The reality is a little more nuanced.
In such situations, the national broadcaster often sits between a rock and a hard place. It is not only the duty to cover national events, but also to draw the country’s attention to it. At the same time, it has to do with an audience that consumes media in an increasingly fragmented way. Simply postponing programs rather than running them on different platforms seems like an obvious answer to younger viewers.
It is noteworthy that Philip understands the power and importance of the media and how it can be used to keep the Queen relevant. Perhaps most famously, he was behind the pressure to have her coronation broadcast so that the whole nation could share at the moment.
The monarch still enjoys enormous personal popularity. Despite her efforts to be more accessible, it is possible that the public these days wants even more. For decades, her younger family members showed signs that they understood the demand for an even more open and accessible royal family.
“Every time the public is asked who excludes their favorite members of the family the Queen, it’s very often William and Kate who come out on top, while Harry and Meghan are still popular with younger people,” said Joe Twyman, director. of Deltapoll Public Advice.
These four were, of course, active campaigners for the desigmatization of mental illness, the fight against climate change, and made great efforts to look like normal people.
Before the recent problems with Harry and Meghan, this multi-speed monarchy served a useful purpose. Younger, more accessible royals who made the institution less stuffy played a role for the hugely popular queen, trusted by the public to perform her constitutional duties with integrity. The golden years of this intergenerational tag team were undoubtedly the early 2010s, when William and Kate’s wedding was celebrated with national street parties, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
However, this success could be the catalyst for a series of difficult constitutional questions that will be asked when the Queen is no longer with us.
“Philip’s death is really the beginning of the end of an era. It’s a story that reminds us that the Queen is a person, not just an institution,” said Catherine Haddon, constitutional expert at the Institute for Government , said. “The irony is that her younger relatives have been more personal to this day, and it is not clear how well that will turn out to be the monarchy.”
The person for whom this is the most immediate problem is Prince Charles, the first in line.
Charles must follow an unenviable act, not only because of the popularity of the queen, but also because of the public image of him that has grown in the royal waiting room during his decades. He has been a campaigner for climate change since he became popular, interfered directly with government policy and, of course, was hated by a large section of the public after his divorce from Princess Diana. The queen, on the other hand, was 25 when she was appointed to the throne after the death of her father.
“In a way, Charles is trapped between two worlds. It’s not clear that he will enjoy the respect his mother did because of his intervention with governments over the years, so traditional monarchists do not trust him to do the work with the same “On the other hand, his personal brand has been given a sufficient push to make it more personal and accessible, perhaps not like William and Kate,” Haddon said.
Twyman said ‘the public is used to having, for better or worse, an opinion about Charles and Camilla, in a way it simply never has with the Queen. For the first time in centuries, the monarch will have a personality that is outside of their public role. . It is very difficult to predict what they will expect from him, but it seems unlikely that it will be a repetition of his mother’s leadership. ‘
The public’s comparative support for William and Kate is strong. Countless polls show that the public would rather skip a generation after the Queen’s death and place William on the throne instead of his father. This is highly unlikely beyond a ballot box question. But the support for the younger couple suggests that the public is comfortable with their public personalities to the top of the institution.
The contrast in love for Charles and William can be a problem in itself. Charles is 72. If the queen lives at the same age as her mother, Charles will take the throne at 79. If Charles lives as long as his father, William will only become king in 2048.
At that time, public sentiment towards the monarchy could change drastically again, especially if Charles’ popularity did not increase after he became king.
“No one still knows what Charles will be like as King. But the job has become more difficult since 1953 and will undoubtedly continue to get harder,” said Ben Page, CEO of polling company Ipsos MORI. “The monarchy must increasingly appeal to a more diverse country in everything, from ethnicity and age to wealth. No product on earth is advertised to anyone from zero to 100, or without money to millionaires.”
In a short period of time, an institution that strives for radical change will be forced to consider the next steps. Overall continuity of Queen Elizabeth is already impossible, given the public roles her successors currently play.
And, as Twyman noted, these conversations “will take place in the context of the first coronation in most people’s lives of an elderly king about whom many already have strong opinions.”
It is important to note that the complaints about the BBC coverage were probably not out of contempt for the queen or her deceased husband, but a younger generation’s surprise about the coverage that seemed to be in another era.
“The idea that institutions like the BBC and the government are entering the days of mourning and a role of obedience facing the public clearly confuses many people,” Haddon said. “And the fact that we heard personal memories from family members suggests that they probably know.”
It’s hardly a piece of imagination, given how much the world has changed, to understand that the public’s relationship with the royal family is not the same as it was seven decades ago. It goes without saying that the British public wants something new when the time comes for Charles to become king.
The unanswerable question for now is whether the monarchy and the institutions around it are sufficiently prepared to modernize beyond the baby steps of recent years, once the boss, whose leadership has barely changed since her coronation all those years ago, is no longer around .