Operation London Bridge: the death of the Queen

Why is it still believed to this all newsreaders will wear black on announcing the queens death? I was watching a top ten video (Top 10 Things That Will Happen When Queen Elizabeth Dies) There believe wearing black will happen.

Well considering black is the "traditional" colour of death and funerals it probably goes without saying, unless there's like a clause from Her Majesty to say "I want newsreaders to wear an 1980s shellsuit in shocking pink while they announce my passing".

While I'm all for people who want something different for their own funerals (ie, turn up in football tops or anything as long as its not black), it's probably safe to assume black will be a prominent feature in the dress code for such a prominent person. It's also probably safe to assume The Queen and the royal family will be want to be traditional in this respect so we probably won't see Prince Harry in an orange sweatshirt at the funeral.

I think what was worn for Queen mums death was respectful and fair.

A lot of people would find that incredibly disrespectful.

Newsreaders nor the people within the BBC or ITV didn't.

From TV LIVE:

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that didn't go down *entirely* brilliantly.

I remember that, there were told black was no longer required. Has the rule been changed for the Queen? Will we have to wait and see what will happen?

Well, as she says in the Newflash documentary, Mary Nightingale was presenting the news anyway when the story broke and wouldn't have had any time to change even if she was wearing something inappropriate, it was just lucky she was wearing grey.

I recall reading that after 9/11 the BBC had decided that the public reaction to the Queen Mother's death would not be as big, and so they wouldn't cover it as extensively or treat it as such, with Sissons' choice of tie colour reflecting that. I think the BBC misjudged it on this one, compared to Diana where they were very much in tune with the public's mood.

GENIUS Q so DO NOT MIS-UNDERSTAND:

Unlike Diana, was the reason there misjudge was also because of the fact the queen mum was well over 100 and it was to be expected at some point, while Diana was a complete tragedy and out of the blue?

I've said this before but Roger Mosey's book explains why Peter Sissons didn't wear black. They removed the stipulation that they had to wear black because it was always assumed that the story would break gradually, first reporting she was ill, then finally reporting she was dead. They wouldn't wear black for the first bit, but they were supposed to for the second bit, immediately after the announcement was made.

However, it was decided that if that was the case, they would have to change in about thirty seconds, which was considered more or less impossible, and furthermore it was thought that them changing clothes halfway through would be distracting for the viewer, so when they made the announcement you'd be more distracted that they'd just changed clothes than paying attention to what they were saying. So it was decided that as long as it was suitably sober, it was alright to stay as they were, for a bit anyway.

Except when it actually happened, none of that build-up, which was the whole point of changing the dress code, happened, and the first they knew of it was that she was dead.