When The Country Stood Still: Inside The Queen’s Final Moments –  Hw

good morning the headlines on Thursday the 8th of September the new prime minister Liz truss is expected to announce a new energy plan in the House of Commons the children of the Duke and judges of Cambridge started a new school yesterday heavy showers are expected in some places and Friday we’ll see low pressure if you watch those breakfast bulletins on that Thursday morning or listen to the radio or even read the newspaper or even went online there wasn’t a sniff of this huge news that would come later that afternoon there

was a change of prime minister it was the the dying days of the Boris Johnson regime and the hand over to Liz Trust politics was everywhere the government was in a state of Crisis and meltdown and we had this sense of what on Earth is going on we’re in transition there’s this churn of prime ministers I have just accepted Her Majesty the Queen’s kind invitation to form a new government when we wrapped all that up we thought what a week little does anyone know the biggest news is yet to come I came at to work on Thursday the 8th of September

concerned the queen had stayed in Bal moral during the change of power from Boris Johnson to Liz truss instead of coming back down to London it was unusual the feeling was very ominous it was going to be life-changing for all of us seeing the photograph of the queen that was taken just before the Prime Minister came into the room she was looking frail but she was in good spirits and on good form she looks so thin she looked so tiny her sort of face and her smile was so prominent because she was somehow so

diminished she was elderly and frail but her eyes were twinkling and she had this wonderful beaming smile on her face as though she was enjoying people began to look and go oh gosh there really has been a decline since we last saw her but the story moves on she was already very frail and this was exceptionally demanding suddenly the news came that the privy Council which would be a regular meeting of the queen and the privy counselors to talk about the business of government that ially related to the Monarch that wouldn’t be

held at all she’d also canel a privy council meeting which was most unlike her and because the queen had been so healthy for so many years in recent months the queen has taken on fewer commitments the Queen’s engagement had been cut right back she went to the Chelsea flower show she opened the Elizabeth line and it was obvious she was very frail you saw a situation where every time the queen attended an event a member of her family was with her I think the queen probably always hated letting people

down but one thing she was determined to do of course was make sure she was on show for her Platinum Jubilee celebrations but it took a lot out of her Palace alluded to Mobility problems which were obvious and back problems there’s been speculation about you know was it more serious than that there’s lots of signs that there is something wrong and an underlying condition but she was very eager I think to keep that private so her next Target really was to get to her beloved Scotland uh Bal moral means so much to her it always has and

she was determined to get up there and she wanted to try and do the kind of things that she had always done which was go out attend picnics on in the Heather and so forth Bal moral in abedin Shire the 50,000 acre estate is the Queen’s summer residence and thought to be her favorite place a royal residence since 1852 it was bought for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert that decision to to spend that summer in Balmoral was very very telling Bal moral was her happy place she called it you know a sort of piece of Paradise

in in the highlands of Scotland they spent every summer there and it was very much a place of family of relaxation and Retreat I think it was there that she really wasn’t a queen typically she was wife mother grandmother great grandmother and she adored it and one of the things that she particularly liked at Bal Marl she knew that she would be in the same bed for two or 3 months she loved all the Pursuits the fishing the deer stalking riding in her Land Rover in the summer of 2022 the Queen’s family are concerned for her health and

never far from her side the family knew that she was approaching the end and there was an arrangement that her children in rotation would be there over that summer Princess Royal and Tim Lawrence had been in residence for a week or so by early September so too are Prince Charles and Camila Duchess of Cornwall but on the night of the 7th they are 160 m away Charles and Camila who’ve been staying on the balal estate at Burk have gone down to Dunphy’s house in ASA for for a fundraising dinner that same night of the 7th of

September the rest of the Queen’s family are in England Harry and Megan the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are visiting from America William and Kate the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor they’d moved home from London to Windsor their children were starting a new chapter in their lives they were all going to go to a new local school welcome George welcome to lber hou welcome welcome Charlotte lovely to have you with with us good morning Liz truss has been the Prime Minister for less than 48 hours

but her energy plan is expected to have a big impact a meeting of the privy Council has been boned and the queen has been advised to rest by doctors now for sport headlines it was a night to forget for both Rangers and Liverpool so we knew it was going to be a big political day but there was some kind of straws in the wind that all was not particularly well at uh bmal there was a briefing taking place at Windsor Castle which was about this so-call London Bridge the procedure for the Queen’s death and that briefing suddenly

