King Charles III: The 2023 Broadcast

 Note:  This remains a blog dedicated to the Christmas messages of Queen Elizabeth II.  I do not intend to cover the speeches of Charles III in the same way, although I aim to continue to write a commentary of sorts on each of the King's festive broadcasts.

As the King reached the milestone of his second Christmas Broadcast, there remained a certain novelty value surrounding the relatively new reign.  When, on 23rd December, a photograph of His Majesty recording the speech was released, some press referred to the 'eco-activist' monarch preparing to deliver a 'powerful message about the environment' and similar speculation.  The presence of a 'living' Christmas tree with its roots intact (enabling it to be re-planted), complete with environmentally-friendly decorations, was noted.  It was also reported before Christmas that Charles III had written the speech himself, without the help of advisors, since the King evidently feels he performs better when speaking 'off the cuff'.

In the event, King Charles did indeed dedicate a portion of his Message to the importance of 'caring for the Earth' (having linked the Christmas story to God, God to creation and creation to the natural world), but His Majesty is not exactly banging the drum for Net Zero here, as some media may have led one to expect.  The King's message is predominantly Christian in tone, but he speaks more of other religions in this Broadcast than he had done in 2022, once again making use of the increasingly hackneyed phrase 'all faiths and none'.  Nevertheless, at least one commentator claimed that Charles III's annual messages are proving to be more robustly Christian than his late mother 'had dared' to be in her festive addresses.

Elsewhere in the Broadcast, there are references to the Coronation, which His Majesty links to the importance of 'service' and those who provide it, citing the work of volunteers as 'an essential backbone of our society'; a constantly recurring theme in the annual messages of the late Queen Elizabeth.

With regard to whether the King wrote the speech himself without advice, it is important to remember that the final text of the speech must always be signed off by ministers.  There seems little which, in principle, might not have been the subject of one of Elizabeth II's speeches, although the wording may have been adapted to Charles III's particular style of oratory.

Of interest to this blogger is that this is the first time the Royal Christmas Message has been recorded at Buckingham Palace since 2018.  Much has happened since then, not least the change of reign.  The Centre Room, seen here, had never before been used as the setting for a Christmas Broadcast.  It is difficult to know, from what little we see of it, how well the East Wing renovations of Buckingham Palace are progressing (they were clearly far from complete in May 2023, as can be seen in the BBC documentary Charles III:  The Coronation Year), since the production is shot rather basically using only one wide-angle with a closer-in view as the Broadcast progresses.  More is made of the external shots of the Palace, with Guardsmen from the Household Division Symphonic Brass playing God Save the King on the rarely-seen balcony of the Courtyard side of the East Wing as the camera pans out to show The Mall and London behind it.

The Broadcast is produced by ITN, as it should have been in 2022.  No reason for the change was given then, when production inexplicably reverted to the BBC, nor, apparently, for the return to ITN in 2023.  Daylight is very evident in this production, which is unusual in recent decades where the visual emphasis has tended to be on softly-lit 'Christmassy' twilight.  There is the usual interspersed footage of the Royal Family at work including this year, of course, from the Coronation.  With a nod to informality, the end carol, While Shepherds Watched, is sung by the Bexley Music Primary Choir.  As a production, it is very much traditional; perhaps in some ways almost a throwback to the first half of the 1980s given the simplicity of the camera angles and complete lack of gimmickry.

The most notable thing about Buckingham Palace's Centre Room is the view of the Victoria Memorial looking out onto The Mall:  this is the room that the Royal Family emerge from when they make their famous balcony appearances.  It was evidently an imposing-looking, somewhat Germanic sitting room in Queen Victoria's reign before being remodeled in Oriental style by Queen Mary in the 1920s.  Today it appears to contain a long table and may possibly be used as a conference room.  Presumably this location was chosen for the 2023 Broadcast because it was the room from which the King and Queen appeared for the iconic balcony scenes following the Coronation ceremony and procession.

