Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, aged 99, has died

[Journeyman]

Also worth pointing out this kind of thing with the coverage isn't just the royals. I remember when Nelson Mandela died, and BBC1 basically did nothing but wall-to-wall coverage of his life and death for the rest of the day. What made it particularly unfortunate if I recall correctly was that on the same day, some parts of the UK were desperately suffering from very serious floods - which was completely ignored on the news. Nelson Mandela is one of the people I absolutely most admire - but even so I thought that coverage was ridiculous. I guess they're making the same mistake (and I'm saying that as someone who feels a strong attachment to the monarchy and feels pretty sad at the news today).

I do feel some sympathy for the BBC here, who are obviously caught between a rock and a hard place. Whatever they do, they'll be deluged with complaints.

 

[brad465]

Also worth pointing out this kind of thing with the coverage isn't just the royals. I remember when Nelson Mandela died, and BBC1 basically did nothing but wall-to-wall coverage of his life and death for the rest of the day. What made it particularly unfortunate if I recall correctly was that on the same day, some parts of the UK were desperately suffering from very serious floods - which was completely ignored on the news. Nelson Mandela is one of the people I absolutely most admire - but even so I thought that coverage was ridiculous. I guess they're making the same mistake today (and I'm saying that as someone who feels a strong attachment to the monarchy and feels pretty sad at the news today).

Yes I remember there was an episode of Mrs Brown's boys that was interrupted for that breaking news story; whatever you think of that show, it only makes sense for a high profile domestic figure's passing to see normal schedules being interrupted, not a former leader abroad, even where they're highly respected like in Mandela's case.

 

[BananaRepublic]

This story has also dominated the France24, Euronews and Al Jazeira TV channels, for most of the day.
The Duke’s death has also been a lead news story on the front pages of most of the major newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

 

[Gloster]

This story has also dominated the France24, Euronews and Al Jazeira TV channels, for most of the day.
The Duke’s death has also been a lead news story on the front pages of most of the major newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

And also in Scandinavia, although the Finnish Helsingin Sanomat has an (unintentionally) not very flattering drawing of him at the top of its site.

 

[roversfan2001]

On a different note - all the news stories I've watched today have made no reference to the stateside couple who have caused so much grief for the Royals in the last few months. I suspect News Corporations are not actually allowed to make any negative publicity in these circumstances which is understandable.

Why would they? They haven't died, nor were they responsible for Philip's death. Also, the 'grief' has definitely been a two-way street.

 

[87electric]

Prince Philip, who famously said in 1988 if he was reincarnated he would like to come back as a virus to solve the world’s population problem. Caring soul, huh.

 

[ABB125]

Prince Philip, who famously said in 1988 if he was reincarnated he would like to come back as a virus to solve the world’s population problem. Caring soul, huh.

Talking of viruses, I read somewhere that he was born at the end of the last major pandemic (Spanish flu?) and now has died during the current pandemic. That's an interesting turn if events.

 

[Butts]

As I alluded to right at the start of this thread today will be nothing compared to when The Queen passes away.

Hopefully she has a good few years left yet.

That really will be the end of an era and make Phillip's sad passing seem like a mere bagatelle by comparison.

I can see shops closing, pubs closing and Cinemas etc at least for the day as a mark of respect.

 

[Scotrail12]

I can see shops closing, pubs closing and Cinemas etc at least for the day as a mark of respect.

So we'd have to stop our lives for an entire day over a woman we never knew in real life? No chance of me doing that, I didn't even stop my life when my own grandmother passed, why would I do it for a public figure?

 

[37424]

I do feel some sympathy for the BBC here, who are obviously caught between a rock and a hard place. Whatever they do, they'll be deluged with complaints.

Well yes but I think its been over the top all day coverage on BBC1 would have been enough, but the approach to a death in the Royal Family is still more like something out of the 1950's from the main broadcasters.

 

[johnnychips]

I had a great deal of respect for Prince Philip, and actually had a few words with him twice as I used to run a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award unit. This will be his greatest legacy. Moreover, he was just not a figurehead name, he used to be actively involved and was concerned with its direction, generally for the better.

However, I fail to see why there has to be a suspension of television programmes etc. People do die, and at 99 he seems to have had an honourable innings. I do remember when Lady Diana died, I was managing a junior football team, and when we turned up at the away ground their manager suggested we called the game off ‘out of respect’. I politely gave him short shrift, and the game went ahead after a minute’s silence, most of the kids not being sure whom we were being silent for.

 

[AlterEgo]

I see the forum logo has changed to grey today.