ended we are are hearing from the palace that the Queen’s health is deteriorating now at this stage the people I was speaking to were very clear to say you know all of this is off the Record early on the 8th of September at balm moral castle in Scotland the Queen’s Medical Team a called to her bedside the news is deeply concerning there was a phone call put through from B moral castle that the Queen’s condition had worsened and the prince should hurry to his mother’s bedside I think the point is that it was already a

very serious news story when it happens it will be entirely different it will not be as we planned it Thursday the 8th of September started just like any normal day I had a meeting with my team we picked the news stories we were going to cover on the show I’m pretty sure uh that day I actually had a day off um there was no big Royal story planned I think I was out shopping I was doing my normal thing I was hosting a big meeting with staff in my in my job at City University barely 48 hours into her Premiership prime minister Liz truss

faced is a challenging day the cost of living crisis has rumbled on through the summer and now as we approach Autumn action is finally being taken dealing with Rising energy bills is top of the agenda for the new prime minister and a solution won’t come cheap the queen has been in Residence at Bal moral since the end of July and in High Spirits I discovered a little bit about the very last weekend and she’d had a a house party of her Bose Lions cousins the Bose Lions of course were the queen mother’s family and she’s

always been extremely close to them the moderator of the Church of Scotland was a house guest and they had very Lively discussions there had been some concessions if you like to old age um she had dispensed with the tradition of having a piper play at supper and she told the ladies and the gentlemen that they didn’t need to um dress particularly uh for dinner and and I thought that was quite significant she wanted to to do as much as she can as normal but even she realized it was it was going to be too exhausting to uh to

go through all those multiple changes of costume that she was used to do she was determined to carry on to the end in this beloved Place surrounded by um The Familiar landscape and by by her family but on the morning of the 8th of September the Queen’s Inner Circle raised concern for her wellbeing I think that when her maid went in to open the curtains to see if she had a comfortable night there was something about the Queen’s demeanor that wasn’t right but there was enough concern turn for a helicopter was sent to collect the

Prince of Wales to fly him up to Bal moral the former president Bush’s daughter Jenna is about to interview The Duchess of Cornwall and suddenly um that’s called off and then they look out of the window and the helicopter is seen with with the Prince of Whales and The Duchess of corn more leaving in Westminster the cabinet secretary Simon case informs Liz truss that the queen is seriously ill the lines of communication in good times and in bad obviously are very important from what we know about behind

the scenes of course is that Simon casee who was the uh uh the private secretary to to the cabinet he would have been in touch with sir Edward Young the Queen’s private secretary that is the sort of the chain of command if you like when something like this happens they run how the head of state relates to the head of government and and and so on so they would have been in minute by minute contact on that day put yourself in the position of of Liz truss she’s been prime minister for two days and she gets a briefing from her cabinet secretary to

say that her majesty the queen is Gravely ill I dread to think what that feeling is like because she’s then got to go about her normal business she goes into the House of Commons for a really important debate knowing full well that something huge is probably about to happen a plan has been in place for the death of the queen since the 1960s code named London Bridge the British Monarchy is very practical and it always keeps the funerals for significant members of that family ready and and because there is a plan it is regularly looked at and

revised I think I’ve been aware of plans around the Queen’s death since I first started working in broadcasting on occasions like this you get I think a a fascinating insight into Royal protal and the way things are so carefully planned each member was named after a certain Bridge so the Queen Mother for example was the Tay Bridge Prince of Wales at the time was Beni bridge and when it came to her majesty the queen that was London Bridge the Queen’s death London Bridge was always going to be an immense event

partly because of how long she’d been on the throne London Bridge you know began planning decades ago and the queen would have overseen uh all of that London Bridge is the living breathing plan that have iterated over the decades as technology has changed and as the Personnel involved have changed and also as the queen and her family’s wishes changed over the years as well alongside London Bridge is a plan dealing with the Queen’s possible death in Scotland code named Operation unicorn the queen had arrived any weeks

before and with her being a little more frail the possibility of her dying in Scotland would was deemed to be high enough to make sure that everything was tuned perfectly and in the buildup to the Queen’s final visit to Bal moral The Garrison sergeant major went to work with the gamekeepers who the queen had asked would carry her if she died at baral moral and they formed her first bar party these are men who she knew very well at Westminster it’s business as usual this will help us build a stronger more resilient a more secure United

