Will you view with Huw or ITV’s Julie?
TELEVISION experts predict UK that viewing figures for tomorrow’s funeral may eclipse the 32million who watched the Westminster Abbey service for Diana, Princess of Wales.
Globally, 4.1billion people – more than half the planet’s population – are expected to tune in.
Huw Edwards will helm the BBC’s coverage from 8am until 5pm with Fergal Keane in London, while Kirsty Young and David Dimbleby will be in Windsor, as part of a team of 30 providing commentary across BBC TV and radio.
ITV’s coverage will start at 9.30am and will be hosted by Tom Bradby and Julie Etchingham. News anchor Mary Nightingale will lead the coverage from Westminster Abbey.
On Sky News, Anna Botting and Dermot Murnaghan will host from 9am, following an early morning broadcast by Kay Burley.
The first key moment will be at 10.35am, with the Queen’s coffin carried from Westminster Hall and placed on to the State Gun Carriage to Westminster Abbey.
The funeral service will begin at 11am and end at 11.55am, when the Last Post will signal a nationwide two-minute silence. From 12.15pm to 1pm, there will be a procession from Westminster Abbey to Hyde Park Corner. Another key moment will be the procession in Windsor from 3.10pm, and the Committal Service from 4pm.
Apart from the private burial in Windsor at 7.30pm, camera crews will capture almost every moment, which will be the result of more than a decade of planning involving senior Palace staff and broadcasting executives. Camera angles and close-ups have been worked out in advance and carefully scripted.
Footage will be pooled to TV channels worldwide.
Sky’s Anna Botting, 54, said: ‘It feels totally daunting because so many people have put so many hours of preparation into this, so you don’t want to let them down by getting something wrong. But also it is an emotional occasion.’