A black band on the BBC screen interrupted the programs from the start of the afternoon. Before opening its rights everywhere in the world, to be diffused everywhere on the planet, all the journalists present on the antenna wore black, jacket and tie for the men: dress and color obligatory, under penalty of being disembarked for malpractice. You have to have these clothes on hand all the time, at work but also on weekends and on vacation. This is valid for all television channels. The pressure is enormous for the media. The death of the queen is the information of their career. Impossible to miss this moment.
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The BBC was however not the first media warned by Buckingham, the chain having lost this monopoly. It was the national press agency, the Press Association, which first got the information and then relayed it worldwide. At that time, in the corridors of British public television, an alarm sounded, a sign of general mobilization. And off we went for ten days of continuous information.
On the side of the private channel SkyNews, everything was also planned. Royalty experts had been savvy for years. They had even signed contracts stipulating that they had to come exclusively. Hand-picked presenters and reporters regularly repeated the moment, dubbing the Queen “Mrs Robinson”.
On BBC Radio, listeners heard: “This is a message from the BBC to London”. They immediately understood that the situation was serious. On private antennas, blue lights flashed to alert staff. Between two news flashes, there was only sad music, the playlists were already ready. The written press was also in the starting blocks. The daily The Times, for example, has dozens of pre-written articles. Enough to last for eleven days.
As for the funeral, everything has been fixed for a long time: from the position of the cameras to the authorizations for the helicopters. We know that there will be objectives at the entrance to Westminster Abbey, in the nave and at the exit. Outside, photographers have already spotted where to stand to catch a glimpse of the royal family entering and leaving the palace. In short, nothing was left to chance. The stakes are high: it will be the first funeral of a British monarch since George VI, Elizabeth’s father, in 1952.
How can everyone be better informed?
Participate in the consultation initiated as part of the European project De facto on the Make.org platform. Franceinfo is the partner