<center>(font: "courier new")[<h2>CROWNING GLORY</h2>]</center>
<img style="float: left; margin: 5px 5px 5px 5px; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px;" src="image/churchill.png" width="200">It is June 7th, 1952, and you are Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. With the death of her father, George VI, Elizabeth is queen – but she has yet to be crowned. That ceremony will take place in less than a year, and there are important decisions to be made – not least the question of whether to allow television cameras into Westminster Abbey to film the event.
The choice is yours. ''Should you let the BBC into Westminter Abbey to film the corronation?'' Consult as many sorces as you'd like before making a decision.
[[Consult the Archbishop of Canterbury]]
[[Consult the Cabinate]]
[[Consult the Coronation Commission]]
[[Make a decision? ->Should you permit the BBC into the Abbey?]] <table><tbody><tr><td class="edit-25"><img src="image/bishop.png" width="100"></td><td class="edit-75"><div class="speech-bubble">Absolutely not! Her Majesty will rule by the grace of God, and this ceremony - and particularly her anointment - is too sacred to be profaned.</div></td></tr></tbody></table>
[[Speak to the Coronation Commission ->Consult the Coronation Commission]]
[[Consult the Cabinate]]
[[Make a decision? ->Should you permit the BBC into the Abbey?]] <img src="image/cab.png">
<div class="speech-bubble">Letting ordinary people see what happens would destroy the respect and obedience that subjects should have for their Queen. Highly undesirable.</div>
[[Consult the Archbishop of Canterbury]]
[[Speak with the Coronation Commission ->Consult the Coronation Commission]]
[[Make a decision? ->Should you permit the BBC into the Abbey?]] <div class="speech-bubble">Filming the ceremony inside the Abbey would put Her Majesty under far too much personal strain. Out of the question.</div>
[[Speak to the Archbishop of Canterbury ->Consult the Archbishop of Canterbury]]
[[Consult the Cabinate]]
[[Make a decision? ->Should you permit the BBC into the Abbey?]] Will you let the BBC into the Abbey to film the Queen's coronation?
[[Yes, allow the BBC into the Abbey ->Yes, let them in]]
[[No, do not let the BBC into the Abbey]]The Times and the Evening Standard both lead with the scandal of the Government’s refusal to let the people in.
Do you change your mind and let the cameras in?
[[Yes, let them in]]
[[No, do not let them in]]So, for the first time cameras will be allowed into Westminister Abbey to film this significant moment in our national history.
<img src="image/bbc-camera.png">
There is still so much to prepare. Where should the cameras be located? Should they be allowed close to the Queen? Even near to the altar?
We need to [[speak to the BBC]]Maybe you should [[ask the Queen]] herself? It's her thats being crowned, not the Cabinet.<table><tbody><tr><td class="edit-25"><img src="image/queen.png" width="100"></td><td class="edit-75"><div class="speech-bubble">Of course my people should be allowed to share in this moment.</div></td></tr></tbody></table>
[[Let the BBC into the Abbey->Yes, let them in]]<div class="speech-bubble">Look, we’ll film this young lady walking down the aisle and you can see what it will look like if we’re not allowed closer. See? You can barely see her. This is not what Her Majesty meant when she said her subjects should share her special day.</div>
Find out what the BBC did not tell the royal and civil servants...
(link: '<img src="image/e-small.gif">')[<div class="speech-bubble">Shove a two-inch lens in there. Yes, I know we’ll use a 12 inch one on the day, but keep quiet – they’ve got no idea about technology. It’ll make her look miles away and they’ll give in.</div>
(link: '<img src="image/e-small.gif">')[Regretfully, you agree that the cameras should be given much greater access within the Abbey.
That's not it. We've still got to consider the [[Transmission]], the [[television reception->Reception]], not to mention the coronation.]]The Queen wants ''all'' her subjects to share in this day of national celebration. The trouble is that TV isn’t actually transmitted to all of the United Kingdom. TV broadcasting was suspended in 1939 for the duration of the War. When it began again, in 1946, only those living in London and the South could get a TV signal. Although the Midlands and the North West were, by now, also covered, just last year the Government had banned the construction of any further TV transmission stations – the Cold War is starting to hot up, and the money is needed by the military.
<img src="image/bbc-control.png">
Do you want to build new transmitters so that the North East of England and Northern Ireland will be able to see the Queen crowned?
