With the Queen's Jubilee holiday fast approaching, many are wanting to know more about The Queen and her time on the throne. Saturday night (May 28) saw Channel 4 air Secrets of the Queen’s Coronation at 9pm.
The documentary special revealed a behind-the-scenes look at the eventful day of the Queen’s Coronation and highlighted memories from those who played a key role in the celebration. On February 6, 1952, the Queen’s father died.
She was on a tour in Kenya on his behalf at the time. Therefore, the tragic news was difficult to reach her when it happened.
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This made The Queen one of the last to know of the tragic news, that would lead to her Coronation. Queen Elizabeth II was then crowned head of state at the tender young age of 25.
The Queen’s Coronation took place on June 2, 1953. Being interviewed on Secrets of the Queen's Coronation, Royal journalist Ingrid Stewart said: "As she became Queen, she had become incredibly busy and Prince Philip’s world was pulled beneath him. So I think it was the Queen’s idea that Prince Phillip would head the Coronation commission."
Secrets of the Queen's Coronation explained how the interior of Westminster had to be rebuilt and took six months to complete. The programme also revealed an interview with Andrew Parker Bowles OBE, who was a pageboy at the Queen’s Coronation.
Andrew showed his own special uniform that he wore at the event when he was just 13 years old. At the momentous event, he was tasked with looking after the Lord Chancellor’s coronet.
Secrets of the Queen's Coronation also spotlighted 18-year-old Baroness Willoughby de Eresby as one of the Queen’s six maids of honour. Being interviewed for the documentary, Willoughby said: "I didn’t know what to expect."
Historian Tracy Borman said in the documentary: "Coronations have had quite a catastrophic history. People dropping crowns at the moment of the actual crowning, people stumbling down the steps of the abbey.
"Perhaps those who had organised Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation had that at the back of their minds."
The rehearsals of the Coronation were also revealed as interviewees in the programme who were at the event, like Andy McCullough, who was a choirboy at the Coronation. He said: "There were choir practices all the time, for about six weeks beforehand. There must have been at least twenty pieces we would have learned."
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