A Wales of a time
THEIR Royal Highnesses loved the Coronation Concert so much they quickly put out their own Royal Highlights video.
The Prince and Princess of Wales included backstage footage of them heading to the royal box at Windsor Castle with their two oldest children.
Their montage of the spectacular event had attracted nearly nine million likes by yesterday evening after it was posted on William and Kate’s Instagram account.
Another five million people liked a reel of the Prince rehearsing for his speech, in which he told King Charles: “Pa, we are all so proud of you.”
His children Prince George, nine, and Princess Charlotte, eight, were seen cheering and clapping enthusiastically alongside thousands of Union Flag-waving concertgoers. The Wales’s video also included stars such as Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Take That entertaining the crowd of 20,000.
Sunday’s event was hosted by Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville – and even featured a cameo from Muppet characters Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
Boogie
Hollywood’s Top Gun legend Tom Cruise sent a message to the King while flying his Second World War P-51 Mustang fighter.
Meanwhile members of the Royal Family could not resist getting up to boogie.
When Lionel Richie belted out his 1983 classic All Night Long (All Night), the Royal Box bopped along – George singing along to the chorus as he waved his flag. Katy Perry’s 2013 song Roar was a particular hit with his sister Charlotte who joined in.
BBC figures showed the concert was seen by an average 10.1 million viewers with a peak audience of 12.3 million.
Patrick O’Mahony masterminded a drone show accompanying the music and called his task “nerve-wracking”.
The Skymagic director said 1,000 drones were used for the display covering Windsor plus events in Cardiff Bay and at Cornwall’s Eden Project.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It was the biggest single performance across multi sites we’ve ever done.
“So to try and co-ordinate it all from one central location in Windsor and trigger three shows all at the same time, all with obviously not rehearsing, giving the game away in advance...It was a quite nervewracking but exciting evening really.”
Michelle Beaver, invited to the concert after being named a Coronation champion for her voluntary work, called the evening “electric”. The 51-year-old nurse, who gives up her own time for a Marie Curie Hospice in her home city Liverpool, added it was “better” than expected.
Amazing
She went on: “We had a better view than I realised we would have.We were near the front, which was amazing.”
A spokesman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport yesterday praised the “spectacular scenes”, including the “largest-ever multi-location UK drone show”.