She was born with TV, and TV was born with her. The coronation of the young Elizabeth II, in Westminster Abbey, on June 2, 1953, was the first event to bring the world together around the small screen. Before the man on the moon, before the Olympics, before hit series and large-scale shows, she was the first to make people dream, in their homes.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
Three hundred million people saw the Archbishop of Canterbury place the crown of St Edward on the Queen’s head, while the crowd chanted, three times, God Save the Queen ! . Scenes like that, we had only experienced them in the cinema. This time it wasn’t a view, it was real.
Elizabeth II was the first TV star. Before Elvis, Lucille Ball, Johnny Carson and Michèle Richard. Millions of families bought a TV because of its coronation, either to see it or after seeing it at friends’ houses or in store windows. The human being had just experienced for the first time a new sensation: to be there without being there. The world was never to be the same again.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not want the cameras to enter the Abbey. It was the sovereign who demanded it. She had it all figured out. Although his function was only symbolic, he had to maximize the only power he had left, that of the image. Huge power.
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Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey
His omnipotent predecessors knew his value well, reproducing their figures on coins, on the paintings of the great masters, parading through the streets of the kingdom and performing in front of the court. In the XXe century, for the people to follow us, we had to be in the TV.
The life of the British royal family has become the first reality show in history. Their job, is to exist. And the pleasure of the subjects is to watch them exist. From her coronation to the TV special you are watching right now, all the joys and sorrows of Elizabeth and her family have been transmitted to us.
The Queen of England was a very special heroine. Both of his time and of another time. A discreet lady who nevertheless dressed like Elton John. A billionaire, who, despite the splendor of the jewels and the palaces, has never looked bling-bling, on the contrary, it is with a scarf on her head, in the mud of her Balmoral lands, that she was most in her element. In this medium where emotion reigns, she has managed to fascinate us, without ever letting her own show through. She was the image of restraint, of composure. A reassuring presence, in the midst of so many excesses.
Over the years, her moderation has, all the same, distanced her from the people. Lady Di has become the Princess of Hearts, and the Queen has been assigned, by many, the role of the evil stepmother. His lack of reaction to Diana’s death did not help his cause.
In the XXIe century, Elizabeth II’s popularity rating was no longer at its peak. She was still respected, but much less adored, not forgotten, but much less noticed. The light on her was slowly fading.
It wasn’t God who saved the queen, it was TV. His lifelong accomplice.
TV in its most recent update: Netflix. Series The Crown, which began in 2016, in our giant screens, restored the luster to the crown placed on the head of the queen, 63 years earlier, in our old black and white televisions. Thanks to the brilliant actresses who interpreted her role, Elizabeth II won back her audience. Her fictionalized fate allowed us to discover the woman under the hat. And a new generation has taken its place in history.
The queen was able to bring royalty into modernity, using the invention to enter people’s homes. The media eclipse caused by his disappearance is the best proof of this.
The monarchy is outdated, but fairy tales and princesses never will be. All the star system is based on our need to identify with a sublimated version of ourselves.
And among all the carrier titles, Miss Universe, Mr. World, Oscar of the Year, U.S. Open Champion, Felix Winner, WBC Heavyweight Champion,OD or of Love is in the meadow, the most inaccessible remains Queen or King of England. This is why it is the most evocative.
It is up to Charles III to know how to preserve the mark with as much skill as his deceased mother. Revolutionaries or not, the life and death of this lady will have touched us, because she succeeded in the most trying of feats: to last.