Kingdom I commend this motion to the house I know come to leader of the opposition K thank you Mr Speaker and can I thank the Prime Minister for advanced sight of our opening speech politics had been in a total frenzy you know and all attention was on the commons it was a full house yesterday the Prime Minister tried desperately to blame labor K sta was responding to the statement by the government the first hint really came in Parliament that day didn’t it when the news went down both the front benches and Nadim zaha is Whispering into the

the ear of the Prime Minister spot on but then there was a note that was passed down from Angela Raina to Rachel Reeves who was sitting next to K stama who was standing up responding you could see on the labor front benches and they’d obviously read it do we stop him what we learned subsequently was out of shot was sinday Hil the speaker of the commons wildly gesticulating at um Angela Rena to try to get her to get starma to wind up because the note said starma had to leave the to be briefed on the Queen’s condition as the lunchtime news

bulletins go to air Buckingham Palace makes its first announcement on the Queen’s condition following further evaluation this morning the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision the queen remains comfortable and at bound moral Parliament responds immediately Lindsay Hoy the speaker then stood up and made that announcement I know I speak on behalf of the entire house when I say that we send our best wishes to her majesty the queen and that

she and the roal family are in our thoughts and prayers at this moment so that was a really big moment because then suddenly all the politicians the world of politics now that stopped and all eyes were on bow moral and it was that statement that had set the alarm bells ringing we know that there could be more below the surface and so you know we have people who make calls who know people who do know things who were saying is this serious the reply came back quite clearly that it was from that moment in my world of news and current

affairs everything changed profoundly we obviously abandoned all our plans for the program that we were going to do and instead planned a program around this very serious impending news and then there began to be a series of tweets from the Prime Minister the leader of the opposition to Nicholas sturgeon in Scotland all people saying Thoughts with the queen and the royal family in the House of Commons Liz trust said the whole country will be deeply concerned and the Archbishop of Canterbury says the prayers of the

nation are with the queen I walked into The Newsroom at about 12:30 just after the statement had dropped about her medical condition and I saw one of our Royal producers standing surrounded by a bunch of other journalists and she looked ashen-faced and as I walked up she said concerned that’s a terrible word in Palace speak obviously after that statement we Royal correspondents were all asking them for more information and it was just radio silence which is another sign another alarm bell ringing there I was

at home when this rather strange announcement came from the palace being the old hack that I am um my office is just beside Westminster so not too very far from Buckingham Palace so I self- deployed to Green Park wearing a black suit a white shirt and a dark tie with a black tie in my back pocket and I think at that point I knew that this was going to be the day that we needed to put our plans into action and they said how quickly can you get to Buckingham Palace and I said well 12 13 seconds it becomes a human story at that

point are you going to get there at the end or not when we heard that the family were flying up to balm moral it was very clear what the significance of this was the queen is placed under medical supervision after her doctors became concerned for her health I think the point is that it was already a very serious news story by the time that we got that statement so there really wasn’t any question about whether we’d start deploying people we obviously would I had a bag packed in my office and had had for quite a few months just

in case the queen died behind the scenes obviously there was a lot of concern and there was a feeling that it was probably going to be better to be safe than sorry and I remember going back to my office and phoning ITN and saying should I come in and they were like are you nearby yeah I think you should probably come in I got the call in from my office um when I was actually walking through Green Park on the way to my office but pass Buckingham Palace and they said how quickly can you get to Buckingham Palace

and I said well 12 13 seconds from the moment that the palace put out that statement everybody realized that this was incredibly serious BBC 1 Fades out its regular daytime schedule Bargain Hunt is a hugely popular daytime show so it just showed the magnitude and importance of this that they pulled out so abruptly and went straight to Rolling news and then we learn that Prince William is on his way to balm moral but we know that he hasn’t left yet so nobody at this point is quite sure who’s traveling with whom or exactly when

Buckingham Palace says the 96-year-old remains comfortable Prince Charles and Camila who were staying on the estate of travel to be with the queen and the Duke of Cambridge is also on his way Prince Charles and Camila were in Scotland already they made it to Boral princess an was there but for the rest of the family to get there was going to be a Race Against Time the news are obviously Grim as Charles often does at moments of intense personal sadness and grief he took himself off for a walk across the Moors

and through the forest around Burk Hall his Royal bodyguards didn’t go with him they knew where he was because at some stage there was a phone call put through from Bal moral Castle to bur call that the Queen’s condition had worsened and the prince should hurry to his mother’s bedside so they found him and they drove him the short distance back to the castle meanwhile government officials prepared to deploy London Bridge the plan for the Monarch’s death I was always conscious that one day and it could be very suddenly it would come

into operation Jim babington has spent 15 years writing guidelines to align local authorities with London Bridge so consequently I ended up carrying my papers with me wherever I was going almost if it was a weekend away if it was a holiday my little green messenger bag would come with the file in it with the laptop in it ready to go in terms of preparations for um Royal death a senior a senior Royal Well I personally have been rehearsing for such eventualities for for 30 years I don’t know how many rehearsals I’ve been a part of since