I liked Philip despite all of his obvious flaws.

 

[Egg Centric]

I'm fine with people's lives being "disrupted". The Queen is the only monarch the majority of the country have known (I was going to qualify this with "as adults" but it doesn't even need that). He was her consort. He's been dead only 12 hours at this point. Disrupt all the channels you like. All broadcasters are regulated and the BBC is the national broadcaster. They are not comparable to Netflix. Part of the "point" is that someone is making the schedule for you. We are still a United Kingdom and as a community of royal subjects the correct schedule for the community is one that commemorates Phil. iPlayer still works!

Agree 100% with Butts that this is nothing like what the Queen will be like. Indeed in many ways this is a live dress rehearsal for the Queen. I will probably cry when she goes and I'm not an emotional type.

 

[GusB]

I'm fine with people's lives being "disrupted". The Queen is the only monarch the majority of the country have known (I was going to qualify this with "as adults" but it doesn't even need that). He was her consort. He's been dead only 12 hours at this point. Disrupt all the channels you like. All broadcasters are regulated and the BBC is the national broadcaster. They are not comparable to Netflix. Part of the "point" is that someone is making the schedule for you. We are still a United Kingdom and as a community of royal subjects the correct schedule for the community is one that commemorates Phil. iPlayer still works!

Agree 100% with Butts that this is nothing like what the Queen will be like. Indeed in many ways this is a live dress rehearsal for the Queen. I will probably cry when she goes and I'm not an emotional type.

You forgot to tug at your forelock as you were backing away. What a load of nonsense. I certainly don't see myself as a "royal subject"; I'm a citizen. If you're happy to kiss the Royal Backside that's up to you, but don't try to impose it on everyone else.

 

[Egg Centric]

You forgot to tug at your forelock as you were backing away. What a load of nonsense. I certainly don't see myself as a "royal subject"; I'm a citizen. If you're happy to kiss the Royal Backside that's up to you, but don't try to impose it on everyone else.

Any scheduled broadcasting is necessarily imposition. This is the major difference between an on demand service and a broadcaster.

Once you accept that you accept that this imposition exists, the question is then in which circumstances it is acceptable to deviate from the "contract" in the published schedules.

The majority of us accept that national events are one of them.

There is nothing stopping you from watching whatever you like on other services. Indeed, I haven't watched any of the broadcast services myself.

 

[GusB]

Any scheduled broadcasting is necessarily imposition. This is the major difference between an on demand service and a broadcaster.

Once you accept that you accept that this imposition exists, the question is then in which circumstances it is acceptable to deviate from the "contract" in the published schedules.

The majority of us accept that national events are one of them.

There is nothing stopping you from watching whatever you like on other services. Indeed, I haven't watched any of the broadcast services myself.

Any scheduled broadcasting is usually advertised in advance in the likes of Radio Times. While I'm willing to accept that normal programming may sometimes be interrupted to cover "national events", it's absolutely not acceptable to broadcast the same coverage on every channel that a particular broadcaster puts out, particularly one that requires you to have a licence in order to not only view its own content, but the live content of other broadcasters.

I'm well aware that I'm entitled to avail myself of the services that other broadcasters provide as an alternative to the BBC, but as a "subscriber" to BBC content at £13 a month, I'm being offered no choice in these circumstances. Imagine if you were paying £x to Sky each month and they suddenly decided that they'd broadcast the same guff across all of their channels. You'd quite rightly be upset about it.

 

[infobleep]

This is how the news broke on Radio 1 dance, which includes quite a coincidental "beat drop":

https://twitter.com/richardavsmith/status/1380483636764549121

EDIT: It's possible this may have been edited rather than what actually happened.

It's a shame Philip didn't reach 100. So close. I know 99 is a good innings but it would have been nice to make it.

It must be odd recording your comments about a loved one whilst they are alive, for broadcast when they are dead. Not something I'd want to do. Members of the Royal Family.

The Scottish Green Party were able to express their sorrow more widely, thanks to the purdah season.

The Scottish Greens also expressed their sympathies.

Scotland's tributes to 'remarkable' Prince Philip - BBC News

Tributes are paid in Scotland to the Duke of Edinburgh following his death at the age of 99.

www.bbc.co.uk

I think may be they should pause campaigning until after the funeral. Just so there can be less junk mail through the door for a the next week.

The BBC coronavirus live report page stopped reporting at noon. It's still showing as live.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-56686248

I guess there was no time to switch it to an as it happened page, as is usually the case. I wonder if it will remain like that for a long time to come.

