Paying Our Disrespects

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You know, I don't want to seem disrespectful to Prince Philip - I rather liked the old bugger - but what the fuck?  I really think that, as a country, we need to ask ourselves some searching questions when the death of a member of an anachronistic institution like the Royal Family results in every BBC station, both TV and radio, switching to wall-to-wall coverage of the 'event' (and an entire channel - BBC4 - is taken off air), with ITV's main channel following suit, (Channel 5 finally went back to its schedule this evening while Channel 4, thankfully, didn't indulge in this totalitarian nonsense).  Apparently, this disruption will continue overnight - why?  What on earth is going to happen during the dark hours?  Indeed, how can anyone justify this sort of coverage at any time, just to repeat the same thing over and over: Prince Philip has died.  As foul play isn't suspected, it is hardly a developing story, let alone a surprise, ("Ninety nine year old man in ill health cut down in his prime - in depth analysis follows!")   Quite why it would be disrespectful for people to watch EastEnders or Coronation Street  this evening, I don't know.  But it has apparently been decreed that it would.  Just as it would be disrespectful if you were to watch England's Women's International Football match on BBC4 - but it is OK to watch it on the Red Button service though.  (In a truly ridiculous development, a few minutes ago the Red Button stream for this match was being promoted on BBC 4 - wouldn't it be easier to just show the bloody match on BBC 4 as scheduled rather than do this?).  

Of course, all the Royalists out there will be saying 'Well, you don't have to watch BBC and ITV - other channels are still running their schedules as usual.'  Which is true - I thank God for the advent of multi-channel digital TV and streaming services - but such a response raises issues of its own.  The fact that the rest of the TV spectrum is operating as usual (and apparently enjoying higher than normal audiences) just highlights how out-of-touch with people's actual attitudes the UK establishment has become with its insistence that public service broadcasters surrender their schedules to a stream of sickening sycophancy bordering on propaganda.  Moreover, as a licence fee payer, I help finance BBC services and I therefore have every right to expect them to provide a proper service, not fill every one of their channels with the same obsequious drivel all day and all night.  It is as bad as when, every four years they turn into BBC Olympics and those of us with no interest in the event are expected to endure wall-to-wall coverage of it.  In this case, it wouldn't be so bad if the incessant repetition of a single 'news' story wasn't blanking out reporting of other, frankly more important, stories.  (Despite saying that I didn't want to be disrespectful, I can't help but speculate whether Prince Philip was actually 'sent on his way' so as to distract from other developments.  Perhaps Boris Johnson smothered him with a pillow to try and draw attention away from the Brexit-inspired violence in Northern Ireland that the UK press had finally started reporting.  Obviously, the Express and Mail will claim that it was Meghan Markle doing the smothering).

The bottom line is that I've suffered bereavement too, (quite recently my 101 year old Aunt was cut down in the prime of her life), so I understand his family's grief.  But I also know from experience that grief is a private thing - this attempt to make it a public event is intrusive and tasteless.  So let's just get back to normal, for God's sake.  It isn't as if there aren't issues of wider concern going on: we're in the middle of a pandemic, after all - and the 120,000 plus Britons who have died in it seem to barely warrant a mention by the media, which rather puts this current overkill into some perspective, I feel.  Still, if you think the media reaction to Prince Philip's death is over-the-top, just imagine what it will be like when the Queen pops her clogs.  While I'd like to think that the growing backlash to today's approach might result in a rethink of how such events are covered, I somehow doubt it.  So, a few years down the line we can doubtless look forward to TV schedules being derailed for several weeks, our screens filled with black-clad weeping presenters, all trying to out do each other with 'grief'.  God Save the Queen - for as long as possible!