The current crisis and potential responses to it has made me wonder: when was the last ministerial broadcast in Britain?
I’m not counting the now-binned Budget broadcasts, more when the prime minister of the day exercises her/his right to go on TV and address the nation. Major did it in the first Gulf War, I don’t think Thatcher did it, and I think it happened a few times in the 70s; maybe it was the Good Friday Agreement?
I seem to recall Blair did a broadcast at the beginning of the conflict with Iraq, though I could be getting confused with the start of conflict in Afghanistan. If I recall it was a BBC News Update (or similar) on BBC One.
Thanks all for your swift responses. Looks like they have, at least since the 90s, been reserved for war/conflict. Surprising how there isn't a set format for the captions in/out of them, though they are so rare they are probably made up on the hoof.
Tony Blair definitely did one around the time of the conflicts in Afghanistan and/or Iraq.
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I think now a days they have been effectively replaced by speeches outside/inside Downing Street. The few times statements similar occur they tend to be prerecorded clips instead of a live broadcast.
I vaguely remember one being done when all flights were grounded and then liquids and such things were banned from hand luggage.
Think Breakfast started a few minutes earlier as the announcement came in that flights had been stopped, and then they handed over to a pooled statement.
I vaguely remember one being done when all flights were grounded and then liquids and such things were banned from hand luggage.
Think Breakfast started a few minutes earlier as the announcement came in that flights had been stopped, and then they handed over to a pooled statement.
I don't think I could me any more vague there!
That was in 2006.
That sounds like (I remember the event but not that speech) olmore of speach done inside downing street which because it was a news show airing got aired on BBC1 - might not have been enough to pull the plug mid-show on a precorded show.
On a related note - other than the regular Christmas messages, the Queen has made occasional broadcasts. I think the most recent was on her Diamond Jubilee - shown on the extra bank holiday Tuesday but recorded on the Monday. It was fairly heavily embargoed - I was on shift in CCA, and I think we got rumours of it around 3pm, and spent a while trying to find out where it was coming from and how it was going to get on air.
The Queen’s broadcast I most remember from my lifetime is the one she delivered in the wake of Princess Diana’s death in 1997. The Royals came in for heavy criticism at the time which I seem to recall led to the broadcast to address the nation. I seem to recall it went to air at or around 6pm as I remember it being close to the start of the Six O’Clock News.