I agree.

Dragging up a single law amendment that happened fifty years ago and probably didn't even involve HRH the Duke of Edinburgh - as the most important point worth posting on this thread was a particularly cheap shot.

I shouldn't have got involved and for that I apologise.

Sorry, that sounds so crass. Are you really complaining that your favourite programmes were cancelled for one evening? Why didn't you go and find something else to do, or switch over to Swiss, French channels?

No I did not complain myself. But found it right over the top. There was no reason whatsoever that both BBC1 AND BBC2 showed the same documentary at the same time, for instance. And then part of the same for the news and then on to the specialist Political programme 'Newsnight' too.

And yes, I did just that. Switched off after a while, read a book, went to prepare the last room upstairs for remodelling- and came back to watch the news, and there were ... no news- just more of the same. And when finally we got to Newsnight, which is a serious political news/debate programme- more of the same again. So, I switched off and went to bed. Totally OTT, as much as it was sad to hear the news.

Yes, I couldn't see the logic either. All the other UK channels seemed to be running as normal, so what the Beeb thought they were achieving by running the same thing on 4 (including the news) channels and blanking out another I cannot imagine.

Well Queenie will likely be next, that is if Chuck doesn’t pop his clogs first. If you think the DoE’s tributes are tedious, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Funeral to be held at Windsor Castle on April 17th (next Saturday) following 8 days of national mourning.

Where's the bulldog spirit? The "always look on the bright side de dum de dum" sense of humour even in the grimmest moment. The duke wouldn't have wanted TV and radio shut down. I heard today that according to his own wishes his customised land rover will carry him next week instead of a regular hearse. Eccentric to the end!
RIP "the duke"

8 days of national mourning - how do Non-Brits have to imagine that? What does it mean, how does it show, what will be done in those 8 days?

I suppose crowds won't be allowed and pubs won't be open for drinks.

I’m a Brit and I had no idea so I googled it.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ional-mourning

Flags half mast (apart from Royal Standard)
Politicians and New readers wear black.
Comedy TV shows might be cancelled
Political campaigning postponed
Queen won’t give royal assent to new laws
etc etc

Political campaigning is continuing. At least by everyone I know who is up in May. There's no tv campaigning by the big beasts but on the ground already printed letters need to be delivered etc.

National mourning is pretty standard around the world after a national tragedy or honouring someone important to the country. Footballers, for example, can, and have fitted into this category.

Shimon Peres was mourned for an entire month in Israel.

Flags are normally flown at half-mast and there's a bit of a solemn mood if you want to partake. It's not compulsory. Life basically goes on. TV shows may be different but if you don't watch, you wouldn't notice.

How will anyone tell the difference?

Air whistles over Baboons head

To be honest in my opinion any significant event in the royal family takes a lot of media coverage. I am very glad that Kate and William live happily together, otherwise we might have to go through another Kate2/William wedding.

When I was a kid and lived in the Soviet Union, at certain period of time several country leaders were dying one after another — Bregnev, Andropov, Chernenko, until much younger Gorbachev took power and interrupted this sequence. We had the days of mourning, when both TV channels were showing endless classical music concerts instead of the scheduled programs, many events have been cancelled or postponed, flags were flown at half height, all newspapers were full of the information about the died leader.

So I think we can agree that it's not a 'Brit' thing at all.

I was watching the funeral celebration on TV today.
Who else was?

I watched the funeral and found it very moving