How TV and Radio Reacted to The Queen's Death
A special edition of Worth Watching.
Hello.
Welcome to Worth Watching, looking at how British television and radio covered to the announcement of The Queen’s death yesterday.
The announcement:
BBC One and ITV broke the news of The Queen’s death shortly before 6.40pm last night. Shortly afterwards, nearly all BBC TV stations interrupted programmes to take the BBC One feed where Huw Edwards repeated the news.
These channels then aired rolling news and tributes for the rest of the evening. BBC Three and BBC Four did not air at all, pointing viewers to BBC One.
CBBC was interrupted shows for a special edition of Newsround and then went off air for the evening. BBC News at Ten aired an extended edition last night, but did not air the usual theme music. Instead, a montage of The Queen’s life was aired in its place.
Channel 4 interrupted programming with a special edition of Channel 4 News. ITV 2 / 3 and 4 continued scheduled programmes, but pointed viewers towards the main ITV channel during advert breaks. Many commercial networks did not air commercials yesterday evening.
Huw Edwards had been broadcasting rolling news coverage for much of the afternoon on BBC One, wearing a black suit and tie. Many sensed that his involvement was a clue of the seriousness of The Queen’s ill-health.
For a look at how British television channels broke their scheduled programme, click on the thread below.
Meanwhile on radio… All BBC network radio stations and united around a single broadcast provided by BBC Radio 4.
Commercial radio network Global (who broadcast Capital, Heart and others) joined a single broadcast by LBC. Andrew Marr broke the news of The Queen’s death on LBC and sounded clearly emotional.
BBC Radio 1 Dance became viral last year for how it interrupted a techno dance stream to announce the death of Prince Philip. A similar, yet somewhat less jarring interruption took place this time round. However, the music did not return (a lot of the footage being circulated of them doing so is fake.)
This singular BBC radio broadcast continued until the early hours. BBC Radio 5 played then provided coverage for BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music, whilst BBC Radio 4 provided coverage for BBC Radio 2.
Today:
BBC One has suspended all television programming and will provide rolling news coverage for the rest of the day.
BBC Two will be showing a selection of programmes, all vetted in advance to ensure that they are tonally right. EastEnders will air at 7pm. Richard Osman’s House of Games will also air, along with Gardeners’ World and Gone Fishing.
ITV have also suspended all daytime programmes for news coverage.
Channel 4 will be airing a usual mix of programmes, but without any comedy so far. Channel 4 News has been extended to two hours this evening. Gogglebox is still scheduled, but expect confirmation later today.
The Last Leg was due to air this evening, but has been cancelled.
We’ve decided not to do an episode of @TheLastLeg tonight. It just doesn’t feel right. We’ll pay tribute to Her Majesty next week but for now our thoughts are with her family, and all those affected by the news. We hope you understand.The streaming age means that for those who do not want to follow news coverage of The Queen, they simply can. Blanket coverage continues on all main TV channels, but viewers can simply put on Netflix or BBC iPlayer and watch something else if they wish.
And the near future:
Do not expect there to be any new dramas or landmark comedy programmes to debut, at least in the next few days or until after the funeral.
Expect big dramas and the return of much loved shows such as The Great British Bake Off, Strictly Come Dancing, Drag Race UK to be delayed. Confirmation will be expected in the next few days.
I’ve written a piece for Variety on what it was like to watch the UK media reporting on the death of The Queen: “The surreal thing about watching the BBC One coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death was that we all knew in advance what the coverage was exactly going to be like once the news arrived. And yet, nothing can prepare you for the enormity of witnessing the announcement in real time.”
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Thanks so much for reading and have a great weekend,
Scott / @scottygb