1988 but when we were doing them for TV obviously we weren’t broadcasting them but if I was outside Bucking Palace we would only talk about Mrs Robinson we wouldn’t talk about the queen and you would have to stand there with rehearsal written on my notepad so just in case anybody back at Bas saw it and didn’t know what was going on they knew it was just a rehearsal and I would always say at the end of those rehearsals you do them in a studio with you know Auto Q computers wire Services I would always say when it happens cuz it is when not

if when it happens it will be entirely different to this it will not be as we plann it how right I was well look I think all we can say and bucking your Palace you know how often have we repeated this never give us a running commentary on the Queen’s Health but I think what we can say today is they wouldn’t have issued this statement they wouldn’t have uh told news outlets uh to report this had it not been uh very serious when I got home and turned on the BBC the BBC News set seemed already to have gone to its emergency setting

and the news reader was already wearing black there was a growing sense as as the media picked this story up as broadcasters switched into black tie I think there was a sense of what was happening at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor Prince Harry receives a call from his father Harry we know according to his Memoir had tried to make contact with William and William hadn’t responded a daso falcon 900 jet one of two reserved for Royal use is scheduled to depart from RAF North H halt in 20 minutes the destination abedine airport

45 miles from the Bal moral estate it was significant uh that William was going alone Kate was not going and the explanation for that was uh their children had just started a new school almost the first or second day she needed to be there for them and also the inference was that this was going to be a very tight Family Circle the distances involved with the queen being in Scotland and other members of the roal family around the country must have put huge Pres those individuals when we heard that the family were flying up to

balm moral to my mind it was very clear what the significance of this was we had a serious health scare for the country’s monar flight number krf 23r the private royal family jet to abedine is held on the runway and misses its planned takeoff time a royal flight was scheduled to leave we were told at 1:30 but it actually left later were they hanging on the ground for other members of the family to arrive Harry and Megan announced they will fly together to Scotland it is unclear if they will join the jet waiting at Raf north

hold the great mystery still is Prince Harry why he wasn’t on that flight and why he had to make his own Arrangements there was a a lot of so-called kremlinology I.E who’s there and who’s not and what does that tell us Dermot Mahan is the first journalist to arrive at Buckingham Palace so I just went there and at Canada gate where the crews normally set up there was no one there nothing was really going on but I just out of precaution I just went and lent like that on the ballustrade and it’s like a Californian Gold Rush staked out

Prime position there I got the call again saying stay where you are the camera crew are coming and my crew got there and off we went just keep saying that we’ve lost a very good afternoon this is Sky News live from Buckingham Palace which says that her majesty the queen is under medical supervision after her doctors became concerned about her health it was just me a camera a producer and tourists Milling around and you know as they heard us talking about it we were gathering a kind of respectful audience and I could hear

people kind of saying to each other it’s about the Queen the Royal flight finally takes off from RAF North H halt in West London it has been delayed by 69 minutes there is space for 14 passengers but not all the seats are filled unknown to The Wider World princes William Andrew and Edward are on board board with Edward’s wife Sophie they are due to arrive at aine airport at 3:50 p.m.

but the big thing that just sticks in my mind of that is the fact that they were going there were plenty of occasions in the past few years when her majesty was said to be ill and they didn’t move it becomes a human story at that point about are you going to get there to see your mother mother-in-law uh grandmother at the end or not I didn’t know definitively but as far as I was concerned it was all stations go and that we should be ready for an announcement at some point in the coming hours and I think that must have been just sick making really that sense of I

wish we could get there quicker and in that sense they may be royals you know but they’re just like everybody else as the royal family raced to the Queen’s bedside where is Prince Harry there seems to be no offer to get him on this Royal flight so so Harry has to make his own arrangements and he books a private jet and the world waits for more news and then there was going to be announcement at six but nothing and then people thought well actually are they waiting until Harry arrives following further evaluation

