KonzeptioNerd

Royal videocast

Last year, it was podcasts. This year, it’s a dedicated YouTube-channel (The Royal Channel). H.M. Queen Elizabeth II is very onviously aware that royalty is a media asset.

And no surprise, as this year’s Christmas Broadcast reminds us: Even in 1957, a very black and white Queen greeted those of her compatriots who lived in the vicinity of a newfangled TV set with moving images (before that, the broadcast came through the radio only - sine 1932). “I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct,” says the young queen, telling how her “own family often gather round to watch television”. HMQEII used the medium to fashion herself as a more personal, approachable even sovereign, welcoming her subjects to the “peace of” her “own home”. Note how her script is carefully - but not fully - hidden behind a modest bouquet. And note the relieved (and rather cute) smile and eyes dashing to (someone standing to?) the top right as she finishes with her wishes for the coming 1958. (Embedding disabled by request, see the video here: The Christmas Broadcast 1957.)

The 2007 Christmas Broadcast starts seemlessly with the first minute of the (slightly contorted) 1957 broadcast. At 46 seconds, the image morphs to a contemporary Queen, standing in front of a monitor in one of her rooms in one of her palaces, not quite smoothly transitioning to this year’s hot topic, namely, family values. The broadcast is strikingly more professional than 50 years ago: with a teleprompter (or at least no manuscript), professional gestures, more movement, cut scenes and all that makes it easier to sit through a seven minute address.

The closing wishes from today’s Queen are doubled by the the last words from the 1957 address. This creates a sense of continuity (plus cashes in on past charm) and quite ruins this blog post for me. I could have sworn, the first time I watched the broadcast, that there was no contempary finale, just the one from 1957 - which would have been so cool. Imagine HMQEII using the capacity of ubiquitous media to create synchronicity and self-identity. With a simple cut, the Queen could have conflated her 1957 and 2007 selves into a continuous, mediated persona - almost, but almost an idoru. (Embedding, once more, disabled by request, see the video here: The Christmas Broadcast 2007.)

Time for Punsch and Böller. Guten Rutsch, to y’all.

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