drooping the colour
I don't love the Queen. I heard a lot of people over the Jubilee weekend unembarrassedly expressing this sentiment, but I shall restrict myself to saying that I have every sympathy for her, as I would for any zoo animal. I'm sure that somebody must have said this before, but the Royals are a bit like zoo animals - often on display, yet requiring 'experts' to decode their behaviour and thought processes for the layman.
Admittedly, it is a very well-maintained zoo.
I went into London on the Jubilee Sunday, with Justin and Bobs and Heidi. My cousin Janet and her husband Stuart live near Waterloo, so we based ourselves at theirs and went to witness the flotilla with them. Prior to this, we went on the London Eye. It wasn't the best day for it, with misty cloud and rain gobbling the tops of the taller buildings, but it was an experience - one that made me feel slightly seasick in fact. Raising the question of what would have happened if I had been - would a team of cleaners have been helicoptered in?
I tend to agree with Stuart, who thinks that the Eye is a disaster that hasn't happened yet, possibly because it hasn't quite decided on the most dramatically effective way in which to malfunction.
As for the flotilla, by the time we got there it was hard to see the river, except in wavering patches as people closer to the Embankment than us shifted around. We hadn't had the forethought, as some people had, to bring a stepladder. So the only one of us who got a good view of the passing Royals was Heidi, up on Justin's shoulders. At one point she reported seeing 'a very massive boat with gold bits on'. But, to be frank, she was no Jennie Bond.
There was a screen showing the BBC coverage. It looked sunny on there, and for a time it seemed that the boats might appear with the sun, as it were, in tow. In fact, it was closer to the reverse - with the rain setting in towards the end of the pageant, causing us to exchange the thrill of 'being there' for the luxury of watching it all on telly.
The BBC coverage has come in for some stick and I must admit I did worry when, on a trailer for the Jubilee concert, Jo Whiley promised that it would 'blow the roof off Buckingham Palace'. That hardly seemed to be what the Queen would want - surely she had enough of that in the war? But were ITV doing any better? I caught up with them on Tuesday. Here was Mark Austin hemmed in by crowds in the Mall and looking as if he'd rather be almost anywhere else. 'Scouts! That's all I need!', he complained as a troop of these descended upon him. One gave him his woggle, or I think it was his woggle - anyway, he wasn't very appreciative. Eventually he was reduced - 'reduced' was the impression he distinctly gave - to asking a little girl who her favourite performer in the Jubilee concert had been. 'Gary', she said. 'Gary', he repeated, clearly trying to place this person and probably thinking: 'Glitter? Surely not...'
Meanwhile, back in the studio, David Starkey had burst into tears. Everything was going splendidly.
Admittedly, it is a very well-maintained zoo.
I went into London on the Jubilee Sunday, with Justin and Bobs and Heidi. My cousin Janet and her husband Stuart live near Waterloo, so we based ourselves at theirs and went to witness the flotilla with them. Prior to this, we went on the London Eye. It wasn't the best day for it, with misty cloud and rain gobbling the tops of the taller buildings, but it was an experience - one that made me feel slightly seasick in fact. Raising the question of what would have happened if I had been - would a team of cleaners have been helicoptered in?
I tend to agree with Stuart, who thinks that the Eye is a disaster that hasn't happened yet, possibly because it hasn't quite decided on the most dramatically effective way in which to malfunction.
As for the flotilla, by the time we got there it was hard to see the river, except in wavering patches as people closer to the Embankment than us shifted around. We hadn't had the forethought, as some people had, to bring a stepladder. So the only one of us who got a good view of the passing Royals was Heidi, up on Justin's shoulders. At one point she reported seeing 'a very massive boat with gold bits on'. But, to be frank, she was no Jennie Bond.
There was a screen showing the BBC coverage. It looked sunny on there, and for a time it seemed that the boats might appear with the sun, as it were, in tow. In fact, it was closer to the reverse - with the rain setting in towards the end of the pageant, causing us to exchange the thrill of 'being there' for the luxury of watching it all on telly.
The BBC coverage has come in for some stick and I must admit I did worry when, on a trailer for the Jubilee concert, Jo Whiley promised that it would 'blow the roof off Buckingham Palace'. That hardly seemed to be what the Queen would want - surely she had enough of that in the war? But were ITV doing any better? I caught up with them on Tuesday. Here was Mark Austin hemmed in by crowds in the Mall and looking as if he'd rather be almost anywhere else. 'Scouts! That's all I need!', he complained as a troop of these descended upon him. One gave him his woggle, or I think it was his woggle - anyway, he wasn't very appreciative. Eventually he was reduced - 'reduced' was the impression he distinctly gave - to asking a little girl who her favourite performer in the Jubilee concert had been. 'Gary', she said. 'Gary', he repeated, clearly trying to place this person and probably thinking: 'Glitter? Surely not...'
Meanwhile, back in the studio, David Starkey had burst into tears. Everything was going splendidly.
posted by martin at 12:28 PM
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