How the Story Will be Told

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 438, 14 November 1947, Page 6

How the Story Will be Told

Here are the broadcasting plans for -November 20, as detailed by Broadcasting House, London, in an airmail despatch received as we go to press: Elaborate arrangements have been made so that radio listeners throughout the world will be able to hear broadcasts of the ceremony and eyewitness accounts of the scenes in London. Television viewers: in England will have a "grandstand view." The processions from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, the arrivals at the Abbey, the marriage service itself, and the return processions,.to the Palace, will be followed by listeners throughout the Commonwealth and the world .in the course of a two-hour broad-‘cast-from 11.0 to 13.00 GMT (11.0 p.m. to 1.0 a.m. N.Z. time)-in the overseas service of the BBC. Afterwards, recordings of the broadcast, edited to one hour in length, will be reproduced for those who have not been able to hear the original broadcasts, as follows: On November 20: African Service,. 18.15; General Over- | seas Service, 22.00; North American Service, 01.30. On November 21: General Overseas Service, 04.30, and Pacific Service, 08.30 (8.30 p.m. N.Z. time). The BBC’s normal wavelength schedules may have to be modified on November 20 from 10.45 GMT until ‘the end of the broadcast at 13.00 GMT "$0 that the broadcasts of the wedding

and processions may be heard over the widest possible area. All areas riormally served by the General Overseas Service between those hours will be able to (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) tune in on at least 6ne of their normal wavelengths. Listeners in Australia should tune in on the wavelengths carrying the services to the Indian area16.84 and 13.97 metres-and those in New Zealand to the waves for the Far East, 25.38 and 16.84. In the North American area the normal G.O.S. wave is 16:55 metres (18.13 mc/s.) and will be reinforced by 19.60 metres (15.31 me/s). These are the detailed adjustments known at the time of going to press; any additional changes will be announced at the microphone. In Seven Languages The scenes at Buckingham Palace as the processions depart and return will be described in seven languages by commentators. These commentators will take up-a position on the Victoria Memorial /@end will include Frgnk Gillard for the "\ BBC’s English Services; French, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Italian and Greek observers of the BBC’s European Service, and representatives of the major American. networks. Cameras of the BBC’s Television Service will be transmitting the scene to the homes of English television viewers. As the processions reach the Admiralty Arch at the other end of the Mall, the famous processional way from the Palace, more commentators and observers will. take up the broadcast. They will be stationed on the roof of the "Citadel"-a flat-roofed annexe built for security reasons on to the main Admiralty building during the war. Among them Audrey Russell, Radio Newsreel reporter, will be the BBC representative for the English broadcast from that point. On the roof of St. Margaret’s Church will be Peter Scott, painter and ornithologist, who won the D.S.O. and Bar for his services with the light coastal forces during the war; he will give a picture of the scene as ‘the Royal carriages pass through Parliament Square. The main broadcasting position will be opposite the West Door of the Abbey. There, stationed at the first, second and third floor windows of the one-time Westminster Hospital, will be no fewer than 12 commentators and 22 observers, In addition to Richard Dimbleby, who will do the BBC’s commentary in English, and commentators for the BBC’s Latin American, Eastern, and European Services, there will be representatives of the Dominions, U.S.A., and a num- . ber of European commentators. A local control-room is being specially installed in the building to handle the 12 simul- taneous commentaries, H.M, the King and "Her Royal Highness the Bride," as she is described in the official announcement, will be received there at 11.28 by the Dean of Westminster, and then listeners will be * taken into the Abbey itself.. Wynford fy Vaughan Thomas will be there to take ~ up the account from his position in the \organ loft. With him will be only one other commentator-a representative of the American networks. Even the Responses .. . The whole of the marriage service, including the responses, will be heard by listeners. Altogether 21 microphones | will be installed in the Abbey. The service will be conducted by the Archbishop

of Canterbury, Dr. Fisher, assisted by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend A. C. Don, and the Precentor of the Abbey, the Reverend C. M. Armitage. The Archbishop of York, Dr, Garbett, will give the address at the et Altar. The morning broadcast in all BBC services will end with the description of the return to the Palace, but’ it is hoped to interrupt the afternoon programmes of the G.O.S. for a deseription of the scene outside the Palace as Her Royal Highness and her husband leave for their honeymoon. An unusual .type of feature programme, of special interest at this time, will be broadcast before the day of the Royal Wedding. Entitled The Royal Wedding it will give a picture of the immense preparations that are being made, and the part taken in them by ordinary men and women. Such people as the bakers who make the wedding cake (from ingredients generously given by the people of the Empire), the seamstresses who make the wedding dress, the craftsmen who fashion the ring, and the many others who play parts, perhaps small but still important, in the huge detail required on an occasion of such State ceremonial, high consequence, and general rejoicing. NZBS Arrangements On Tuesday, November 18, from 7.30 p-m. to 8.0 p.m., the Main National stations will re-broadcast the BBC’s feature programme, The Royal Wedding, giving a picture of the preparations. On Thursday, November 20, Stations 1YA, 2YA, 3YA and 4YA will rebroadcast the actual ceremony from 11.0 p.m. to 1.0 a.m. and on Friday, November 21, a 60minute programme, compiled from recordings of the ceremony and on-the-spot descriptions and reports from London will be broadcast from the main National stations from 8.0 p.m. to 9.0 p.m. for the benefit of those listeners who were unable to stay up for the rebroadcast on Thursday. as The ZB stations and Station 2ZA will stay on the air from 11.0 p.m. till 1.0 a.m. on Thursday, November 20, to broadcast the actual ceremony.