is Right.”) The glitz of the day headed for another never-before-seen broadcast ceremony: the removal of the scepter, orb, and crown from the coffin. was built with Vault of St George’s Chapel in Windsor. Then the almost unimaginable followed. A private burial service with no TV cameras.
Television got its final spectacle from Elizabeth’s reign. And so the Queen spent her final moments out of the public eye.