Her human touch was so refreshing

WE SAW a calm, relaxed, shrewd young woman conscious of her responsibilities and speaking with easy friendliness that never lost its natural dignity.

Television cameras inevitably made it a warmer, more direct, and personal broadcast than any of her Christmas Day radio talks. Phrasing and style that are passable on radio have no place when sight is joined to sound.

In her opening remarks, she said that TV had made her (and how refreshing was her frank use of ‘I’ and ‘me’ instead of the impersonal ‘The Crown’) less remote: and that was precisely the effect she produced.

We saw, as she obviously intended us to see, a real person, rather than a remote monarch. She combined sincerity with leadership and vision.

The contrast between her brisk fireside chat and the portentous mumbo-jumbo with which BBC TV led up to it on a show titled Royal Prologue suggested very forcibly, and not for the first time, that if these affairs were left in the Queen’s hands, the relationship between monarch and people would be a good deal healthier.

The talk was preceded on ITV by Mantovani (One never gets tired of ballet music, does one?) and his orchestra. I should regard it as a very healthy sign if the audience ratings show that viewers plumped for Mantovani over the absurd claptrap on the BBC.