A few eagle-eyed commentators noticed, as I did, that the King appears to be wearing exactly the same cobalt blue suit as he did in the previous Broadcast (although Queen Elizabeth II usually wore outfits in her Christmas broadcasts that she had worn on previous occasions, Her Late Majesty never dressed the same way in any of her Christmas Messages).  This was presumably a deliberate choice, with Charles III wishing to idenfify himself as a monarch supportive of recycling and thrift.

Full text of the Message here

 

The 2022 Broadcast: King Charles III's first Christmas Message

 

There were a great many column inches spent speculating over how the King's first Christmas Broadcast would look, what he would say, and how his address would compare with the many Christmas messages delivered by the late Queen.  Even more column inches were spent commenting on the programme after it was broadcast.  Similarly, the television airwaves were filled with 'experts' fascinated by the prospect of the first television Christmas Message to be delivered by a male monarch.

It is impossible to go into all of these;  suffice to say that there were those who thought His Majesty would continue with a conventional style, while others thought he would try something groundbreaking and new, to signal a generational break from his mother.

It was quite fun to see so many commentators attempt to argue that the visual and production sides of the broadcast were somehow revolutionary.  On Boxing Day morning, I watched an interviewee say that it was noteworthy that King Charles had delivered his message from 'a Church' rather than a a grand state room and that this may signal His Majesty's intention to do 'on location' Broadcasts.  Actually, Queen Elizabeth had wrapped up her 1999 speech from almost the same spot and recorded a number of 'on location' Broadcasts (particularly in the first decade of the Millennium), including from several churches and chapels.  Some seemed amazed that the King delivered his speech standing up.  True, he was, but Queen Elizabeth spoke from a standing position for the first time in 1975, did so on several occasions during the 1980s and later for ten consecutive Christmases from 2003 to 2012 (and who could forget the "stand up, sit down, keep moving" gimmickry that producers subjected Her Majesty to in the 2000 and 2001 Broadcasts?)!  It was only in the last decade of her life, by which time she was in her late eighties, that Elizabeth II chose to speak from the more comfortable seated position of earlier years.  Even more trivial, was the King's choice of blue suit and cheerful tie really so significant?

There had also been speculation that the Christmas Broadcasts of King Charles III would be more secular, interfaith-orientated and less Christian in tone than his mother's.  On the contrary, the King's first Message is robustly Christian, talking much about his own faith while also referencing other religions as Elizabeth II had done for many years.

Essentially, what we have in the 2022 Broadcast is a largely traditional product, which has enough 'wriggle room' to allow something less conventional as King Charles' Christmas Broadcasts progress.  Windsor is a 'safe' venue - a royal residence - yet the setting of St. George's Chapel had only been used once before and allows scope for future innovative developments:  this coming Christmas may see the King speak from one of the familiar State Rooms of Buckingham Palace;  equally, His Majesty could be on location somewhere in the North of England (or even further afield).  St. George's Chapel made sense for the 2022 Message:  it is consistent with the tradition of the Broadcasts and is also the place where Queen Elizabeth had so recently been laid to rest with her husband Prince Philip.  The choice of the carol O Little Town Of Bethlehem is also significant, because it was the backdrop for the end of Queen Elizabeth's final Message in 2021 - the first time that the same carol has been used in 'back-to-back' Broadcasts:  here is a clear signal of continuity.  My own instinct is that the production will proceed cautiously, at least for the first few years.

If we want to look for more tangible differences between the Christmas Broadcasts of Queen Elizabeth II and the first annual Message of King Charles III, we can study their respective styles of speech and use of language.  Queen Elizabeth was somewhat averse to the use of superlatives;  King Charles is not.  It is difficult to imagine , for example, Elizabeth II using phrases such as 'I cannot thank you enough' and 'with all my heart' as His Majesty did in 2022.  However, given the circumstances, it was an understandably emotional Broadcast.

As December comes around once more, there is not long to wait to see whether the 2023 Broadcast will be produced in a similar vein to the 2022 address.

Full text of the Message here.