Weatherman’s relief at getting Queen picture that went around the world
In 2010, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited UTV’s studios in Havelock House on the Ormeau Road in Belfast.
The engagement marked the broadcaster’s launch of high definition television - a first for the island of Ireland.
As part of the Queen’s tour around the building, she was brought to Studio One to see the green screen technology used for weather forecasts by then presenter Frank Mitchell.
The Queen was shown the technology in action showing the day’s weather with the Queen remarking that it was ‘rather wet.’
The green screen was then used to show the Royal Couple the images of the Giant’s Causeway, Hillsborough Castle and Buckingham Palace.
After seeing that she remarked, "you could take me anywhere in the world.”
“Very interesting - nice to know how it’s done,” the Queen said.
“It saves you standing outside in the rain,” the Duke of Edinburgh quipped.
Speaking after the visit, Frank said: "It was a very casual, witty comment from a woman you don't expect to be witty. I was impressed by how friendly she was."
“I found her to be very pleasant. She was almost a cross between a headteacher who you would be very respectful towards and your grandmother - I couldn’t help but see my granny when I looked into her eyes and she was very, very pleasant.
“She was engaging and she knew what she was talking about.
“There was an amazing response to it. Obviously all the local papers had it - it was the front page of everything.
“There was so much feedback in relation to social media - we were on Have I Got News For You - it was a quip on there.
“There was half a page on Hello.
“I had friends and relatives from Australia, Canada and India where they’d all seen it so it really was quite amazing,” he added.
The couple were also taken upstairs to the newsroom where they met with journalists.
The Queen was shown what was at the time the first integrated news hub in the ITV regions in the UK.
It included production areas for those working on TV, radio and online.
As part of the engagement the Royals watched footage from the UTV archive of their previous visits to Northern Ireland.
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