The Coffin Carrying Queen Elizabeth II Is Transferred From Buckingham Palace To The Palace Of Westminster
The world’s media have set up camp in London to cover Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral (Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Rainy Pathé film still exists showing King George V’s coffin being loaded from a special train at Paddington station before its journey to Windsor Castle on a grey January morning in 1936.

Mourners, including his widow, Queen Mary, his sister Queen Maud of Norway and King Boris of Bulgaria, were captured in the footage – the first taken at the funeral of a monarch.

The death of his son, King George V1 in 1952, became the first funeral of a British monarch to be broadcast on television – an event that saw a huge spike of sales in TV sets.

The fact that it was televised at all was made possible because the BBC had acquired 100 redundant military transmitters at the end of the war and engineers had recently converted them for sound and picture transmissions.

Cameras were excluded from the funeral itself but the new Queen gave permission for them to be allowed into Westminster Abbey to transmit her Coronation, on June 2, 1953, live to the nation.

In preparation for its biggest broadcast ever, the BBC chose its 30 smallest cameramen to squeeze into nooks at the abbey, particularly above the organ loft. Around 27 million subjects watched from home on their new black-and-white TVs, with a further 11 million listening on radios.

Now – 70 years later – the Queen’s state funeral will become the biggest broadcasting event ever.

Queen Elizabeth II Waving from Coach
Queen Elizabeth’s funeral will be broadcast all over the world (Credits: Bettmann Archive)
BRITAIN-ROYALS-QUEEN-DEATH
Journalists and cameramen have been stationed within touching distance of the proceedings since Queen Elizabeth passed away on September 8 (Picture: Stephanie De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 16: Members of the public continue to wait in line to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II as she lays in state within Westminster Hall on September 16, 2022 in London, England. Queen Elizabeth II is lying in state at Westminster Hall until the morning of her funeral to allow members of the public to pay their last respects. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in Bruton Street, Mayfair, London on 21 April 1926. She married Prince Philip in 1947 and acceded to the throne of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth on 6 February 1952 after the death of her Father, King George VI. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
This week members of the public have been queuing for miles to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth (Picture: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
File photo dated 8/4/2002 of people filing past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, in Westminster Hall, London, where she was lying in state before her funeral. Issue date: Thursday September 8, 2022. PA Photo. As the nation comes to terms with the death of the Queen, behind the scenes the detailed plans set aside for the aftermath are being rapidly put into action. The arrangements, which have the codename London Bridge, have been in place for many years and were updated and reviewed regularly by palace aides in consultation with the Queen herself, and also the Government. See PA story DEATH Queen Plans. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
The lying-in-state at Westminster Hall has seen thousands of mourners file past Queen Elizabeth’s coffin over the last few days (Picture: PA)

‘It is unprecedented, the world has not seen a funeral like this,’ says London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

A funeral like no other requires coverage like no other – and, over the past 11 days, the world’s media have descended on the capital. Within minutes of the news of Queen Elizabeth’s declining health on September 8, there was, according to one industry insider, ‘an immediate scramble for live positions at Balmoral’.