World will be falls silent in
MILLIONS of viewers around the world are today expected to tune into the biggest royal funeral for nearly 20 years.
The funeral of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at 3pm in St George’s Chapel within Windsor Castle will be covered by major television networks, radio stations and streamed online.
The last royal funeral to be extensively televised in the UK was Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s on April 9, 2002.
An average of 5.1 million people watched BBC One’s coverage, while 2.7 million tuned to ITV.
That event took place on a Tuesday morning, meaning the available viewing audience today will be significantly larger.
The funeral service of Diana, Princess of Wales, on September 6, 1997, was watched by 19.3 million people on BBC One and 11.7 million on ITV.
It remains live history.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tune in to the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral from his country residence Chequers, in Buckinghamshire.
Mr Johnson gave up his seat in the chapel to allow a Royal Family member to attend – the pandemic limits the number of mourners to 30.
A No10 spokesman said he one of the mostwatched events in television will observe the national minute’s silence, which will take place at 3pm to mark the start of the funeral, from the countryside retreat.
The Prime Minister had one of the largest television audiences for a political broadcast in UK history when he gave his address on January 4 this year announcing a new national lockdown.
It was watched by 25.1 million people across five channels.
The BBC and ITV are expecting huge audiences to watch their programmes of the Duke’s send-off, which will be anchored by their top presenters.
Huw Edwards will lead the BBC’s live coverage from Windsor
Castle. He will take to the airwaves from 12.30pm until 4.20pm, after which he will reflect on the day’s events in an hour-long programme at 8.10pm on BBC Two.
The Welsh journalist will be joined by broadcaster Sophie Raworth and TV presenter and former Royal
Marine JJ Chalmers throughout the afternoon.
Programmes on Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live, as well as on the BBC’s local stations, will also be dedicated to the funeral from 2pm to 4.10pm.
The BBC’s coverage of Prince Philip’s death last Friday aged 99, which led to the clearing of schedules on BBC One and BBC Two, resulted in a record number of complaints to the corporation. Many viewers expressed their disappointment over the cancelling of programmes – and the broadcaster set up a dedicated webpage for viewers to lodge their dissatisfaction.
In a statement defending its “wall-to-wall” coverage, the broadcaster said: “We acknowledge some viewers were