The first BBC live reporting page on Prince Philio had to be removed due to technical issues. It started at 12:19. The second one was after 14:00 hours at some point. The first one was removed as the link to it didn't work.

I attempted to capture the moment BBC programs switched to the news but as some had finished I wasn't able to so for all, save 6 Music, whereby the 30-minute guest mix had been auto uploaded before the BBC could pause it from doing so. The mix faded out. Radio 2 was more abrupt. Not sure who was standing in for Jeremy Vine.

Any program that was due to end at say 13:00 is currently not available but any program which stopped before 12:00 is available. That was the case yesterday evening.

At one stage Dad's Army from 12:00 was available on Radio 4 Extra. That was uploaded rather than a live Radio 4 Extra recording, so it didn't have the announcement but the live broadcast would have done

It was later taken down but the early morning broadcast wasn't.

BBC 2 and 5 Live had the news first. BBC 2 was broadcasting the news and so the announcement was made at 12:04. Some more things were said and they ended by repeating this announcement. Then it faded to black. Now it was 12:09. There was a black BBC News logo screen and The announcement was made again, this time with BBC One included. So it must have taken 4-5 minutes to get stuff together for the official announcement broadcast. BBC One was broadcasting a paramedics documentary, which was faded out not too long before it ended.

On 5 Live you could hear someone in the background talking to the presenter, which was unusual. The presenter, not sure who it was as it may have been a stand-in, was hesitating at times probably waiting for instructions as to what to say.

One online newspaper, I forget which, reported that radio stations switched to radio 4 for the announcement. However, on some radio stations you could end the brief end of Prince Philip, as whoever was broadcasting on 5 Live at the time, was playing a clip of Prince Philip just before the announcement again on that station. The joint radio announcement was at 12:10 so it must have taken slightly longer to get ready to switch over all the radio stations. I'm sure it was Evan Davis who announced it as he was name-checked on radio 4. So it could be that radio 4 produced it, 5 Live carried the radio 4 feed and many other radio stations carried the 5 Live feed of the Radio 4 feed.

The only radio stations not to have the same coverage were those not in English or the children radio station, CBBC.

The national radio program ended at 17:00 at which point the various radio stations then broadcast their own BBC News Specials, a bet almost all carrying the same program name, to confuse matters. However, to confuse matters even further, most radio stations had a BBC News Special listed from 12:00 to 16:00 and from 16:00 to I think 20:00. So the last hour of the national news special was included in the second. The news special actually started at 12:10.

On TV BBC One, BBC Two, BBC News, BBC Parliament, BBC Alba and BBC Scotland were broadcasting the news special, as far as I can tell. S4C, the Welsh Channel 4, was also covering it in Welsh. Later they listed the BBC One News Special as starting at 11:45. It didn't. This matters because if anyone is doing historical research into TV programs, the information will be wrong.

Tonight BBC 4 was broadcasting a loop of a video of crowds chanting. Mostly male and occasionally the odd female in the crowd. There was a message to say you could watch the England match online. No mention of it being on the Red Button. This was out of respect for Prince Philip. It was a women's international friendly.

5 Live was broadcast a men's football match and 5 Live Sports Extra the Masters. So I don't know what that says about their marks of respect to Prince Philip.

LBC is a phone in station but they weren't taking many calls today from the public. I didn't listen to all of their coverage but it wasn't until after 22:00 that I heard Ian Dale give out the phone number. They were reading tweets and texts but not taking phone calls. I don't know if there is a protocol that doesn't allow for people to phone in or they think people have nothing worth saying

I'm not against them speaking to experts but I enjoy hearing other peoples views and thoughts. It doesn't feel like it was Leading Britain's Conversation today.

Also was it my mishearing or did I hear Jemey Corbyn on an LBC broadcast feature paying respect to Prince Philip. These things would have been pre-recorded and put together

 

[Flange Squeal]

I see the forum logo has changed to grey today.

...unless you visit the bus section(!). The vast majority of TOCs, as well as organisations like BTP, National Rail and Rail Delivery Group, have also changed their logos on Twitter to black versions, with many also changing their headers to photos of and wording about the Duke.

 

[Gloster]

...unless you visit the bus section(!). The vast majority of TOCs, as well as organisations like BTP, National Rail and Rail Delivery Group, have also changed their logos on Twitter to black versions, with many also changing their headers to photos of and wording about the Duke.

I personally think that is totally ridiculous, but I suppose that as soon as one company does it, or even looks as though they might do it, then every other one does it so as not to be criticised for being uncaring. And how can an organisation be uncaring: it doesn’t have any emotions. If they are claiming that ‘all the staff at Happy Rail are deeply saddened‘, how do they know?