this morning the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision the queen remains comfortable and at Bal moral by midaf afternoon all we really know is that Prince Charles and the Princess Royal Princess Anne are already at B moral we assume at their mother’s side we don’t really know who else is traveling or exactly when it’s only late in that day that we find out that Harry didn’t fly with the rest of his family a second call is made by Charles to his

son at which He suggests suggests maybe uh that’s not strong enough tells Harry that his wife is not to come just him alone again we have to refer to Harry’s book there’s been no official confirmation of this Harry we think protests about this and Charles says well Kate’s not going we don’t want to make it too much of a of a big fuss I suspect you know hurdles were were put in his way I think there were discussions about Megan Markle and you know whether she should be involved there are no imminent commercial flights

to abedine there seems to be no offer to get him on this Royal flight that’s going out from RAF northal so Harry has to make his own arrangements and he books a private jet out of luten airport for Citizens across the UK the reality Dawns that the country hasn’t faced a crisis like the death of a monarch in 70 years only those in their late 70s and older would remember what happened and how to act the death of the king that was a shock in 1952 now we know that very sadly he died from cancer at the time though that

wasn’t even referred to people hadn’t been told what was really going on not only did the public not know about the cancer most of his family didn’t either he hadn’t been on the throne very long he’d come to the throne because his brother had abandoned it in 1936 he had been a reluctant King if you like and quite possibly being King had cut short his life and certainly that was the view of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother he had been pictured at the airport the previous week before his death waving off his daughter Elizabeth and her

husband to step into his shoes and go on the tour for him they knew her father was Ill but they had an expectation that he had 10 more years and that they had 10 years before the responsibilities of monchy were going to descend on her young shoulders ERS but that was the image I mean quite now of course quite a poignant one him waving off his daughter Elizabeth princess at that point was in Kenya when the news broke of her father’s death and reports describe how Prince Phillip broke the news to her she was going to have to abandon everything

she had set her Young Heart and dreams on raising Charles and an they the only two children they had at that time being an officer’s wife that was all going to come Crashing Down come to an end all of us here know that we are present at the making of History I’ve always felt that for her as Queen the one thing that mattered to her more than anything was that as far as her father King George V 6 was concerned that she would have done a good job I am convinced that her father would have been desperately proud of what she’d

done at balm moral castle in Scotland the Queen’s Health takes a drastic turn I think we all know lots of elderly people hang on for a significant anniversary or date or Christmas or New Year and then let go and the queen had that date of appointing a new prime minister in her diary for two months and I’m convinced that she hung on for that date because it was so quick after she had done her Duty her final Duty Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II dies Prince Charles and Princess Anne are at

their mother’s bedside princes William Andrew and Edward and his wife Sophie are in the air 51,000 ft above Northern England Prince Harry is at Frogmore Cottage Windsor we now know that her majesty died at 10 3 in the afternoon we’re simply being told her majesty is receiving medical attention and this goes on for some hours and it’s extraordinary the way in which this huge news was handled one CU to four I was told to be ready for a significant announcement from about 3:00 and that’s all that would be said to me

over the airwaves because you know they’re not entirely secure but we knew but obviously we were never going to go down that route announcing Her Majesty’s passing until we had the official announcement good afternoon we are interrupting programs to bring you the latest on the health of the queen a statement released earlier today said that doctors had become concerned for her health and that she had been placed under medical supervision so you’re broadcasting very solemnly and yet as far as everybody knew her majesty the

queen was still alive it was very very strange it was very eerie the rest of the public were simply waiting waiting to find out we had the the television on we were all kind of glued to what was happening at this point and and there was Now sort of ruling news but yes it is I think alarming and concerning that they have decided to tell us today that uh they are particularly concerned about her medical condition as you will probably not be surprised to hear we don’t know what that involves there was a real feeling of kind of a subdued tone

that is fairly common for members of the royal family not to tell us uh more details than they have to the Royal flight arrives at abedine even the BBC presenting team are uncertain which members of the family are on board prime minister Liz TR is informed that London Bridge is down the queen has died at Downing Street her team set to work writing her tribute speech they sit on the floor as Boris Johnson’s Furniture is yet to be replaced there was a delay in in announcing the death of the queen and that’s because there’s

a sort of Cascade list of people who need to know and who takes priority the palace prepared a very clear Communications plan the first person who the private secretary would inform would be the late Queen’s prime minister and the process of informing the prime ministers and the governor’s general of other Realms was a part of that it’s not just one prime minister who needs to know it’s 15 prime ministers the queen was Queen of 15 countries they are at the Commonwealth Realm some of in some of those countries it was the middle of

