BROADCAST DESCRIPTION OF EVENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26624, 21 November 1947, Page 5

BROADCAST DESCRIPTION OF EVENT

Hundreds of radio stations all over the world rebroadcast the commentary from London, and there must have been great relief when the first commentator prefaced his ' description with a reassurance that the weather was “beyond all our hopes and anticipations—a mild, almost spring, morning,” although the streets were still damp from earlier showers. Throughout the descriptions given from vantage points along the route, excited cheering added a deep diapason, blotting out even the roar of a passing aircraft. Vast crowds thronged the roads and every window, balustrading and balcony which offered even a glimpse of the procession was crowded. Richard Dimbleby, well-known as a 8.8. C. war-time correspondent, told of the arrival of the royal party and guests—“so many royal cars have drawn up outside the Abbey in the past half-hour that it has been difficult to identify all the royal personages and famous people as they arrive.”

As the procession moved up the rich scarlet of the aisle carpet, the c6mmentator gave place to the choir. Though magnified and reverberant by distance, the voice of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the responses of the royal couple came clearly and firmly, the magnificent cadences of the service sounding strangely calm after the roar of cheering which submerged the earlier part of the broadcast.