A crown that struggles to sparkle
There’s an expression we use to describe something on a huge scale. We say it’s ‘‘bigger than Benhur’’.
After viewing Prime on Sunday night, it should be ‘‘bigger than a Royal Coronation’’.
Yes it was the documentary, The Coronation, and, in it, Queen Elizabeth appeared slightly jaded and grumpy as she looked back on her ordeal 65 years ago.
She was 25 when she was coronated or chlorinated. It was the greatest show on earth – 8000 guests, 400 in the choir, 30,000 Commonwealth troops, bridesmaids looking like the Spice Girls and a cast of millions lining the route. The pageantry, organised by the Duke of Norfolk, was impressive.
Here in New Zealand, we saw it on newsreels weeks later. I was too young to remember them but I recall standing in the cinema for God Save The Queen countless times. In it we viewed a snippet of Her Majesty walking down the aisle and wearing that crown, flanked by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He’d had a short back and sides and never looked balder.
The Queen must have seen the snippet too because, in The Coronation, she appeared bored. Just another doco before Harry marries Meghan.
But it was interesting for royal and history buffs and wedding planners. No, Liz and Phil didn’t tie the knot, it was even bigger than that.
There was a moment in the doco that was riveting. It was the crown.
The Queen had the sameshaped dome as her dad, so it didn’t need taking in or letting out. I don’t mean her head.
The crown was so heavy that ‘‘if you looked up, your neck would break’’, she recalled.
I’m sure the word ‘‘encrust’’ was invented for the crown. It had all sorts of things stuck on it. And it didn’t seem to have any front or back door.
When King George wore it, the archbishop attached a thread to the front so they’d know which way was the prow. Then they lost it, so he could’ve worn it back to front. Dad wasn’t impressed, the Queen said.
The crown was hidden during the war, with some of the jewels kept in a biscuit tin. Hitler was threatening to invade and he might have wanted it. King Adolf! The mind boggles.
The Coronation was bland until injected with personal anecdotes. Then it came to life. Documentaries are an important part of TV but it’s human interest that attracts us to them.
If free-to-air TV can show Emmerdale Farm and Coro Street, then it should include Heartbeat in its lineup. I’ve often been asked to review Heartbeat, even if it’s 10 years old.
It might be where old actors go to die but they all breathe life into their characters before Bernie Scripps carries them out in a box.
Heartbeat (UKTV, Tuesdays) was about Bernie this week. Emily Merryweather had just buried her second or third golfing husband and met with Bernie to discuss an inscription on his headstone. ‘‘Worn out’’ might be two good words.
Hubby had hardly replaced his last divot when Emily, played by talented Mel Martin, was on the lookout for number three or four.
Bernie was attracted. He liked doing business with a wellestablished firm and Emily was firm and well established.
The narrative was slight but effectively balanced by another story of a baby who died at birth. The tragedy impacted badly on the mother and her sleaze of a husband.
All the familiar personalities were there as they stuck their noses – sometimes diag-noses - into everyone else’s business and told Bernie to keep his putter in the bag.
The ITV characters such as Alf, Oscar, Carol and Sergeant George Miller are warm and convincing.
That’s been Heartbeat’s success. Peggy has to be Greengrass reincarnated, which is enough to scare any funeral director.
I watched Operation Dunkirk (Sky 73, Sunday) hoping it was a companion piece to the splendid movie Darkest Hour where Gary Oldman won his Oscar.
Instead, it was a conventional retelling of the weeks leading up to the evacuation. It was long on gun turrets and short on strategies.