the night but those Prime Ministers had to be informed so that accounts for some of the delay the guidance we’d given had always said don’t look at any speculation on social media because there have been many occasions over the years when people have found me up to say do you know the queen is dying or do you know the J of Edinburgh is dying which always ended up being false alarms so it was very much wait for the official announcement and then begin to act you have to wait for That official confirmation from the palace and until

you get get that you say nothing even though you know you are potentially seconds away from perhaps the biggest story you will ever cover in your entire life good evening we come on air tonight with uncertainty and concern and that’s why the program might feel a little different this evening it was announced at lunchtime today that her majesty the queen is under medical supervision at balm moral Castle this is after doctors became concerned for her health via social media a Insider confirms that Megan is not traveling

with Harry princes William Andrew Edward and his wife Sophie arrive at Bal mall they know they are too late you want to be there to say goodbye if you really can you know my own experience for people who miss the death of a of a loved one it’s something which can prey on your mind for a very long time for my own mother I was just a 30 minutes too late and I know from firsthand experience just how ABS awful it is to get there knowing that you were just that little bit too late huge sympathy for them that they missed her

passing Prince Harry’s private rented jet takes off from Len airport he still doesn’t know his grandmother has died there was a lot of attention that day on how various members of the royal family got to Bal moral and who was there at what time while the public and media await further updates and there was going to be announcement at six but nothing and then people thought well actually are they waiting until Harry arrived surely they wouldn’t release any statement that the queen had died before Harry had arrived the edit

to that day came through on torb in my ear and and told me that he’d had confirmation that the queen had actually died but the palace weren’t ready to release the statement yet but it was coming but that’s the moment when the rubber hits the road you are going to have to say those words which the audience know are coming but are still dreading we’re just looking at the gates of moral once again these are live pictures we heard that news a little bit earlier on today that doctors are concerned about her health I was

told the significant announcement is going to come up on AQ just read it I think we go to pictures of her majesty the queen so I knew there was an opportunity as well to to change my tipe put a black tile so I had all that in my mind and they just said right Go With It Go with the state and then it was just before half past 6 that the the news spread out to where I was waiting that announcement was going to be made and I’m afraid to say in the last few moments the following statement has been released the queen died peacefully at

balm moral this afternoon the king and the queen consort will remain at balm moral this evening and will return to London tomorrow and it’s a very solemn somber moment we’ve all been rehearsing for it we knew it would come but when it actually comes I think you can see it’s a big moment and a very sad moment I remember the range of emotions in The Newsroom and I was you know these are seasoned journalists there was gulps of oh my god there was and then silence for a second and then I remember a few people started crying I burst into tears

and I was not expecting that reaction I felt in that moment just the enormity of what her passing would signify and I think I just felt this like what’s going to come next I remember being sat in the studio red light on the camera I knew that we were on air at the time and I saw a notification on my phone that said there was a statement from the palace and I knew that was the moment and then the editor that day said said the news has been confirmed you can announce it now I know that people are joining us all the

time and I know that this news is particularly significant the sad news of the death of her majesty the queen confirmed by Buckingham Palace in the last few moments that the queen has died peacefully at Bal moral this afternoon my feeling is always that I’m a human you know this is hard for me to say as it is for you to listen to it so be normal about it but how do I tell you in the kindest way possible how do you tell a family member that someone that you both love has died because that’s how significant the queen was in

all of our Lives I knew to be to be ready so I looked at it and I thought this is very important you’ve been doing this for nearly 40 years you know don’t mess it up so look into the camera and read out loud how hard can that be well as it turned out the rain or something had got into the arue it froze we have some very important news Buckingham Palace has just announced that her majesty Queen Elizabeth the second has die she was 96 years old queen died so in my head I paused and I’ve seen it on the tape I just paused but as

you naturally would at and I thought in my head it’s either the place or the time fill in the blanks queen died just a few moments ago the announcements at balal she was the longest reigning monarch in British history there was a bit of a crowd around us of of tourists and onlookers and um there was an audible gasp when I made the announcement Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has died and it just kind of hit me all the more that this was you know an emotional event as much as it was historical and political you people were feeling it you

know there and in their guts exactly a week before 1st of September we just said goodbye to to my mother it had been her funeral and I read the eulogy there and I just felt I just you know for a moment I just thought oh my goodness me you know this is kind of you know the the mother of the nation um how must everyone be feeling but then you you know then your professionalism kicks in so you read the statement we play the national anthem and you read it again it doesn’t need any more analysis you know a very much loved and and very old woman has