The British were always regarded as being unemotional and stoic, but now we seem to have gone completely over the top and produce quite extraordinary public exhibitions of ‘caring’. For his family, friends, those who knew him and those who directly admired him, there is reason to regret his passing and maybe display some emotion. For the rest, is there any need to show anything more than a decent amount of respect if a minute’s silence is held at some point?

 

[Mat17]

Oh, man, wasn't it just?

I deliberately made sure I was at work during the funeral.

Ah the Diana hysteria, I never understood it when she was alive, and although I was shocked by her sudden death and I truly felt awful for her poor children, I really didn't understand the mass public mourning which followed.

I watched the funeral and to quote Paul Hardcastle, 'I really wasn't sure what was going on...'

Shame about Philip though, I quite liked him, and sooo close to his 100th birthday, almost. I was just curious to know whether he'd get a card from the Queen. Would she have sent it officially in the post, or just handed it to him over breakfast? I guess we'll never know now...

 

[yorksrob]

I can see shops closing, pubs closing and Cinemas etc at least for the day as a mark of respect.

And people will say to their children "it was like this for months on end during the lockdowns".

Radio 2 seems to be playing a rather good selection of more contemplative music at the moment.

 

[daodao]

As I alluded to right at the start of this thread today will be nothing compared to when The Queen passes away.

Hopefully she has a good few years left yet.

That really will be the end of an era and make Phillip's sad passing seem like a mere bagatelle by comparison.

I can see shops closing, pubs closing and Cinemas etc at least for the day as a mark of respect.

The passing of Prince Philip marks the beginning of the end of an era. The Queen has lost her life partner and while one hopes that she has a good few years left yet, the writing is on the wall for the UK. The lack of public respect for younger members of the House of Windsor (including Prince Charles), secessionist tendencies in the Celtic fringe and the adverse consequences of Brexit and Covid are all forces threatening the survival of the UK as it has been constituted for the last 100 years.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

On 5 Live you could hear someone in the background talking to the presenter, which was unusual. The presenter, not sure who it was as it may have been a stand-in, was hesitating at times probably waiting for instructions as to what to say.

The Radio 5 Live broadcaster on air immediately after 12 noon yesterday (Friday) was regular presenter Adrian Chiles.

 

[Peter C]

It's a shame Philip didn't reach 100. So close. I know 99 is a good innings but it would have been nice to make it.

It must be odd recording your comments about a loved one whilst they are alive, for broadcast when they are dead. Not something I'd want to do. Members of the Royal Family.

The Scottish Green Party were able to express their sorrow more widely, thanks to the purdah season.

Scotland's tributes to 'remarkable' Prince Philip - BBC News

Tributes are paid in Scotland to the Duke of Edinburgh following his death at the age of 99.

www.bbc.co.uk

I think may be they should pause campaigning until after the funeral. Just so there can be less junk mail through the door for a the next week.

The BBC coronavirus live report page stopped reporting at noon. It's still showing as live.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-56686248

I guess there was no time to switch it to an as it happened page, as is usually the case. I wonder if it will remain like that for a long time to come.

The first BBC live reporting page on Prince Philio had to be removed due to technical issues. It started at 12:19. The second one was after 14:00 hours at some point. The first one was removed as the link to it didn't work.

I attempted to capture the moment BBC programs switched to the news but as some had finished I wasn't able to so for all, save 6 Music, whereby the 30-minute guest mix had been auto uploaded before the BBC could pause it from doing so. The mix faded out. Radio 2 was more abrupt. Not sure who was standing in for Jeremy Vine.

Any program that was due to end at say 13:00 is currently not available but any program which stopped before 12:00 is available. That was the case yesterday evening.

At one stage Dad's Army from 12:00 was available on Radio 4 Extra. That was uploaded rather than a live Radio 4 Extra recording, so it didn't have the announcement but the live broadcast would have done

It was later taken down but the early morning broadcast wasn't.

BBC 2 and 5 Live had the news first. BBC 2 was broadcasting the news and so the announcement was made at 12:04. Some more things were said and they ended by repeating this announcement. Then it faded to black. Now it was 12:09. There was a black BBC News logo screen and The announcement was made again, this time with BBC One included. So it must have taken 4-5 minutes to get stuff together for the official announcement broadcast. BBC One was broadcasting a paramedics documentary, which was faded out not too long before it ended.

