Was it so wrong to complain of royal coverage?

THE BBC has reportedly received more than 100,000 complaints from members of the public over its coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death.

That would make the coverage of Prince Philip’s death the most complained-about piece of programming in BBC history.

It overtakes the broadcast of Jerry Springer: The Opera, which received 63,000 complaints in 2005.

The BBC, which declined to confirm the number of complaints it received, defended its wall-to-wall programming, saying: “We are proud of our coverage and the role we play during moments of national significance.”

The figures are due to be included in the broadcaster’s fortnightly complaints bulletin, released tomorrow.

At first glance, the complaints seem a little mean-spirited. A bunch of people who couldn’t bear to do without their their nightly ritual of Eastenders or viewers who cared more about finding out the winner of Masterchef than participating in a national period of mourning.

But, the more I think about it, the more I sympathise with the complaints.

When the news about Prince Philip emerged on Friday morning, the corporation cleared its schedules completely.

Eastenders and the Masterchef final were replaced by news

In a year defined by grief on a global scale, it is not hard to see where that frustration has come from

programmes, obituaries and constant rolling news coverage. Would Meghan and Harry attend the funeral? Has the Queen said anything? What impact will Covid-19 have on his funeral?

It was, undoubtedly, a monumental news event.

But it crossed the line from being headline news to forcing viewers to join in a national mourning period that they didn’t sign up for. Want to kick back and watch a bit of Albert Square drama? Forget it, here’s a ninth hour of archive footage of Prince Philip.

The emotion in the voice of the anchor delivering the news almost made me feel guilty for not being overcome with sadness too.

Of course, the BBC wasn’t the only channel to change it schedule to reflect Prince Philip’s death. ITV and Channel 4 both broadcast extended news coverage, albeit to a lesser extent.

But the viewing figures speak for themselves: ITV’S Friday night audience dropped by 60 per cent compared to the previous week.

BBC1’S audience dropped six per cent week-on-week, while BBC2 lost two-thirds of its audience, with just 340,000 people tuning in between 7pm and 11pm.

The most-watched programme on a single channel on Friday night was Channel 4’s Gogglebox, with 4.2 million viewers.

The complaints about coverage of the Duke’s death are less about refusing to honour the death of a royal and more about being told what we should be doing and when.

In a year defined by grief on a global scale, it is not hard to see where that frustration has come from.