The BBC dedicate most of their schedule on Monday to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.
The coverage of the State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II takes to the air from 8 am and runs through to 5 pm on BBC One on Monday, September 19th with several other special programmes concluding the official period of mourning.
The usual offering of BBC Breakfast is on air from 6 am to 8 am looking ahead to the days events and once the funeral service and reflection ends BBC One head straight into news programming, this is followed at 6.15 pm by the continued special editions of The One Show from Manchester which have been entitled since her death as ‘Our Queen Remembered’.
The first Paddington movie continues the royal link – as the famous bear appeared in a sketch with The Queen during her recent 70th anniversary Jubillee celebrations in the summer- and this is followed at 8.30 pm by a BBC News special looking back at the events of the State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Carolina Beltramo, TV analyst at WatchTVAbroad.com, comments:
“Such is the love and admiration for Queen Elizabeth II around the world that her funeral is destined to be the biggest live TV event in history. Generations of people across the globe won’t have been alive the last time pomp and pageantry were seen on this scale. While it’s a sad occasion, they can be forgiven for being enthralled by a spectacle that echoes throughout history. For that reason alone they’ll be drawn to witness the dawn of this new age in their billions.
“No fewer than 4.1billion people are expected to tune in on Monday to witness this historic moment as half the people on planet Earth pause to pay their respects. Thanks to advances in technology, which mean most of us now carry TVs around in our pockets, audience figures will eclipse the opening ceremony of the Atlanta Olympics, when 3.6 billion people watched Muhammad Ali light the Olympic torch in 1996.
“In contrast, an estimated 2.5billion people watched the service for Diana, Princess of Wales, 25 years ago, with 31million Brits tuning in. This was then a UK record for a live TV event.”