On 5 Live you could hear someone in the background talking to the presenter, which was unusual. The presenter, not sure who it was as it may have been a stand-in, was hesitating at times probably waiting for instructions as to what to say.

One online newspaper, I forget which, reported that radio stations switched to radio 4 for the announcement. However, on some radio stations you could end the brief end of Prince Philip, as whoever was broadcasting on 5 Live at the time, was playing a clip of Prince Philip just before the announcement again on that station. The joint radio announcement was at 12:10 so it must have taken slightly longer to get ready to switch over all the radio stations. I'm sure it was Evan Davis who announced it as he was name-checked on radio 4. So it could be that radio 4 produced it, 5 Live carried the radio 4 feed and many other radio stations carried the 5 Live feed of the Radio 4 feed.

The only radio stations not to have the same coverage were those not in English or the children radio station, CBBC.

The national radio program ended at 17:00 at which point the various radio stations then broadcast their own BBC News Specials, a bet almost all carrying the same program name, to confuse matters. However, to confuse matters even further, most radio stations had a BBC News Special listed from 12:00 to 16:00 and from 16:00 to I think 20:00. So the last hour of the national news special was included in the second. The news special actually started at 12:10.

On TV BBC One, BBC Two, BBC News, BBC Parliament, BBC Alba and BBC Scotland were broadcasting the news special, as far as I can tell. S4C, the Welsh Channel 4, was also covering it in Welsh. Later they listed the BBC One News Special as starting at 11:45. It didn't. This matters because if anyone is doing historical research into TV programs, the information will be wrong.

Tonight BBC 4 was broadcasting a loop of a video of crowds chanting. Mostly male and occasionally the odd female in the crowd. There was a message to say you could watch the England match online. No mention of it being on the Red Button. This was out of respect for Prince Philip. It was a women's international friendly.

5 Live was broadcast a men's football match and 5 Live Sports Extra the Masters. So I don't know what that says about their marks of respect to Prince Philip.

LBC is a phone in station but they weren't taking many calls today from the public. I didn't listen to all of their coverage but it wasn't until after 22:00 that I heard Ian Dale give out the phone number. They were reading tweets and texts but not taking phone calls. I don't know if there is a protocol that doesn't allow for people to phone in or they think people have nothing worth saying

I'm not against them speaking to experts but I enjoy hearing other peoples views and thoughts. It doesn't feel like it was Leading Britain's Conversation today.

Also was it my mishearing or did I hear Jemey Corbyn on an LBC broadcast feature paying respect to Prince Philip. These things would have been pre-recorded and put together

Thank you for sharing all of this - it's the sort of thing I find interesting. This Twitter thread may be of interest to people with similar interests:

https://twitter.com/richardavsmith/status/1380481586056069125

(It's not exactly easy to quote as there are lots of videos over multiple tweets. It's essentially a compilation of how different BBC channels began broadcasting the news.)

-Peter

 

[Hadders]

I was working from home yesterday and had radio 2 on while I was dealing with some email. Vanessa Feltz was the presenter and at 12:10 she was suddenly cut off mid-sentence. My immediate thought was there had been a transmitter failure or my radio had broken.

After a few seconds seconds silence the newsreader Tom Sandars came on 'this is BBC News we're interrupting this programme for an important announcement. He then read the official statement and a slow version of the National Anthem was played. Evan Davis then presented a programme about a Duke which I think was networked across BBC Radio.

Someone has uploaded the Radio 2 announcement to You Tube.

 

[Peter C]

According to the iPlayer app on my phone, BBC One are going to a 'BBC News Special' at 1000, after 'Breakfast' has finished: the special will be on until 1400. It looks as if the rest of the schedule is currently unchanged. Just so people are aware.

-Peter

 

[Butts]

Just been to get a Newspaper.

Unsurprisingly the front pages all carry the story of the Princes passing.

The Herald, Scotsman and Press & Journal and all the English Titles have extensive coverage.

Unfortunately Tesco don't sell The Morning Star or the National (Scottish) I wonder if they are the only dissenters ?

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

The Independent used to avoid reporting on the Windsors, but started reporting on them some years ago. I do remember critical coverage and protests at the time of the silver jubilee, 1977 (?)

 

[37424]

BBC2 is carrying some normal BBC1 programmes this morning and it looks like normal service is more or less resumed on the main stations from 14:00 when all the 4 main channels will covering sporting events Rugby, Formula E, Grand National etc.

I gather we are getting a Gun Salute at Midday

 

[Journeyman]

BBC 6 Music is still playing sombre music this morning. I've just switched to Absolute 80s, where normality prevails.