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| 'Cop 26' Message, Windsor Castle, November 2021 |
Amidst all the current concern about Queen Elizabeth II's health there was one piece of reassuring information from seasoned royal commentator Robert Hardman. According to Hardman's sources, plans to record the Christmas Broadcast 'remain unaltered' and 'staff are finalising the location this week.'
The annual Broadcast is one duty that the Queen can perform from 'home'. It is usually recorded in early December, and as Her Majesty ages its location and timing can be adjusted to suit her.
One interesting question this year is where the Christmas Broadcast will be filmed. When pre-recording of the annual Christmas Messages began in 1960, the 'default' location moved from Sandringham to Buckingham Palace. Back in the relative normality of 2018, Elizabeth II recorded the eighth successive Christmas Message from the Palace; indeed, at the time only three of the nineteen productions since the millennium had been recorded elsewhere.
It seemed, therefore, a refreshing change when the 2019 production was filmed at Windsor Castle. Until that year Windsor had only been used as the location on five previous occasions in Elizabeth II's long reign: 1982, 1984, 1997, 1999 and 2003. One reason given for neglecting the ancient Castle when choosing recording venues for the annual Broadcast is that Windsor's proximity to Heathrow Airport means that noise from overhead passing aircraft makes sound recording problematic.
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| Christmas Broadcast 2018; Buckingham Palace |
Then came the Covid lockdowns of 2020. Elizabeth II chose to isolate at Windsor with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, and one of her first duties that April was to speak to the peoples of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth in a message recorded at the Castle. Another broadcast followed in May, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE-Day: an event which could not be celebrated in the planned manner due to the restrictions in place. By Christmas of 2020, the United Kingdom was in lockdown again, and the Queen's festive speech was once more recorded at Windsor Castle in the Green Drawing Room: the very room where she had recorded her Christmas Broadcast a year earlier in very different circumstances.
In November 2021, Elizabeth II recorded a message to assembled world leaders and dignitaries at the 'Cop26' climate conference in Glasgow. As is well known, Her Majesty had intended to deliver the speech in person, but was resting at Windsor on doctors' orders following an undisclosed health problem. What is perhaps less known is that this was the fifth consecutive time that Elizabeth II had recorded a speech to camera at Windsor Castle; meaning that the Queen had made as many broadcasts from the Castle in a period of less than two years as she had done in the first fifty-one years of her reign. Suddenly, the 'refreshing change' of 2019 looks remarkably ongoing.
It seems likely (assuming that - hopefully - the Queen is well enough to record this year's Christmas Message) that the venue for the 2021 Broadcast will once again be Windsor. Her Majesty's recent health difficulties and the fact that she has apparently yet to move back to Buckingham Palace in the post-lockdown era would make the Castle the natural choice. Who knows, by Christmas 2022, when, all being well, the Queen will have celebrated her Platinum Jubilee and will hopefully be restored to her usual health, this blogger may be writing that it is time to move the Christmas Broadcast back to Buckingham Palace for a change!
