Sky News Breakfast: Prince Philip's funeral preparations

[Music] good morning from winter where the funeral of prince philip is taking place later today an unwavering loyalty to the queen country and commonwealth is how the duke of edinburgh will be remembered at the service soldiers will line the route to st george's chapel where a group of 30 led by the queen will pay their last respects our all correspondent rhiannon mills reports relaxed and at ease this is how the queen will remember her dedicated consort releasing one of her favorite photographs of prince philip as she prepares to say goodbye it will be in the ornate setting of saint george's chapel that her majesty will sit alone amongst reminders of the duke one of only 30 in the congregation due to covet making it an intimate family service the archbishop of canterbury who's involved in the ceremony says the duke was determined to make his mark on this final farewell he was involved in every detail of it it is meticulously planned for over a quarter of a century and when the order of service is seen his imprint will be all over it and he didn't want to fuss and he knew exactly what he wanted and it was thoughtful and i think that people listening to this service watching it on the tv will find it speaks very deeply to their own hearts his influence couldn't be clearer in the order of service among the music chosen the jubilate written for st george's chapel at prince philip's request he also asked for psalm 104 to be set to music at the end of the service the buglers of the royal marines will not only sound the last post but also action stations a call to action in the royal navy there will be no eulogy or readings from the family but they're not usually a feature of royal funerals the unique touches will be visible from the start of the procession from the land rover he helped to design to his ponies and carriage on display as his coffin is driven away a truly unforgettable character that his children have so fondly remembered this week princess anne's former private secretary says his influence as a father was clear they they certainly shared i think many of the same same characteristics i mean a real sense of a real sense of duty uh and uh and just get on with the with with the job in hand you know work hard don't expect too many thanks uh and and just do the job to the best of your ability inside the grounds prince edward the council of wessex and their daughter lady louise had come to see the flowers left outside of the castle moved during the week and placed next to st george's chapel covid has meant that the royal family haven't been able to come out and thank people in the ways that they would have wanted but the fact that they are still allowing cameras in for this very close family funeral shows a genuine desire to allow others to share in this moment of mourning for a dedicated consort and a man that they loved very much they're asking people not to come to windsor and instead join them in a minute silence from their own homes we live quite quite local here so we come quite often and it's really the mood is different he's done a lot for our country which actually i've only realized in the last week ahead of the funeral these were the images the family wanted to share prince philip the father and grandfather faithful supporter of his wife and queen always looking down on her as they prepare to remember him well rhiannon joins me now here at winter castle um uh rhiannon the thing that that that i think is is the loveliest thing so far today is the picture that they've released of of the queen and prince philip up about moral we've seen so many photographs haven't we this week of prince philip philippine maybe his military regalia or carrying out those official duties with the queen and yet when it came to that moment that her majesty we haven't heard from her this week but she obviously wanted to to share something with us and we got that rather informal photograph of them um on holiday in scotland um prince philip relaxing back the queen's smiling and i think it gives that sense of the man that she will be remembering today the man behind the scenes that maybe we didn't get to see all that often yes we got to see his cheeky side but uh we didn't necessarily get to see those intimate family moments and and that's something that has really come across this week is with all their family tributes they have been so warm and so affectionate in a way that i probably didn't anticipate and it's sort of been so we've had seen a lot more of the royal family this week than i would have ever expected i think it was important for them to come out and pay their tributes especially at a time when they can't come out and thank members of the public for for leaving flowers so i think in a way um they have wanted to put those messages out there for example the prince of wales last weekend um giving a message on the doorstep at highgrove messages from the family and in a sense they have i think lifted the veil a bit on relationships between the family they really are showing that today will be about yes celebrating his amazing achievements but also marking the man and not the post and while we will talk about his his dedicated service and duty this was ultimately a father a grandfather and a husband having said that rhiannon when we look at the service uh there won't be family members standing up and speaking and i think some people will be surprised by that um for the palace it was important to share the order of service because ultimately they're asking people not to come here to windsor so they're hoping people at home can to re can read along in a way with the order of service but yeah there is no eulogy there are no family readings we're told that that is fairly traditional for royal funerals but we know that prince philip has tried to shake things up a little bit when it comes to to his own farewell and in some ways they could have included family readings but in a way maybe is he protecting them from further spotlight we know