"Nothing So Fine Since VE Day"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 441, 5 December 1947, Page 9

"Nothing So Fine Since VE Day"

| An Appreciation of the BBC’s Royal Wedding broadcast,

by

A.

M.

VITABLY the wonder of a thing declines with repetition. Yet the telephone, for example, is really no less wonderful at the thousandth use than at the first. Since the sense of wonder is vital to our’ intellectual, moral and) spiritual health, it is necessary that from time to time the wonderful become commonplace through familiarity, should rise in its mystery and for a moment fill our sky. It is many years since Kipling wrote of "the hush of our dread highaltar, where The Abbey makes us We." Westminster Abbey was a centre of a world-scattered people bound by many ties, including religion and loyalty to the Crown. But to most people in the Empire-Commonwealth it was a place they read about or saw in _ picture. Only a comparative few walked in it, sat in it, and heard liturgy and music soar to its ancient arches and stir its imperishable memories. But Kipling lived to see it possible for the Abbey’s spoken word and anthem to be heard at the ends of the earth. As we listened, through the BBC’s broadcasts, to the approach to and return from the Abbey, and to the ceremony, thoughts came _ crowding. There was the continuity of history. There was the enormous body of affection for the young couple and the Royal Family. There was the strength of the British people poured out in this feeling. ‘There was the stately, moving ritual of the Church of England’s marriage service. Many millions of people, including numbers in British societies," had never heard that service before. What effect would it have? The climax of the day was the core of the service, the questions asked of bride and bridegroom and their replies. True, only Sovereign or Heir to the Throne could be married in such state, but, as the Archbishop of York said, Elizabeth and Philip heard the same words spoken, and took the same vows, as any .couple married in an English village church.

It was at this point that the intimacy of the broadcast became most impressive; indeed, to many it must have been almost overpowering. The world heard clearly the low-toned voices ‘of the couple. But this. culminating point of emotion was also the peak of the broadcast’s technical success. Radio had given us the shouts in the street, descriptions by commentators, the music in the Abbey, the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury; now it enabled us to hear the responses of the two persons who were the centre of. everything. In our wonder at all we listened to, we should not forget the army of workers who made it possible; scientists working over long years; the organisers of the whole complicated presentation; the commentators at various points; the technicians at stations at home and abroad, including those of the New Zealand Service. For this was a highly difficult and delicate enterprise. There was the popular side to be covered, the processions in the streets and the excitement they caused, and there was the service in the Abbey, where the commentator must not forget he- was in Church. Commentators had to describe two worlds, and see that the secular did not intrude upon the sacred. They had to be lively but not flippant; serious but not dull; and they and the organisation behind them had to take care there were no slips in timing, no errors of omission or commission. There were none. It was a-triumph of organisation, technical efficiency, and the human touch. If the BBC has done anything as well, it was only the \programme on VE Day. It has done nothing better, and for this truly splendid service, it deserves the thanks of all.