has passed away while the news sinks in officials are busy putting their plans into action I remember hearing the news and pausing for a moment thinking oh help you know I’m I’m not quite sure I’m I’m ready for this yet despite all those years of planning news of the Queen’s death has just been announced all government and Civic buildings have 10 minutes to lower their Flags to half M imagery is really powerful isn’t it and I think for many of us when you actually see those pictures even though you know it’s going to happen but you

see those pictures of the flag being lowered and you understand exactly what that means that’s when it really hits that’s when you know she’s gone and uh I know that people are joining us all the time and I know that this news is particularly significant the reign of Elizabeth II now comes to an end her eldest son Charles is officially now King a sense of urgency grips the nation coupled with a desire to know more details that stretches Way Beyond British borders I had had so many phone calls and emails people from around the world

can we talk to you can we talk to you news agencies I mean just so many I couldn’t process it on my phone kept ringing they want information you know I mean not salacious information but just information who’s going where when’s the funeral how’s it going to happen you know what happened up to that point where’s Harry you know where’s Megan I was probably getting 60 70 calls a day you know from places that you hadn’t even heard of in the world a huge number but I remember that evening just completely buzzing and feeling

disorientated by just the sense of History the news of the Queen’s death Echoes around the world Her Majesty died at her home in the Scottish Highlands age 96 there was something really quite moving about it this was a M that was being shared around the world the queen was such a dominant Factor on the world stage and yet she did it by just being there was clear to everybody from those International tributes that she actually was a great and remarkable person minutes before our own prime minister makes a statement world leaders

rush to pay tribute in the immediate aftermath of the death of the queen there’s that moment where various world leaders who she meant a lot to are then paying their tributes I remember the Canadian Prime Minister was one of the first I’m having trouble believing that my last sit down with her was my last to you she was your queen to us she was the queen to us all she would be with us forever on occasions like that the ability to find the right words at the right time which really hit home but also capture

everything about the occasion is so difficult to do president macron was was very impressive in what he said Britain and France had a difficult relationship not least in the years since brexit he spoke movingly and yet to me the most powerful of all the mess Mees that came were those we saw from people on the streets from youngsters who just happened to pass who were probably grasping for the first time with the death of someone they knew yes I know she wasn’t related but she was in most people’s families Queen has passed away oh my God

no we got be joking well his had L she’s been amazing we are a tourist so and we didn’t expect to hear the news while we were here in front of the Bingham Palace Buckingham Palace has been one of those locations where people just flocked to people were just coming together and some of them were standing in silence some of them were sharing memories and sharing stories that is an indication of what the queen had done her entire life at the very heart of what she wanted to do was bring the nation together she did it in her life

and she also did it in her death one other thing that really really got to me was within 10 15 minutes of the announcement of Her Majesty’s passing a big crowd had gathered by then and they started singing the National Anthem the words came floating across to me God Save the King God the king it just sounded so strange yes you know she’s gone and that when it really hit her I always thought actually it was going to be a bigger psychological moment Collective moment than people realized she had been Queen she had been

there on the money on the stamps on Christmas day she had been there all of our lives and then she’s gone TV channels are now broadcasting obituaries paying respects to the queen and giving Focus to a nation’s grief these have been prepared months sometimes years in advance there is a a tradition of course in all media organizations that when a significant public figure is no longer with us then we push out a lot of material that has been worked on for many months and years in in some cases particularly in the

Queens cuz she was such a a great age and so the reign of Elizabeth II comes to a close after 70 years at the age of 96 since her coronation in 1953 the young woman who became Our Queen at just 25 years of age set the standard by which future monarchs will be judged I found an obit in our files of the queen written in 1964 she successfully reinvented the PO Imperial era as the Commonwealth so it gives you an indication of how far back planning had begun I’d been updating aspects of the Queen’s obituary I think from the first

time she went to hospital since about 2013 so over the years every year or so we’ looked at it again and and it always needs freshening up Elizabeth and age saw remarkable change but she didn’t change not much Prince Harry’s private jet is nearing abdine later he makes an astonishing Claim about how he discovered the news of his grandmother’s death I often think it must be truly heartbreaking for Prince Harry who was very very close to his grandmother I feel he’s probably still devastating sted that he wasn’t there for that

