Half of the British will not care much, according to a survey, but the otherhalf is looking forward to King Charles III’s very first Christmas performancewith some trepidation.
This afternoon at 4 pm Belgian time, the new British king will deliver hisvery first Christmas message as head of state following the death of hismother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Enthusiasts feast in advance on the historic event, because it is only thesecond time in more than sixty years that not a queen, but a king gives aChristmas speech on television. Prior to the Queen’s first televised addressin 1957, her predecessor, King George VI, still gave his speeches over theradio. The Christmas tradition, incidentally, started in 1932 with King GeorgeV, but has evolved over the years and can now also be viewed online.
Half of the country finds all this extremely fascinating. Royalists and fansof ‘The Crown’ naturally hope for a reference to Diana or to Harry and Meghan,who are now Netflix phenomena. Last year, the Queen paid tribute to herhusband Prince Philip, who passed away in October 2021, during her Christmasspeech.
But the other half (49 percent according to a survey by YouGov) of the Britssurveyed prefer to skip Charles. It is remarkable that of those who say theydeliberately do not watch, 9 percent did watch the Queen last year. EitherCharles does not (yet) have the status of his mother.
Second speech
Charles’ speech will be only his second speech as king. The first was inSeptember after the Queen’s death. Although this Christmas speech was recordeda few days ago, the head of state always speaks on Christmas Day, usually at 3pm local time, so an hour later with us. Since 1997, the BBC and ITV havetaken turns broadcasting the monarch’s Christmas speech, while news channelSky has only been allowed to participate since 2011.
Experts predict that Charles III will also pay homage to his mother, who diedin September at the age of 96. He will reflect on the celebrations surroundingher platinum reigning anniversary earlier this year. Charles will probablyalso reflect on the special change of prime ministers during the year, inwhich Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak successively involved 10Downing Street. The progress made in reducing Covid deaths and the ongoing waragainst Russia and Ukraine will also be reviewed. And, as insiders know, thereis a chance for a surprise. No one knows yet what it will be.
British historian Jeremy Archer recently told ‘OK! Magazine’ that Charles’speech will be “solemn and reflective”. The only photo released by BuckinghamPalace shows Charles standing in front of a Christmas tree adorned withornaments made from sustainable materials. Charles makes a point of the