After BBC jubilee farce, ITV chosen for Queen’s 90th
The BBC appears to have been snubbed as the official broadcaster for the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations in May next year.
A spectacular pageant involving more than 600 horses and 1,200 people at Windsor Castle will be broadcast live by ITV instead.
The event’s producer and director Simon Brooks-Ward declared it would be a ‘birthday party to remember’ when he unveiled the plans yesterday.
He said: ‘This will be a spectacular set piece national event to celebrate a truly remarkable life.’
Intriguingly, it seems as if the BBC, the traditional choice of broadcaster for such occasions, has been overlooked in favour of its commercial rival.
The national broadcaster has suffered criticism of its royal coverage in recent years. Its presentation of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations attracted almost 5,000 complaints and was described as ‘inane’ and ‘dumbed down’.
Stephen Fry led the criticism on Twitter, lambasting its broadcasting from the centrepiece river pageant as ‘mindnumbingly tedious’.
In 2007 the Queen was upset when the documentary A Year With The Queen was edited to suggest she had stormed out of a photoshoot with photographer Annie Leibovitz after she was asked to remove her crown. The BBC had to issue an apology and make clear she had done no such thing. It was heavily criticised by an independent inquiry into the incident.
The BBC’s royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell has also found himself out of favour. In 2005 Prince Charles was heard to describe him as an ‘awful man’.
Younger royals such as Prince William and Harry have also favoured ITV in recent years. And only this week Prince Harry revealed in an interview to rookie Sky News royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills that he feels ready to have children.
When asked why the BBC was not involved in the Queen’s 90th birthday pageant, Mr Brooks-Ward sidestepped the question, saying only: ‘We have worked with ITV in the past.’ Sources later stressed, however, that ITV had filmed a similar event at Windsor to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It was considered a huge success and meant ITV was a ‘natural choice’ for the 2016 event.
The Queen will become the longestserving monarch in British history on September 9 – overtaking her greatgreat-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
Her birthday celebrations next year are likely to be the biggest royal event since the 2012 Diamond Jubilee.
Hosted in the shadow of Windsor Castle, the Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration will take place from May 12 to 15, with the Queen – whose actual birthday is on April 21 – and members of her family attending on the final day.
Participants will include performers from across the Commonwealth and other nations. The military will also be well represented and will include the Queen’s Mounted Troops. Set-piece events will be interspersed with performances by dancers, actors and singers such as Katherine Jenkins.
The entire undisclosed cost of the event is being met by sponsors such as Jaguar Land Rover and Waitrose, as well as ticket sales. Any proceeds will be donated to the Queen’s charities. Tickets will go on sale in November.
A BBC spokesman said last night that any suggestion ‘that the BBC has been snubbed is completely untrue’, adding: ‘The BBC works more regularly with the Palace than any other broadcaster.
‘In the past few months the BBC Events team has won the prestigious Royal Television Society Award for their coverage of the 70th anniversary of D-Day and a Bafta for coverage of the 100th anniversary of World War One.’