Can't Do Right For Doing Wrong

No matter how the BBC covered the death of Prince Philip last Friday, the corporation was always going to come in for a bashing. Journalist and former MP Chris Mullin was typical: He described the coverage as “North Korean-style” (he was by no means the only person using the hermit state as a comparison), and said that it would “alienate more licence payers at a time when it needs all the public support it can get.”

Had the BBC not cleared the schedules of its three principal TV channels (BBC One and BBC Two simulcasted programming covering the Duke’s life and his passing, while BBC Four went off-air), but instead devoted some air time to the news, before showing regular programmes, no doubt they would have been castigated for being ‘disrespectful,’ probably by Chris Mullin. Channel 4 were rebuked on social media for doing just that, but responded by saying that it had "a duty to offer an alternative to others."

Criticism of the BBC’s coverage reached such a level that they introduced a page to their website solely for logging complaints about it. Both the BBC and ITV (who don’t seem to have attracted the same level of criticism as the corporation, despite giving similar coverage), saw their audiences vote with their remote controls. ITV lost 60% of its normal Friday night audience, BBC Two lost 66%; BBC One actually lost just 6%.

One commentator remarked that the BBC’s blanket coverage was unfair on the older generation who relied on the BBC for their entertainment as they did not typically have access to cable channels or streaming services, a view that collapses under the weight of argument.

No one was compelled to watch, but 94% of BBC One’s normal audience (of all ages) carried on viewing. Second (and this is stereotyping, I admit), the typical audience for programmes about the royal family would normally comprise more of the older generation anyway. Finally, this argument might have been valid in 1971, when there were just three channels, but fifty years on, even the viewer limited to terrestrial TV has access to over 140 channels through Freeview.

Maybe the BBC (and ITV) did get it wrong, maybe they did go overboard, but comparisons with North Korea are laughable and in any case, watching TV is not compulsory. I would hazard a guess that many people who complained might not have watched the normal programming offered by the two principal broadcasters anyway.

The TV and radio coverage of Prince Philip’s death did not inconvenience me in any way, and there is only one time that I can recall being seriously upset because the TV schedules were affected. That was in August 1968, when five Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia and our national TV channels (and we had only three then) cleared the decks to cover the news. I was ten at the time, and was distraught as the already limited amount of air time devoted to children’s TV was wiped out. That this followed a strike by ITV technicians which lasted several weeks and resulted in several days of blank screens, and then weeks of nothing but repeats, did not help.

Prince Philip’s funeral is this coming Saturday; the last comparable royal occasion on a Saturday was on 6^th September 1997, when Princess Diana’s funeral took place. The funeral of the Queen Mother in 2002, was in midweek and for the life of me I cannot recall any controversy over the media coverage of her death and interment, not compared with that of Prince Philip, anyway.

On the day of Princess Diana’s funeral most sporting events were suspended. Football, cricket, rugby, horse racing and motor racing were all postponed. In the case of Prince Philip’s funeral, most sport is having its start times rescheduled rather than being postponed.  Fixtures for grassroots football in England have only recommenced recently, so while on one hand another temporary hiatus would make little difference one way or another, a further postponement of fixtures would be frustrating for sportsmen who have only just had the opportunity to restart playing the game after five months.

On the day of Princess Diana’s funeral I was at work. Working on Saturdays was not normally part of my job with HSBC, but in the mid-1990s I was seconded to an IT team, and Saturday working became necessary sometimes. The sixth of September was picked as a User Simulation Day for the IT system that was being installed in the department I normally worked in well in advance of the death of the Princess of Wales. The day was to be used to familiarise the users with the system (not all had been exposed to it at that time), and as a stress test on the infrastructure.

When the date and time of Princess Diana’s funeral was announced, and found to clash with our simulation day, a lack of alternatives meant that we had no choice but to go ahead, despite the fact that a lot of people who we needed to be in wanted to watch the funeral on TV. To avoid the possibility of people not turning up, a few TVs were wheeled onto the floor and tuned into the broadcast to allow people to watch. At its peak, the broadcast was watched by 32.1 million people, although apart from the occasional glance at a screen as I walked past, I was not one of them.

Only the 1966 England v West Germany World Cup Final can top those viewing figures, although the 32.3 million people who are supposed to have watched it may not be comparable as audience measurement methods were different then. Since Princess Diana’s funeral, only the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games, along with Boris Johnson’s statement on COVID-19 in March 2020, come close.

I won’t be watching Prince Philip’s funeral, but then again, I rarely watch any royal occasions. The last one I can remember watching for more than a minute or two was the investiture of the Prince of Wales, in 1969 and only then because I think we had a day off school and I have a vague memory of watching it with my grandmother.

I don’t avoid watching royal occasions because I am in any way anti-royal, but simply because I don’t have strong feelings about the monarchy one way or another.

I’m sure that the programmes broadcast by BBC and ITV last Friday, along with the coverage of Saturday’s funeral, will be a comfort to many royal supporters, but for those who are opposed to the monarchy, or like me, are indifferent, a few hours of TV devoted to something we don’t want to watch is not worth getting exercised about.

Unlike me, millions of people do have strong feelings about the royal family - for and against - but whatever your views, the royal family has - like so many other thousands of families in the last year -lost someone who was much loved by them, so I find it hard to sympathise with people who are apparently upset enough to actually complain to the BBC because last Friday’s editions of EastEnders and MasterChef were rescheduled as a result.