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Today in Focus

Cost of the crown part 5: the coronation of Charles III

Today in Focus

The Guardian

News, Daily News

4.65.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Charles III will be crowned in Westminster Abbey on Saturday in a ceremony steeped in centuries of history. Jonathan Freedland examines what the event means to the modern-day UK. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian.

0:10.0

Today, in the final episode of our cost of the Crown Series,

0:14.0

a coronation for a new king,

0:16.0

but will we get Charles the Reformer or more of the same?

0:30.0

In a ceremony tomorrow, Charles will finally receive the Crown.

0:38.0

At 74 years old, he will be the oldest monarch ever to take the throne.

0:42.0

At the same age, his mother was gearing up for her golden Jubilee.

0:46.0

For the Guardian Colomest Johnathan Friedland,

0:50.0

this means there will be a very different tone from the last coronation.

1:00.0

Charles, I here present unto you Queen Elizabeth, your undoubted Queen.

1:08.0

There was something very forward-looking in 1953,

1:12.0

because the country was crowning a very young Queen.

1:20.0

The public had no idea of it really,

1:22.0

and that tapped into all kinds of quite mythic motifs and ideas.

1:28.0

We've fitted very much the role that we demand of a constitutional monarch,

1:32.0

which is in some ways they be an empty vessel,

1:34.0

that we can project whatever we like.

1:36.0

On to.

1:38.0

So, to that sterling music,

1:40.0

majesty, splendor and beauty,

1:44.0

passed from our sight.

1:46.0

That isn't the case with him.

...

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