"The Coronation" (2018) - BBC One Documentary on Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation


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This is a fascinating documentary, saw it earlier. I loved the Queen's remarks, the little asides especially about the Cullinan diamond, the film of all the preparations, so detailed. Bravo the Duke of Norfolk! Also the little details about the jewels within the crowns, like the ruby reputedly worn by Henry V on his helmet at Agincourt with a plume from his feather headdress still inside the ruby. To have Coronations that stretch back to 1056 is just remarkable.
 
I only uttered that -for me- Lady Anne was the star of the docu. But of course it is like with Madonna's fans. When she sang off-key, they will still claim she sung like a nightingale.
Don't drag Madonna into this. Here's one queen who won't stand for it ? *sharpening my knives*
 
1. Point 3 in that post was meant to show that the Queen was always going to be the star of the show.

2. And I'm aware that everyone here know who the Queen of the UK is.

3. And after reading what people wrote to me in the thanks button, I think most people understood what I meant.


1. As Alastair Bruce himself has said, it was never supposed to be an interview.

2. The Queen (as you know) doesn't give interviews, and most British commentators/experts agree that this is one of many reasons for her success as monarch.


Watch the documentary here, not likely to be on YouTube for a long time, so do it now:

Adding my thanks to the many! Loving the detail; glad of the opportunity to share this fabulous documentary:flowers:
 
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Although the queen was charming, I find it a pity that of all the interviews, or 'conversations' that HM could have given, it was decided that she should talk about jewels. IMHO a reflection on the value of the monarchy in this day and age, or a reflection on her reign, would have been much more valuable and certainly much, much more interesting than a hand full of comments on a few stones.

You worded it better than I did in this thread. By stating that without Lady Anne Glenconner it was like fish soup without the fish, was exactly because the Queen's contribution to the docu was very limited to some comments on the jewels, with miniscule side steps (about the children in the palace or 'An awfully lot of backward walking"). It was out of tune with the massive expectations which were raised on before hand. Impossible fo fill a whole documentary with. Luckily there were folks like Lady Anne, who gave nice eye-witness faits-divers.
 
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Thank you, Royal Norway, for posting the documentary. :flowers: Loved watching it just now.
 
Thank you Royal Norway for your kindness of posting the documentary. I hadn’t expected to see it, so, it’s greatly appreciated. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Again, many thanks.
 
You worded it better than I did in this thread. By stating that without Lady Anne Glenconner it was like fish soup without the fish, was exactly because the Queen's contribution to the docu was very limited to some comments on the jewels, with miniscule side steps (about the children in the palace or 'An awfully lot of backward walking"). It was out of tune with the massive expectations which were raised on before hand. Impossible fo fill a whole documentary with. Luckily there were folks like Lady Anne, who gave nice eye-witness faits-divers.



Couldn’t agree more. Regarding the age old tale about the screening of the royal anointing being too holy to broadcast from behind the canopy, I really thought this documentary was going to be groundbreaking by actually showing this part of the ceremony for the first time. How very disappointing all round.
 
I'm confused, I have not yet watched the documentary and am no expert in the various crowns (I'm a bit better at the tiaras) but from the short clips I've seen, I thought the crown the Queen grabbed was the one that she wore for parts of the coronation and has subsequently worn annually until recently to parliament.
The other crown, the really heavy 4+ pound pure gold one was also used in the coronation, but has not been used since?
Can someone help me out - were both crowns featured in the documentary? Has the Queen worn the heavy coronation one since the coronation?
 
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Two crowns were featured. The coronation crown which was made as a replica of the crown of St. Edward the Confessor after the restoration of the monarchy. The other crown is the Imperial State Crown.

The Queen only wore St. Edwards crown for her coronation and never again after that. She wore the Imperial State Crown leaving her coronation and wears that crown for the opening of Parliament except for the few occasions where she wore a hat.
 
Couldn’t agree more. Regarding the age old tale about the screening of the royal anointing being too holy to broadcast from behind the canopy, I really thought this documentary was going to be groundbreaking by actually showing this part of the ceremony for the first time. How very disappointing all round.

why would it be shown, when it was felt to be a private moment?
 
I do not understand the laments about the part HM played in this documentary. It was conceived as a retrospective view of The Coronation itself, not the 65 years following.

As to lamenting that HM only spoke about the Crown Jewels, pray tell, since she is the only one to wear that crown, hold the sceptre and orb, and then only once, who else could speak from a personal viewpoint but the Queen? And what a delight she was and, for the first time, she seemed totally at ease with the camera and the narrator. Who could forget those twinkling eyes and beautiful smile as she reminisced?

As to not televising the "Anointing with oil", that was and is a deeply spiritual and private moment between Her Majesty and her God. In the same way, it will also be the same for both Charles and William. We were not and will not be invited any more than we would broadcast people making Confession.

There are limits to what we need to see and know and to understand the difference between a need and a want and it has been very illuminating to understand just how little is really understood about the part a Coronation plays in the very fabric of the monarchy.
 
The documentary has been removed from youtube for copyright reasons.

We don't post entire news articles here due to copyright so we also have to realise that many documentaries are also copyrighted and so shouldn't be linked either.
 
It was a wonderful documentary, but it should be released online and YouTube for everyone to see. Very historic.
 
The BBC own it and will release it via their shop at some point in the future. They spent a lot of money making it and would like to recoup some of that money. It is no different to any other documentary or TV show - the copyright belongs to the organisation who made it.

As an author myself (co-wrote a number of boring History textbooks for high school students here in Australia) I totally agree with the BBC on this. They put in the time, money and effort and shouldn't have it stolen (and that is what you are doing when you break copyright - stealing someone else's work.)

I am not sure about 'historic' after all the film of the coronation has been out there for decades and the Queen talking about that day is hardly 'historic' as her views on that day have been reported since the day itself in various biographies of her.

I haven't seen it - as I do respect the rights of copyright which applies as strictly to things in a digital format as anywhere else. In NSW we even force our final year students to undertake a study called 'All My Own Work' which explains local Australian and International laws on plagiarism, copyright etc.

An important point from their unit on copyright. 'Just because it is online does not mean that it is copyright free.' 4.4 Copyright In a Digital Environment- | NSW Education Standards
 
There was also a lousy error in the documentary, which made me doubt how error-free they were about the rest. The easily to check facts learns that Joseph Asscher (the man who cut the Cullinan) came not from Antwerp, nor was that the place where the Cullinan was split. This had to be Amsterdam.

Picture: Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Juliana and Princess Beatrix visiting Royal Asscher in Amsterdam
 
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I just watched this documentary. The Queen is a formidable person. It was very nice to see the Queen talking about her coronation.
 
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