It’s a time when the nation comes together. A time to rest assured that the royal house of Windsor will continue through the years after we have had our time. The sight and sounds of a royal wedding help us feel more united as a country, but their televising has only been relatively recent. Television ownership was scarce until the 1960s, and there were only two ways to see the event before that. The first was to go to London and watch it live or wait a few weeks for it to appear in the cinema on the British Pathe newsreel. The newspapers usually ran a commemorative issue as well. In the 1960s, TV ownership took off, but, as with now, you’d need a decent TV aerial installation Bristol based company like https://aerial-installations-bristol.co.uk/ to come and set it up for you.
- Prince Albert to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. At the time, it was not that important a wedding. Prince Albert was the second in line to the throne, and as soon as Edward 8th married and had children, he could settle for a quiet life. It wasn’t televised or put on the radio, as the newly formed BBC had wanted to, because the Archbishop of Canterbury was worried that “men would listen to it in public houses”. It’s hard to imagine what he would have made of Andrew and Fergie’s decades later.
- Princess Elizabeth to Philip Mountbatten. This is the big one. Leading to four children and the reign of the longest serving monarch in UK history, it wasn’t televised, but it was recorded by the BBC and sent around the Commonwealth and world. Over 200 million are believed to have listened in.
- Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. This was the first commercially produced and recorded wedding. It seemed that the prince would never marry, but his engagement and romance with the beautiful and younger Diana was the stuff of dreams. Looking radiant, the young bride was a vision and the cameras, as we would learn through her tragically short life, loved her.
- Prince Andrew to Lady Sarah Ferguson. The last of the lavish spectacles, future weddings, except for Prince William to Kate Middleton, would be less. As this union would produce no airs to the throne, it was seen as more fun and loose.