Published: 3 May 2023
- The first broadcast Coronation: The Coronation of George VI in 1937 was the first one covered by the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, following the sudden abdication of his brother Edward VIII the year before.
- Broadcast coverage: Primarily it was a radio moment, covering the royal procession and the ceremony itself, as radio was still the pre-eminent medium in the 1930s.
- TV opportunity: The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ had just started TV broadcasting in 1936 and had hoped to make this a TV first, but bringing TV cameras into Westminster Abbey itself to capture the sacred crowning moment was thought to be intrusive. Instead the procession alone was televised, one of the first significant TV OBs (Outside Broadcasts) in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ history.
- Royal request: Gerald Cock, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Director of Television, wrote a letter to Buckingham Palace, requesting that the King and Queen look through the right hand window of the royal coach at the point where the cameras were positioned on the procession route, so they might catch a smile from the King for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ viewers.
- Technology: Just three cameras were used for the external filming, practically the whole stock of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s camera facility.
- Commentators: Famous, or soon-to-be famous, voices providing the event commentary included John Snagge and Wynford Vaughan Thomas. No female commentators were included.
- First audience experience: Audiences were captivated, one listener wrote – ‘ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ excellent, their best endeavour yet. Conveys scene and colour of procession and one feels a bit of the thrill with the crowds’ (Source: Mass-Observation)
- Radio Times: The Radio Times printed a special Coronation issue with an 8-page colour supplement, selling 3,540,547 copies, a record for any magazine of the day.
- Enhanced TV take up: The next Coronation in 1953 of Queen Elizabeth II was the first moment of post-war glamour and a huge magnet for the take up of television. People rushed out to buy television sets, or crammed themselves into neighbours’ houses around their sets.
- Democratisation: The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ was determined to capture the whole Coronation – procession and ceremony - on television, and intent on sharing this special moment in the life of the nation with as many people as possible.
- Peter Dimmock: He was the man who oversaw the TV operation, using sleight of hand to persuade the authorities to let cameras inside Westminster Abbey – when asked to demonstrate how close cameras would come to the Queen, he used a wide angle lens which made the Queen seem a small and distant figure, but on the day itself he used a close focus lens bringing audiences closer to the proceedings.
- OB kit: In contrast to the 1937 Coronation, the 1953 one used over 20 cameras in multiple locations, both in the Abbey and along the procession route. Kit was brought in from the regions to support the London OB.
- Live: As with all live events things can go wrong, a Coronation being no exception. Forty minutes or so before the procession was about to set off, all the screens in the OB control room went black recalls Seymour de Lotbiniere, in charge of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ operation. A technical fault was rectified and everything worked like clockwork throughout the eight hours of programming. ‘Heaven was on our side’ said de Lotbiniere.
- Commentators: Famous commentators included past war correspondent and TV presenter, Richard Dimbleby, who covered the ceremony itself from his cramped position in the Triforium, high up in Westminster Abbey. Other commentators included Bernard Braden and Brian Johnston
- Continuity: The first continuity announcer for the event was Sylvia Peters, beginning with these words: ‘it is a great and joyous day for us all’. She was the youngest of three such announcers, believed to have been chosen partly because at 28, she was closest to the age of the Queen. She later coached the Queen on her broadcast delivery for her first Christmas message.
- Organisation: The Coronation of 1953 was a feat of organisation, described meticulously in the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s own publication, The Year that Made the Day, which took readers behind the scenes of all that had been involved in setting up an OB of this scale.
- Radio Times circulation: The Radio Times broke its previous circulation records with its Coronation1953 issue, which sold 9,012,358 copies. It could not be printed in colour as post-war austerity still exercised controls over paper, but the magazine designer pre-printed the cover in yellow, so creating the illusion of colour treatment.
- UK audience: For the first time for a broadcast event in the UK, TV viewers overtook radio listeners, with 11.75 million listeners, 20.5 million viewers.
- Global audience: Enormous efforts were made to reach international viewers, with the event streamed live on the 'Eurovision' network to the continent as well as shipped by helicopter and Royal Canadian Air Force jet from Alexandra Palace to Montreal for retransmission on the same calendar day across North America. Audience figures touched new heights: 1.5 million viewers in Europe; 2 million viewers in Canada; 85 million viewers across the USA.
- Audience experience: Huge anticipation and excitement were recorded by audiences – ‘Once it started we couldn’t tear ourselves away from the set, and considered even eating an unnecessary interruption’ (Source: Mass-Observation)
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