20 years since the death of Princess Diana

I recall they did, but not from 6am, it took them longer to 'react'. I think it was still normal kids stuff between 6 and 9 ish ?

I think I first found out about the news fairly early, on my bedroom TV - Nickelodeon were showing their usual programmes (though may have dropped the in-vision presenters for the day) with a caption in the font with the arrows, advising viewers to tune to Sky News. As that would have meant going downstairs to retune the Sky box, I tried BBC One, and was surprised by the generic BBC DOG. Then by the news. And the incredibly serious 'This is the BBC from London' continuity announcement.

So I did move down to the living room, and did some flicking around. We had a dual-LNB dish, so saw BBC World were showing the same. I can't quite remember if I checked any European channels, and kind of regret not recording anything. I do remember my dad coming into the room and thinking I was watching The Day Today or some other Chris Morris spoof.

Other things I recall from the day: the obit astons on BBC news; the (terrible) light music selection on Radio 1 and Clyde 1 - Kenny G sticks in my head for some reason; and later in the evening watching The Simpsons on Sky One. The ad breaks had been replaced with a still of Diana and Barber's Adagio for Strings, but shorter than a usual break so the schedule ended up running really early.

I didn't feel particularly sad about Diana's death, but the unusual nature of what was happening on TV that day (and later that week) certainly kick-started an interest in pres.

Video of the first news report:



I once spoke to someone who was on shift in Pres that night, they were on a late shift but ended up staying all night. When the decision was made to simulcast on BBC 2, they apparently had to first ask to get the transmitters "warmed up" because they'd already powered down for the night. Supposedly one member of staff turned up the next morning entirely unaware of what was awaiting them, having thought the classical music on their car radio meant they were tuned to Radio 3 (I'm guessing it was Capital and they somehow missed all the announcements).

My memories of the morning were similar to many who were teenagers at the time, seeing the news on TV and waking up my parents to tell them, then flicking around the different channels' coverage for hours on end. By the afternoon, some of my bored friends called round and we went out to see Men in Black - it was a packed cinema so clearly quite a few others wanted to get away from the news for a bit. But when we left the cinema, there was a scene that seems more like a movie cliche than something you'd see in real life - dozens of people gathered outside an electrical shop window watching the TVs as the coffin was brought back.

A former colleague from CCA is still bitter about his late shift extending into a night shift that Saturday.

It wasn't local programming at 1.10, it was Straight Up. This was a (networked) series that had been running on Sunday afternoons for several weeks, a current affairs show for young people, with presenters including Kate Thornton and Nick Knowles. For some reason it was still broadcast and it was the only time I, and presumably everyone else, ever watched it. I remember Knowles was on The Mall, wearing a morning suit, and all the other presenters, including Thornton, were in the studio looking suitably glum.

Thornton tells the story that they were looking for a suitable piece of music to end the programme and she was looking at the tapes in her car and suggested Candle in the Wind. Apparently Elton John was watching and was suitably inspired. Apparently.

The ITV coverage at 6.30 was the most watched coverage of the entire day, obviously the Beeb were slightly unfortunate in that they were committed to the service while ITV could do full coverage of one of the most important parts of the day. I think the general concensus was that ITV did a better job in terms of the tone, certainly it was a big story for the ITV audience.

Will Wyatt in his book talks about watching the funeral on three tellies next to each other showing the Beeb, ITV and Sky with other Beeb executives, and phoning up the director with comments. He says that the Beeb's coverage all looked very nice and the director had clearly planned every single shot beautifully, but he didn't want to deviate from it so there weren't enough spontaneous shots of the crowd. And apparently when they kept asking for more, the director almost walked out.



The Last Stand by The Aloof, played after every news bulletin, is an amazing piece of music.

Steve Williams (and anyone else interested) re: Straight Up - if you have access to the MHP Private Parts you might be interested in file 13002 (apologies, am away from a computer at the moment so can't convert it to MP4 from WMV)

I remember the sky channels playing sombre music instead of adverts for the rest of the day.

Being eight at the time, and coming from a family who have absolutely no interest in the Royals whatsoever, I don't have the "Mum was crying" story most have my age. She woke me up and told me, but I swiftly went back to bed again and carried on with normal life.

What I do remember is the funeral a few days later when Channel 4 decided to show cartoons as an alternative to young 'uns like me, but eventually decided to show part of the funeral anyway. Found a link to part of C4's coverage of the day a few months ago and posted it here, but here it is again anyway.

That clip etc, alot of people were not happy with Ch4 for doing that, but that what Ch4 was there for. There least catered for the people ie kids who may not want to watch the other channels

RE: Steve Williams, sorry for not getting the 1.10pm slot correct, but it was a task getting it all down to put it up here, plus there was regional variations too, with my region UTV having their local news at this time.

If Channel 4 did get criticism for their children's schedule it was most definitely undeserved. Kids would've wanted something to watch on a Saturday morning, and they most likely didn't want to watch a coffin or crowds of people crying. And the tone of the continuity was pretty spot on for the mood of the day.