Jubileewatch: what you may have missed

Photo from the Telegraph
Lots more pictures here.

Earlier this year, I filled in an online opinion poll which included questions about ‘what events you will watch on TV this summer’. The Thames pageant? Check. The Olympics? No. Wimbledon? Check. The Jubilee concert? Nah, the one they did ten years ago was embarrassingly awful.

As it turned out, the Thames pageant, though brilliantly organised, was rather disappointing. Some sunshine would have improved it. The next day, in spite of my misgivings, I was seduced into watching the concert, mainly because I wanted to see Madness perform on the Palace roof. The concert was a triumph of age over youth. Rolf Harris was much better at continuity than all the comedians were. These people are used to performing on the small screen, not working huge crowds; nor did they seem to know what sort of joke would be appropriate for such an occasion. I started feeling sorry for Prince Harry for the constant ribbing he was getting. Rob Brydon and Miranda were the best of the bunch.

There are stars and there are superstars. The latter were: Tom Jones, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, who cleverly reworked Isn’t She Lovely to suit the Jubilee. I cried my way through Your Song and later through All My Loving. Poor old Paul, he can’t really sing any more but he only needs to stand there and be looked at, really. Rather an indignity for him to be introduced by that terribly unfunny man whose name I can never remember. Not only did he get Paul's name wrong (surely any fule kno that it was John who was called Winston?) but said he was the greatest influence ever on popular music, so ignoring the towering figures of Elvis and Bob Dylan. Pity Madness didn’t sing Baggy Trousers but I liked ‘one’s house’.

You learned a lot watching the audience, although we could have done with more shots of it. The entire royal family, it seems, dotes upon Elton John. Princess Anne likes Stevie Wonder. The Archbishop of Canterbury loves every single person in the world and knows the lyrics of all the Beatles’ songs. It was rather a damper to be told at the very end that the Duke of Edinburgh is in hospital. Tsk, I knew he should never have stood up on a boat for all that time in the cold and rain the day before. Prince Charles spoke well and it was surprising to hear the crowd shouting 'Philip!' I hope it pleased the Queen.

If, like me, you’d been up at half past five this morning (I’ve had enough of this) you could have heard most of the concert music reprised on Radio 2, in its original form. Heigh ho, I still have my vinyl albums of Elton John and Songs in the Key of Life.