Page 55 - BBC History - September 2017

With its invocations

of the people
against a remote

elite, 1997 can look

like a harbinger
of things to come

his visibly emotional reaction – the tremor in
his voice, the sentimentalism of his words –
struck a chord with a nation rediscovering the
intoxication of collective tears.
There was another element to the death and
funeral of Princess Diana: the extraordinary
prominence of a man who, only a few years
earlier, would have been an utterly implau-
sible guest at such a solemn royal occasion.
This was Elton John, whose rendition of The gun carriage carrying Diana’s coffin approaches Westminster Abbey. An estimated
‘Candle in the Wind’, which he memorably 2.5 billion people watched her funeral on television
performed at Westminster Abbey, soon
became the most popular single of all time. the Wind’, like the spectacle of Diana’s three people said they had been upset or very
Released on Saturday 13 September 1997, funeral itself, was a powerful reminder that upset by her death, the rest had been relatively
‘Candle in the Wind’, rocketed to number 1 no successful monarchy can ignore the unmoved. Three out of ten had either laid
within minutes of the shops opening. By appeal of popular culture. flowers or wanted to; yet seven out of ten had
lunchtime that day, most stores had already Fifteen years later, after the concert that no intention of doing so.
sold out; the next day, Mercury Records sent a marked the 2012 diamond jubilee, the conser- During the funeral, as the historian
thousand employees to the printing presses to vative columnist Peter Hitchens lamented Thomas Dixon remarks, the television
prepare another million copies for Monday. that the Queen had “pledged allegiance to the cameras unwaveringly zoomed in on faces
By this point the record had already sold more vile new culture of talentless celebrity”. Yet streaked with tears or contorted with
than 600,000 copies, going platinum in just monarchies have always harnessed the emotion. What they did not capture, though,
24 hours. By the end of the year, sales had energies of their most successful, fashionable were the faces that remained unmoved, or the
reached almost 5 million, which meant that and popular cultural figures, from Hans millions of people who were simply doing
one in five households owned a copy. Holbein’s portraits of Henry VIII and something else.
Handel’s coronation anthems for George II to No doubt there were many people like that
Rock royalty the Queen’s cameo alongside James Bond at in 1817, too: those who simply got on with
In a wider context, the remarkable thing was the 2012 Olympics. In that sense, there was their lives, even as their neighbours pulled on
not the song’s astounding popularity so much nothing inappropriate about Elton John’s the black crepe. Historians rarely mention
as the fact that Elton John had performed it at presence at Diana’s funeral. them, of course. But they were there, all
all. He was hardly an obvious candidate to The greatest temptation is to see the the same.
sing at such a solemn royal occasion. The reaction to Diana’s death as a reminder, in an
former NME journalist Barbara Ellen thought increasingly individualistic age, of the appeal Dominic Sandbrook is a historian and television
“a pop song at a royal funeral seemed about as and power of collective national sentiment. presenter. His books include Seasons in the Sun:
appropriate as receiving holy communion in Twenty years on, when our politics is much The Battle for Britain, 1974–1979 (Penguin, 2013)
a nightclub toilet”. Meanwhile the Spectator’s more visibly informed by questions of
Simon Hoggart wrote that “there was patriotism, national identity and collective
something deeply moving about the sight of a belonging – Scottish or British? British or DISCOVER MORE
plump, red-nosed gay in a ginger wig European? – the first week of September 1997
TELEVISION
performing at a royal occasion of any kind”. looks like a harbinger of things to come. After
E Diana and I, a drama about the
One reader of the Guardian was less deeply all, squabbles about flags and invocations of
events of 1997, is due to air on
moved. “Who suggested that Elton John sing the ‘people’ against a remote elite are only too
BBC Two soon
at the funeral?” complained Raul Jaylan of common today.
MAGAZINE
London N11. “I’m sorry, but this man made Yet perhaps Diana’s death also serves
E For more on Princess Diana,
Freddie Mercury’s tribute concert look cheap. as a lesson that, whatever grand pattern we read our collector’s edition
Hopefully he will at least take that stupid rug impose on the past, it can never be anything magazine, Royal Women,
off his head.” But as the record sales suggest, other than a partial and misleading sketch. available at
GETTY most people were rather more charitable. Yes, millions turned out for her funeral. But a buysubscriptions.com
poll afterwards found that, while two out of
Indeed, at one level the success of ‘Candle in
BBC History Magazine 55