moment across the UK London Bridge the plan for the Queen’s death is underway an incredible amount of work has been meticulously planned behind the scenes for many many years so there’s a whole group of people from civil servants to people who work in councils and District Authority the police probably even sections of the military for them it’s actually right this is not a time for you to grieve or mourn you have to literally get it together what we saw when the queen died was all the most unbelievably highly ready organizations

sprung into action London Bridge begins with dday and then every day after that is d+1 D Plus to D and the funeral is on D+ 10 for the the king or the queen and then came that question about when is d+1 this is Thursday is tomorrow going to be d+1 so that was the point at which for the rest of that evening vast numbers of calls and emails coming in saying when does the clock start ticking as it was it turned out the priv council met on the Saturday and therefore our Proclamation ceremonies as local authorities happen on the Sunday

which was quite a relief because it gave us that that little bit of extra breathing space to get plans in place so let’s get a reminder of the statements that we’ve had in the past hour first this from the Royal household the death of my beloved mother her majesty the queen is a moment of greatest sadness for me and all members of my family we mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much loved mother prime minister Liz truss makes a statement outside 10 Downing Street the death of her majesty the queen is a huge

shock to the nation and to the world Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built there’s something quite brutal about succession the Monarch inherits the throne becomes king immediately on the last breath of the previous monarch the new monarch will be known as King Charles III I had to check myself every single time when I referred to then the Prince of Wales Prince Charles he didn’t need a coronation or any of the many processes that took place in the next week he was King instantly almost 5 hours after the queen

died Prince Harry arrives at balmore he is greeted by Princess Anne who invites him to pay his last respect but I remember that evening I was absolutely exhausted but absolutely wired we’ve now got a king this morning we were in the reign of Queen Elizabeth people who are Queen’s Council will be uh King’s Council just all these small things you start to reflect on the layers and layers of layers I remember finally it being a rap and just looking around the studio and I was crying and everybody else and I think it was a

combination of that adrenaline just it was just incredibly moving this is a significant moment in the life of our country that is the fabric that holds us all together and you know that there’s always a prime minister in number 10 and you know that the queen is always sitting on the throne and if you said to anybody before that week that that’s going to change and this is going to change in the space of a few days people wouldn’t believe you but it happened and we all had to live through it so ends the 8th of September

2022 thousands arrive at Buckingham Palace the media machine is in overdrive the passing of a second Elizabethan age let’s reflect on that a family Mourns a dearly loved matriarch and a world comes to terms with the death of the the queen Friday the 9th of September the official period of mour begins and this is the oldest cliche in the news journalist book but it was absolutely true during that week those 10 days was a front row seat at the making of History the queen had a say in every aspect of the 10 days that

follow in the sunlet still of an abdin sha morning the queen left her beloved balm moral for the last time there had been some question about what sort of aerplane would be used to bring her coffin back then it was suggested that a certain plane wasn’t good enough it had been used to transport troops to and from Afghanistan and the queen made the observation well if it’s good enough for my boys then it’s certainly good enough for me as her coffin came through the dark Streets of London and with rain pouring

you saw in the distance this sort of glowing vehicle moving and it was clearly another piece of choreography from the queen you have to be seen to be believed that’s true in death as it is in life I mean the planning of that it was beautiful after 5 days lying in state on Monday the 19th of September the Queen’s coffin is brought to Westminster Abbey she was the first Monarch to have their coronation televised she was the first Monarch to have their funeral televised and it is the biggest funeral the biggest event any of us will ever

see there was that sense particularly during the funeral and the Gathering of world leaders and dignitaries just how important Her Majesty was monarchy is all about symbolism all the way through the processions the funeral service the return to Windsor the service at St George’s Chapel we knew that interred below the very slabs of granet waiting for the queen was the lake Duke of Edinburgh and there was a sort of reunion taking place between the two I do feel that the death of her majesty the queen has left a hole in a

lot of lives and it’s also a world that feels very different and a little strange without her I declare before you all that my whole life whether it belong or short shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great Imperial family to which we all belong I think she was a unique figure in world history I think it’s unlikely that any Monarch will be Monarch for 70 years again for a modern Monarch she managed to maintain the sort of mistake of monarchy this kind of medieval charisma we didn’t know a lot about her but she

seemed somehow quite accessible her greatest achievement is that she left the royal family more popular than when she became Queen which is astonishing really actually that was her job and the fact that she did it till the day that she died that’s pretty impressive she had a life all about Duty and it was all about service and I think that is why she will continue to be missed and loved by millions