IAN HYLAND
Nothing symbolises the two families’ union better than the touching moment of intimacy between Prince Charles and Meghan’s mum Doria. A show of dignity after a week dominated by Meghan’s other relatives Mirror TV critic
EVEN the most cynical observers accepted that the royal wedding was a truly uplifting occasion.
That might explain why, as I sat flicking between the three main contenders covering it for British TV, I found very little to grumble about.
All three appeared – wisely – to have decided their tone long before kick off.
BBC1 went for a mix: the BBC Breakfasty pairing of Dermot O’leary and Kirsty Young took care of the fluff before giving way to the stately tones of Huw Edwards. Dermot didn’t seem too comfortable with that tight shirt collar, while Kirsty was a little too keen to tell us she knew a lot of the guests. They did a good job, though.
Huw was excellent throughout, although he did go on a bit about the stained glass windows. I can’t have been the only viewer hoping he’d give it a rest and tell his cameraman to check whether
Victoria Beckham had cracked a smile yet instead.
ITV repeated the trick that worked so well for them last time out. Phillip Schofield and Julie Etchingham was my favourite pairing of the day.
Schofield was aware his This Morning audience would be watching while Etchingham knew that a news reporting job had to be done. They got the balance just right – I think we can forgive Julie’s excited little wave at the wedding car.
But my highlight was over on Sky News.
Kay Burley takes a lot of stick, but the sight of her bouncing through the crowd like Tigger in white lace summed up the joyous and carefree vibe flooding through Windsor on the day. A PEAK audience of almost 18 million watched the wedding on TV just after 1pm on Saturday.
The five channels had a total of at least 17.5m at that time. BBC One’s coverage was 13.1 million.
ITV’S audience topped out at 3.6 million viewers just after 2pm. The combined average audience for BBC and ITV was around 11 million while the show also appeared on news channels including Sky News.
More watched the wedding than the FA Cup final, which peaked at 8.7million on BBC1.
The numbers are down on the 2011 royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Then, the BBC averaged 13.4 million viewers with a peak of more than 19 million, with five million on ITV.