The BBC certainly didn't give much elbow room to those eager to accuse the Corporation of insufficient respect yesterday.
At my distance, it's hard to tell if anyone had much warning. The Royal Twitter feed brought the news at noon, nano-seconds ahead of the traditional PA News (itself now using Twitter first). BBC Radio stations were unceremoniously faded out at 12.10pm (including Radio 1 Dance, largely a machine, and Vanessa Feltz, a live person who might have been alerted) to join Evan Davis. Royal correspondent Jonny Dymond was already on hand, expecting to present The World At One. On BBC News, Martine Croxall dashed to the cupboard for a black cardigan.
Sirens presumably got Huw Edwards from Dulwich to BH for 1pm; Mishal Husain sidled in to join Evan Davis on the radio; Evan was subbed later by Sarah Montague. It was, thankfully, 2.45pm before they got to Gyles Brandreth. Generally speaking, the pandemic helped the plans - normally the big names would be on Easter holi-bobs...
Triumph ? You tell me.
Total overreaction. One channel with sombre music and short hourly updates would have been more respectful.
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