Outside of Britain, the death of Queen Elizabeth II has rocked broadcasters’s programming around the world who paid tribute to the beloved monarch’s legacy and disrupted their usual programming schedules within minutes after the news broke.
“Whenever something of that massive scale happens, whether it’s a death, a natural disaster, a declaration of war or an attack, news takes priority over all programming,” said Aline Pivot, head of news at TF1, France’s leading commercial channel.
Pivot said the news department started to get its dedicated coverage ready since Thursday morning when the BBC reported that the Queen had been placed under medical surveillance. “We immediately sent correspondents on the ground in Balmoral (in the Scottish Highlands, where the Queen died),” Pivot continued. She said reporters have encountered some transportation delays to reach Balmoral.
“It’s not an easy place to reach, you have to take a train, and you have not only every TV outlet in the world but also floods of people traveling there,” she said.
The programming of TF1 was entirely dedicated to the Queen’s death with a special magazine hosted by two star journalists from around 7:30 p.m. local time to 10:30pm, and again this morning since 8:20 a.m. “We don’t know when we’ll revert to our usual programming,” she said, adding that special programming will be slotted during the next two weeks.
“There’s always been a friendship uniting France and the Queen Elizabeth II; She spoke French fluently and knew all our presidents! There was a real attachment, not only due to the proximity of our countries, but because the history of the Royal family touches us,” said Pivot, who also mentioned that France had been marked by the death of Princess Diana in Paris.
France’s public broadcaster France Televisions also rolled out a rich programming to pay tribute to the Queen Elizabeth II with a pair of premium documentaries “Un jour un destin — The Queen,” and “Elizabeth II, histoire d’un couronnement,” along with live news magazines.
Antoine Boiley, co-director of marketing and communication at France Televisions, said the broadcaster held an emergency meeting at 4 p.m. with the head of programming, head of channels and news heads for each channel of the group to put together a slate of shows with renown journalists and experts on the Royal Family, notably Stephane Berne.
“The Queen Elizabeth II was an extraordinary symbol who was at the heart of the world for nearly 100 years, and people of all ages have been fascinated by her across multiple generations, which is why we saw huge audiences when we covered the Jubilee celebration,” said Boiley, pointing out that last evening’s documentary “Elizabeth II, histoire d’un couronnement,” which aired at 10:30 p.m., was watched by more than 1.3 million viewers.
The Queen’s death also shook programming schedules in Italy, where pubcaster RAI replaced its planned early evening prime time content on flagship station RAI-1 with a special.
Mediaset, meanwhile, pulled its prime time movie and also aired a special, followed by locally produced doc “The Queen — La Favola,” which translates and “The Queen–The Fairy Tale.”
Paybox Sky Italia is airing a slew of Queen Elisabeth-related movies, docs and TV series including Roger Michell’s “Elizabeth: a Portrait In Parts,” British vintage TV seies “The Royals” with Elizabeth Hurley, and the “The Queen” by Stephen Frears.
Over in Germany, SAT.1, a leading channel which is part of Seven.One Group, reported live from London in a special two-hour broadcast, starting at 8:15 pm. Afterwards, the station showed a documentary about Queen Elizabeth II. Today (Friday), the news program SAT.1-Frühstücksfernsehen is two hours longer than usual and will last until noon local time. In addition to short newsflashes, there will be another two-hour special program, “SAT.1 SPEZIAL,” starting at 6:00 pm today.
“Many of our viewers are big fans of the British royal family and are very interested in the coverage, so in the next few days, ProSieben and SAT.1 will continue to inform viewers in detail in their magazines. SAT.1 will also broadcast the funeral service live from Westminster Abbey,” said Michael Ulich, VP of news, sports, factual and fiction at Seven.One.
In India, the death of Queen Elizabeth II is just one of the big stories, in a vast country that has no dearth of urgent, breaking news.
Rajdeep Sardesai, consulting editor at the respected India Today broadcast news organization and one of India’s best-known media personalities told Variety: “It was breaking news last night at 11 o’clock. And I think we went well past midnight. We’ve got a full time person in London, who’s tracking the story for us. It is a big news story. But, in India, there is so much else also happening that while it’s a big story, it’s one of the big stories. It’s not the only story that we’re tracking. And to that extent, when the funeral actually takes place, that will be the big live event – yesterday was much more just immediate reactions to what had happened.”
The first speech of King Charles III will also be covered. “We’ll cut live to that,” Sardesai said.
“Frankly, there is an entire Indian generation, which now has no real connect to the Raj or indeed to the Queen. But there is a small, tiny elite that still remains deeply connected to traditions of the royalty in Britain,” Sardesai added.
“So I think you’ve got to make that distinction and a majority of the Indian public has little real connect with Raj today. But there is a tiny elite which went to English speaking schools, particularly convent, Jesuit schools, and for this tiny metropolitan elite, I think the Raj and Queen Elizabeth were enduring figures. I joke with my Parsi friends in Mumbai, that your Queen has passed away because the Parsis in particular, are known to have had great affection for the Raj. But it was said in jest, but for a majority of the of Indians, I think there is no real deeper emotional connect.”
India, now 75 years independent from the British Raj, is making some cosmetic efforts to erase its colonial past, especially under the current Hindu nationalist government. Post independence, Kingsway, a central boulevard in the country’s capital New Delhi, was renamed Rajpath (path of kings). On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra renamed it Kartavyapath, or path of duty.
“Renaming a road may be seen by the government as decolonization. I just see it as a soft option. The fact is that Rajpath is also a Hindi name, it’s not some foreign name – Kingsway was the foreign name,” Sardesai said. “Governments do the renaming for their political objectives. For me, decolonization cannot just be limited to erasure of names – the British were very much part of our contemporary political history and I don’t think you can erase that overnight. And the fact is, we are a member of the Commonwealth, I don’t think India has ever debated in recent times, to withdraw from the Commonwealth. While we need to read introspect and look at the way in which the British Raj, in a way pauperized India and how India lost out in those years, the truth is that I think 75 years on we are more self confident nation, and therefore can easily deal with the Raj without getting caught up in decolonization debates.
India, which remains part of the British commonwealth like Australia, has declared Sunday as a day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II.
In Australia, public radio and TV broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation newsreaders dressed in black and programming has switched to reflect the Queen’s life and seven decades of reign. A gun salute will be held at the Parliament House at dusk today, with one round fired for every year of the Queen’s life. A national day of mourning was also declared to mark the Queen’s death and the Parliament will be suspended for 15 days.
Over in Asia, Hong Kong chief executive, John Lee, released a statement on Friday morning saying the monarch “was greatly respected, admired and praised by the British people.” In spite of tensions between China and the U.K., Chinese President Xi Jinping also sent a message of condolences to British King Charles III, stressing the importance of China-Britain relations, according to the Chinese press agency Xinhua.
More to come.
Patrick Frater, Leo Barraclough and Nick Vivarelli contributed to this report.
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