Focus on funeral, not hurtful Harry

WELL done to the BBC and shame on those who have complained about the extent of coverage of the life and death of the Duke of Edinburgh. As one who regularly scorns the hideous output of tawdry, profane, sex-obsessed, celebrity-worshipping, left wing, anti-Brexit, pro-woke rot, I regard last Friday’s sustained broadcast as justifying my entire licence fee for the year.

This is what the BBC does best: dignified and wellinformed coverage of royal events.With the sole exception of the silly, ill-judged attempt to dumb down its coverage of the river pageant at the 2012 jubilee, the corporation has never let us down.

It must have spent a long time in preparing for last weekend’s events and within minutes of the announcement all presenters were in black. Reeta Chakrabarti and Huw Edwards kept the calm and respectful commentary going convincingly even when not much was happening.Thanks to all involved.

Doubtless the BBC will rise to the occasion again this coming weekend when it covers the funeral but there is one sort of commentary that it should resist: speculation about a healing of the rift betweenWilliam and Harry.

IFEAR an army of body language experts and lipreaders will be on hand to interpret the smallest interaction between them. It will impose another unnecessary strain for them all at an already difficult time.

This funeral is about the Duke, not about Harry, and the headlines and commentary should reflect that.

I find it difficult to believe that any reconciliation is possible as long as accounts of conversations are going to be blabbed by his wife to her American TV presenter friends, who will in turn provide a running commentary.

This self-indulgent exRoyal did damage enough to his family and country and piled pressure on the Queen when the Duke was in hospital with his last illness.

He now needs to prove he can exercise discretion and consideration for others and that he can persuade his wife to do the same. Until then let the speculation cease.