Page 31 - Dec 2022

T he Christmas B roadcast Christmas messages. Today is another landmark
because television has made it possible for many of you to
It wouldn't be Christmas in many British households
see me in your homes on Christmas Day. "
without the Christmas Broadcast from the Sovereign. In
1932, King George V broadcast the first Christmas message In her 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II used
through the medium of radio. Formally known as 'Her the annual broadcast to connect with her people and it
Majesty's Most Gracious Speech'. Queen Elizabeth II worked. In 1980 more than 28 million people tuned in .
continued the tradition in every year save one, when she The texts of her messages were always closely held; but
wrote a published letter, instead, to reflect on the previous in 1992, the British Tabloid The Sun, leaked the text two
12 months. days early. The Queen was not amused, sued The Sun,
collected 200,000 pounds in damages, and promptly
In 1952, on her first Christmas without her father, sitting in
donated the award to charity. It was the last leak of a
his chair at his desk at Sandringham, Norfolk, in the Long
Christmas message.
Library, Elizabeth gave her first Christmas broadcast over
the radio and set the tone for all that was to follow, saying: The sites for the broadcasts were usually from her
living room at Buckingham Palace and, occasionally,
?Each Christmas, at this time, my beloved father broadcast a
from her home at Windsor Castle, modernizing the
message to his people in all parts of the world. Today I am doing
Queen by giving a look at how she lived.
this to you, who are now my people,? she began. ?My father, and
my grandfather before him, worked all their lives to unite our With the Queen's passing, the tradition of delivering
peoples ever more closely, and to maintain its ideals which were the annual Christmas Broadcast passes to her son King
so near to their hearts. I shall strive to carry on their work.? Charles III. It will doubtless be an emotional time, not
only for the King, but also for people in the UK as it
She ended with a request for prayer? not for the country,
marks a change in the person who delivers a message
but for herself, on her Coronation Day that June. ?You will be
that most people now living have only associated with
keeping it as a holiday; but I want to ask you all, whatever your
Queen Elizabeth II.
religion may be, to pray for me on that day? to pray that God
may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn Charles, however, has appeared before in support of
promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve him Christmas.
and you, all the days of my life.?
During the pandemic, joined by other leading lights in
Always a media trail blazer in the Royal Family, in 1957 the the British arts, the then Prince of Wales and his wife,
Queen, on the 25th anniversary of the first Christmas Camilla, appeared in a fund raiser for the Actors Guild,
Broadcast, was eager to be on the telly , saying: "Twenty-five doing his part in a reading of The Night Before
years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas, as seen below.

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