QE II Funeral

This was my first and I must say I was caught completely off guard by this. It was my son this morning who first called me and told me to watch. From WaPo:

Many analysts said the funeral could turn out to be the most watched single TV event in history, with a large portion of the 7.7 billion people around the globe catching at least some of it.
…
When police no longer allowed any more people into London’s Hyde Park, several thousand just stood in an empty street near Harrods department store listening to hymns blasting over the loudspeaker.

“I will never see the likes of this again,” said Jillian Martin, an educator from Northern Ireland.

Yes.
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Japanese broadcaster NHK carried the funeral live, with simultaneous interpretation, and the funeral was the third top trending term on Japanese Twitter.

In Sydney, Graham Cousens, 56, was out with friends but said he had set his television at home to record the funeral.

“It’s such a momentous moment,” he said. “Not that I personally feel that much, but I can see what it means to the English.”

Yes.

Even Google turned its logo black in the U.K. on Monday in honor of the queen.

Live events are nerve-racking to pull off, said Jon Reynaga, a British film and TV producer.

But he said having the military involved, the government planning for years and the royal family behind it all, is unique.

“We take great pride in doing things properly,” said Jess Fox, 24, from York, England, who left her home at 4:45 a.m. to get to London.

 

Yes. Nobody pulls off Big Events like the British.

Such a touching (no pun intended) photo. The young foreign female broadcaster bracing herself on the shoulder of a stoic old Limey.

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The funeral was planned with the kind of precision that would cheer a Broadway stage manager. The official schedule had the queen’s coffin moving to Westminster Abbey at 10:44 a.m. Not 10:40, not 10:45.