King’s Coronation: The most memorable moments and stories from behind the scenes
It’s quite something to cover a coronation. To cover an event so rare that the last time it happened, the broadcaster you work for didn’t even exist.
I want to give you a sense of what it was like, on the ground, in the run up to and on the day itself. You’ve seen the pictures, you’ve seen the headlines - this is how it felt behind the scenes.
Most of our coverage came from The Mall - that long stretch of road leading from Buckingham Palace to the tip of Trafalgar Square. We arrived on Tuesday and already people were there 96 hours out from the day itself, in position, flags tied to the barriers soaking it all in.
Anne Daley from Cardiff was one of the first people we met. Surrounded by Welsh flags, and a life size cut out of the King and Queen, she wasn’t hard to spot.
The Mall became a melting pot of global interest
Anne has had a ringside seat at so many royal events. In fact whilst we were chatting to her, someone who she’d met marking the late Queen’s 96th Birthday called out in a bright American voice: “Anne, we met in Windsor, how are you?”.
That’s the power of all of this, it brings people from across the world together in a celebration of monarchy.
I lost track of how many accents and languages we heard. Right there, on The Mall, a melting pot of global interest.
For Anne, coming to these events is more than just seeing the pomp and pageantry, it’s embedded in her DNA.
Her father was in the Irish Guards. She showed me a picture of him standing outside the Palace during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.
She said coming to events like this is a way to “honour her Dad”.
Anne and her friend Grace were a magnet on The Mall. Every time we caught up with them there would be people buzzing around them - a line of journalists from across the world wanting to chat to her and Anne was keen to try and raise some money from all of this attention.
What you might not have clocked from our pictures, a small gold box on the floor, where people could pop in a donation that Anne is passing on to Tŷ Hafan children’s hospice in the Vale of Glamorgan.
A spokesperson from the hospice said they’re “incredibly grateful for what Anne has done” and, as with each and every one of their supporters, they “couldn’t do what we do, without them”.
Whilst the arrest outside Buckingham Palace on May 2 and the arrest of protestors have been well documented, the atmosphere we met day after day was very much a sense of calm welcome.
It reminded me of the 2012 Olympics - everyone seemed pleased to be there, happy to share their snacks and stories. Or, as Mandy Snook from Llanharan found, a camping space.
Mandy arrived just five minutes before we met that Friday. Fresh from decorating the school where she works for the coronation, she’d been given the day off.
She told me it was the whole experience that drew her here - the camping out, the being part of it - and she’d even brought two new umbrellas to see her through.
Given the absolute downpour we all experienced an hour later, not to mention the continual drizzle during coronation day itself, I’m sure those umbrellas were very welcome.
That answer, of wanting to be part of it, returned again and again as we spoke to people up and down The Mall.
Michaela Morris shows me around her tent on The Mall
Michaela Morris from Brynmawr had never done anything like this before but she wanted to be part of a moment in history.
She showed me the tent she’d spend a total of 72 hours in - a little mattress hoping to cushion their bodies from the hard floor. Both laughing as we lamented about the dust from The Mall that seems to get everywhere and the fluffy pollen from the trees that, when not making our camera operator Jon sneeze, was particularly adept at landing on our microphones.
Of course it wasn’t just the pollen causing difficulties, getting around an event of this magnitude was never going to be easy and when you did finally get into position you had the traffic of central London to contend with.
The London traffic was a challenge to contend with
People were there to see, and be part of, history
When coronation day itself happened, I’d expected to feel an atmosphere of real jubilance. Like the exhilaration of the crowd watching the Euro 2016 semi-final between Wales and Portugal back home at the Principality Stadium, or the buzz of spotting then US President Barack Obama at the 2014 NATO summit in Newport.
It surprised me that it didn’t feel like that.
Don’t get me wrong, people were waving their flags and huge cheers rang down The Mall anytime anyone went past - particularly the King - but it didn’t have that elation I was expecting.
The atmosphere was more compelling. People were here to see history, to be part of history - often for very personal reasons.
Anthony Roberts, originally from Wrexham, told me his family has always liked the royals and after being here for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, they wanted to see the coronation too.
He said: “We just felt it was important to be here, and be a part of it."
That family connection resonated with Helen Glaves who grew up in Neath. She said: “All I’ve known is the Queen, and for me, it’s part of my heritage, with my mother and my grandmother being royalists, so it’s in my blood.”
It made me think back to the stories I’d heard from my own family about Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation - how everyone on the street squashed into the house of the neighbour who had a television, how grandparents would insist children stood up during the national anthem.
As Dr Mari Wiliam from Bangor University put it, our relationship with the royal family in 2023 is very different to the one in 1953.
“Monarchy as a popular institution doesn’t have so much of a hold on people in Wales, as it did in the 1950s,” she said.
“However I think monarchy as a celebrity institution has a massive hold on people.”
And there is of course that pull. On Sunday we were at Windsor, to cover the coronation concert.
We’d just finished doing a piece to camera on the Long Walk looking up towards the castle - where the concert was held - when I spotted two cars pulling up by the crowd. We ran over, camera operator Jon sprinting faster and faster as we realised who it was stepping out of the car - the Prince and Princess of Wales.
They spent around half an hour walking from the Long Walk, towards a large grassy area where a stage and big screen had been set up for those who didn’t have tickets but still wanted to watch the concert.
Unlike The Mall and St James’s Park where welsh flags flew in abundance, this was a sea of Union flags, hats, dresses, jumpers and jackets in hues of red, white and blue.
Finally, we spotted two small welsh flags - belonging to Elizabeth and Marion from Pembrokeshire. They’d tried to get tickets for the concert but had failed and decided to attend nonetheless. Again, like so many on The Mall, they wanted to be close to where history was being made.
The moment that will stick with me
As we left Windsor, trainers caked in mud from the previous day’s rain, I thought about the one moment that I’d remember from this week.
Amongst all the moments, it’s walking past a silent Westminster Abbey on the morning of the coronation. Seeing the camera operators in suits and ties moving the kit around, knowing that in four short hours the world would be watching this 32,000 square feet of central London.
And the question this week leaves me with - how this country will grapple with a monarchy many believe to have religious, historic and economic importance, with a rising republican voice questioning the fairness of one family having so much, when others have so little.
Throughout history the monarchy has always faced challenges, for the late Queen her coronation came as Britain was emerging from a long period of austerity after World War Two. For her son, it’s the cost of living crisis. As ever, the Monarch’s ability to adapt will dictate how their reign is seen and it is our privilege to report to you exactly how that plays out.
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