For the first King’s speech since 1951, the King might have been forgiven for striking a downbeat note in his inaugural address to the nation. After all, this year has seen the death of his mother, his continuing estrangement from his publicity-hungry younger son, and, for good measure, the fulfilment of his long-held desire to expel the not-so-grand old Duke of York from public life. Yet the speech – which was recorded on 13 December from the Quire of St George’s Chapel in Windsor, conveniently between the two instalments of the Netflix series in which Harry and Meghan did their best to humiliate the Royal Family – was far from the miserable or score-settling homily that many might have expected.
It began, inevitably, with a full-throated rendition of the National Anthem sung by the choir of St George’s: a reminder, as if it were needed, that some things never change.
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