[[Yes, build the new transmitters]]
[[No, we don't have the time or the money]]
//Well – I am the leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party, after all. Not broadcasting to Belfast would be a propaganda gift to the Republicans. Hmm. It’s too late now to build permanent new transmitters – but we can put in temporary ones. We’ll use the pre-war, one kilowatt mast outside broadcast vans. Give them a skeleton staff of engineers – actually, better give them a chemical toilet as well – they’ll need somewhere to sleep. Better make sure those buggers at the BBC are remembering about the Empire as well….//
<img src="image/reel.png">
//Better get the RAF to help them out. We’ll have a relay of Canberra bombers flying the telerecordings over to Canada//
[Now we've got that sorted, we'd better make sure that all these televisions have [[reception->Reception]]] Or, should we start thinking about the [[coronation->Coronation day]] We can't afford to waste money on television transmitters. The Russians have got the Bomb, and the Americans are starting to forget just how important this special relationship is.
<img src="image/blue.png">
We need a Bomb with a union jack on it, and that’s where the money’s going.
<a href="https://uss-testing.neocities.org/building_the_bomb/Building%20the%20Bomb.html"><img src="image/e.gif"></a>By early 1953, there were only 2 million licenced TV sets – and a population of forty two million. How are you going help people find a TV to watch?
What do the experts say?
[[Tell people to buy one?]]
[[What about public broadcasts?]]
<img src="image/tv.png">
That's expensive. Maybe they can the corronation through their neighbour's window? Now, there's an idea...
[Anyway, are they [[going to even have signal->Transmission]]]. Do we have time to be thinking about that? Should we start organising the [[Coronation day]] <img src="image/reception.png">
It’s illegal to show private TVs in public spaces – but you could tell the Postmaster General to relax the rules – now, the people can watch at a CHURCH HALL – or a PUB!? Or, do they could go and watch it with the crowds at the FESTIVAL HALL – too late, all 3000 tickets sold out in less than an hour.
They’ll just have to [[BUILD THEIR OWN]] thenMany devices were advertised that year in Wireless World such as a build your own TV set kits.
[Anyway, are they [[going to even have signal->Transmission]]]. Do we have time to be thinking about that? Should we start organising the [[Coronation day]] This will be the BBC’s biggest outside broadcast in its history. It will use every outside broadcast camera it possesses. 11 commentary sites are set up (95 commentary points catering for around 100 commentators), each with a control room that could mix commentary with ‘effects’ microphones. There are 21 cameras at 5 key sites – Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Victoria Embankment, the Colonial Office and Westminster Abbey – and the engineers will assemble before dawn to be ready to broadcast by 5.30.
<img src="image/bbc-camera.png">
(link: '<img src="image/e-small.gif">')[The Abbey control room has five cameras, in the end – on over the West Door, one on the organ screen, one in the South Transpet and two in the Triforium. The Abbey is also equipped with 29 microphones to get a sound picture, which will be made available to BBC TV and the Ministry of Works – they need it to broadcast to the public who will be lining the procession routes to cheer for the Queen.
<img src="image/bbc-control.png">
(link: '<img src="image/e-small.gif">')[Domestic programmes will come to the BBC through the central control room at the Abbey. Non-domestic programmes will go through the Colonial Office. Circuits required outstripped those available to the BBC, so the PO provided another 1,300.
<img src="image/day.png">
[[<img src="image/e.gif">->continue]]]]''Did the TV coverage of the coronation chance Britain?''
''It did:'' The Coronation made TV respectable – that was its major contribution. The Royals themselves became TV fans, with Buckingham Palace shortly boasting more than sixty sets – good job Her Majesty doesn’t have to pay the TV licence…
Especially as central heating became more common, the TV increasingly took the place of the fireplace as the heart of domestic social interaction – was that a problem?
(link: '<img src="image/e-small.gif">')[''Not really:'' The number of TVs had been growing pretty steadily, and you’d expect more to be sold after the wartime ban on broadcasting was lifted. The first original drama written for television was in production – The Quartermass Experiment, a science fiction story that explored what happened when the first moonshot brings back an alien invader – and commercial television was to begin a couple of years later.
It might have encouraged people to buy their sets sooner, but they would probably have bought them anyway. Wouldn’t they?
<a href="https://york.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_abidPC8yWO38aKV"><img src="image/e.gif"></a>]