Claire Popplewell, Executive Producer
The nation is about to celebrate The Queen's 90th birthday this weekend and of course BBC Ceremonial Events will be there to do her proud! Oh, and just in case anyone forgot it's also the Duke's 95th - so some weekend in store!
It's been a thrilling journey, and hopefully there will be surprises across the weekend
The BBC Ceremonial Events team has been at every major Royal landmark since The Queen's coronation in 1953 (obviously some of the team have changed) and we will once again be out in force covering the birthday events this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday The Queen and 53 members of the Royal Family will be at a service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's. Saturday see's the traditional pageantry of Trooping the Colour and on Sunday we keep our fingers tightly crossed for sunshine as The Mall is transformed into a giant street party and 10,000 people join The Queen for a picnic with carnival style entertainment and union flags aplenty. Each programme is anchored from a specially built bandstand style studio overlooking the lake in St James' Park.
Huw Edwards and Kirsty Young are joined by Sonali Shah, Clare Balding, Chris Hollins and Mel Giedroyc who will guide the viewers through our 9 hours of live coverage on BBC One together with an evening highlights programmes each day on BBC Two. Studio guests include Sir Tom Jones, Darcey Bussell, Sir David Jason, Will.i.am, Twiggy and many more so it will hopefully prove to be a fun weekend.
It’s been a challenging couple of months but long term relationships with the Met Police, Royal Parks and the Armed Forces have helped them to look favourably on our endless and sometimes bizarre requests. We were very lucky that the Household Division allowed us to film one of their Trooping reviews in 360 degrees. We negotiated access for viewers to the very best seat on Horse Guards Parade – on the Royal Dais where Her Majesty The Queen will take the birthday salute from the Coldstream Guards and luckily everyone was delighted with the results.
It's been a thrilling journey, and hopefully there will be surprises across the weekend – from Paddington Bear (the only other person to have two birthdays) having his own special mention in the St Paul’s service, to the Coldstream Guards very unique happy birthday tribute – it should turn out to be a very special and memorable weekend for us all. The Guards will stand taller and the flags will wave with extra gusto as we all wish Her Majesty the happiest of birthdays.
