Huw Edwards has reminisced about the time be accidentally bumped into the Queen at Buckingham Palace before she told him he'd best be off.
Speaking during the BBC's coverage of the ceremonial procession of the Queen's coffin through central London on Wednesday afternoon, Huw relayed his story beginning with the intriguing words: "I probably shouldn't share this."
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The master orator proceeded to relay a fond memory during a time he attended a reception at Buckingham Palace several years ago. He said: "Of course, everyone wants to talk to the Queen. Everyone is kind of jostling for position and I kind of gave up to be honest and stood in an adjoining little corridor.
"And to my shock and terror, who turned up but Her Majesty? And stopped and we were chatting away and it was about 7.30pm, I'd taken the night off, I thought who knows when I'll finish at Buckingham Palace, I'm not doing the 10' O Clock news.
"Anyway, we chatted for five minutes and she looked at her watch and she said: 'You've only got two hours before you're on the news so you'd better go'. And off she went."
Chuckling at the memory on the BBC programme, Huw admitted that he did then leave at that point. He added: "It's nice to reflect in that way, even on a day like this. It's nice to smile as well."
The presenter, who received much praise for his remarkable shift as he told Britain the Queen had died, then returned to the "magnificent images" being captured as the Queen was taken to Westminster Hall where she will lie in State until Monday.
Over the years Edwards has delivered news at historic moments in modern times such as the news of Barack Obama's first presidential election victory in the US, the results of the EU referendum, and the wedding of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to name a few. But according to Tony Blair's former communications chief Alistair Campbell Huw Edwards had been preparing to announce the news of the Queen's death for "some time".
Mr Campbell, now an author and podcaster,. said Edwards had done "superbly". On Twitter he posted: "Huw Edwards told me a few months ago he had been preparing, practising, and even rehearsing in front of his bathroom mirror for this moment for some time."
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