King Charles' Challenge

Analysis

BBC

Government, Politics, News

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Queen’s funeral appeared a resounding reassertion of our enduring commitment to monarchy, but was it a tribute to her rather than the institution? As the coronation approaches, polls suggest support is at its lowest ever, and the King faces difficult questions on several fronts. As supreme Governor of the Church of England, congregation numbers are falling and divisions are deepening over its stance on gay marriage. The union is under threat – what would the monarchy mean if Scotland votes for independence and Northern Ireland joins the Republic? Commonwealth countries from the Caribbean to the Pacific are asking whether it still makes sense to keep a king in London as their head of state. The coronation will be a grand reminder of our history, but hanging over everything is a dark chapter in that history; the monarchy’s role in the slave trade. If the King is to represent all his subjects, does he need to say sorry? And what about reparations?

Edward Stourton will unravel the challenges and ask how the King meets them.

Presenter: Edward Stourton Producer: Jonathan IAnson Editor: Clare Fordham

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.6	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.4	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable
0:14.3	experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC
0:20.4	makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
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0:36.1	BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. podcasts.
0:43.0	The Queen is born to
0:45.0	The Queen is born
0:50.0	the Queen is born to the Abbey
0:52.0	where she was married in 1947, crowned in 1953, where she attended
0:59.0	royal weddings and funerals, all as with her own funeral today, part of the recurring seasons of death and renewal.
1:08.0	It looked and sounded like a resounding reassertion of our enduring commitment to monarchy.
1:18.0	The way we said goodbye to the late Queen Elizabeth was a showcase for British ceremony at its best, the solemn service in Westminster Abbey,
1:27.8	the procession a mile long that accompanied her coffins through the streets of London, the dignified committal at St George's Windsor.
1:36.0	And if you want a sense of the emotion behind all that, think of the estimated quarter of a million people who cued for long hours to see her
1:45.0	lying in state in Westminster Hall. But how much of it was a personal tribute
1:52.4	to her rather than the institution?
1:56.1	As the coronation of King Charles approaches, we're going to look at the constitutional
2:00.5	and social structures that underpin the monarchy and to ask whether it's really as secure as it seems.
	...

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