that the cameras are inside the chapel today it's going to be a very poignant moment when we see her majesty the queen and maybe it was decided that actually this is not necessarily a moment that the family need to stand up and publicly um speak um instead i think the service the way it's been put together will speak volumes um rhiannon will be talking to you lots more throughout the morning i'm sure thanks very much for now well while the funeral service will take place at three o'clock a procession will begin before that this is how events will unfold at just after 20 to 3 the duke of edinburgh's coffin will be carried from the state entrance of windsor castle the queen's company first battalion grenadier guards will place the coffin on a specially modified land rover which prince philip helped design at 2 45 the procession will set off led by the chiefs of the armed forces and other senior military figures it will pass to the north side of the round tower followed on foot by the prince of wales and other members of the royal family the queen will be driven in the state bentley the route will be lined with representatives drawn from the royal navy royal marines the highlanders 4th battalion royal regiment and the royal air force minute guns will be fired from the east lawn of the castle by the king's royal horse artillery and the bells of the curfew tower will toll the rifles regiment will provide a guard of honour and band to play the national anthem as the coffin enters horseshoe cloister before coming to a stop at the foot of the chapel's west steps at 2 53 the royal marines bearer party will carry the coffin to the chapel porch where it will pause at 3 p.m when a national minute's silence will be held the dean of windsor and the archbishop of canterbury will then receive prince philip's coffin in the chapel and the service will begin the congregation instant george's chapel will be made up of 30 people with the queen likely to be sitting alone to meet social distancing rules a small choir of four people will sing pieces of music chosen by the duke of edinburgh there will be no congregational singing at the end of the service prince philip's coffin will be lowered into the royal vault beneath the chapel choir well although today's royal funeral has been scaled back because of current virus restrictions we will still see a formal military send off for the duke of edinburgh let's talk now to the lieutenant general david leakey who organized many state occasions when he served as black rod at the palace of westminster good to talk to you this morning um these kind of events they are long in the planning aren't they uh what are we going on do you think this morning you're right they are long in the planning and the the plan which uh the duke of edinburgh himself drew up for his own funeral um has of course been significantly adapted because of the coronavirus um and the restrictions and measures around it and and so the plan that we're seeing today is in many ways very very different to the one the one that's been on the books and has been tweaked and modified um by both staff by the military the police the security uh to the one that we see today but um the plan will have been very very carefully thought through every last detail all the drill movements for the military they will have been rehearsed and i think one of the things that people don't often know is the amount of preparation not just on the visible ceremonial that you see um on the on the television pictures that you're looking now i mean there's a rehearsals with people not wearing all the full uniforms and undress rehearsals as it were but also all the administrative arrangements behind that because many of the servicemen taking part in the ceremonial today they will have been um engaged in fact programmed to be doing other things at this time so some will have been on operations um in the recent past others will have been planned to be out on training exercises because as the duke himself will have known the military is the 24 7 operation and and so people will have been adapted and flexed flexed away from what they were supposed to be doing to come and do this and do this willingly by the way uh the servicemen are incredibly proud of uh owing their allegiance to uh the queen to the royal family above all uh and you talk about the fact that it is long in the planning uh the little chamber and william peale who's overseen uh the organization and planning of this um has just retired uh handing over the reins to andrew parker will he still be involved do you think i mean it it seems extraordinary to think that that something you've planned for all this time which happens a week after you retire that you won't have an involvement well um earl peels um the hallmark of oil peel will be stamped all over this plan um as with a lot of other people um and and in fact uh i remember when i retired as black rod and and i was responsible for the all the planning for for example the queen's lying in state in westminster hall should shouldn't when as and it will be when that moment ever happens that she dies and she lies in state when i retired i handed over all those plans to my successor we had a very good i had a very good deputy who actually probably knew more of the detail on some parts of the plans than even i did so i think you'll find that in these things the succession and the handover of these plans and the contingency arrangements is always there but just as my successor as black rod occasionally rings me up to to interrogate the corporate memory i'm sure that there's been there have been some phone calls between uh the two lord chamberlain's the present one and the recently retired you of course met uh the queen and the duke what are your memories of them um always um always very happy memories i think one of the uh one of the things which um i remember having to brief uh on a number of occasions um groups of people who are about to meet the queen and the duke and uh one of the things i i always remember saying to them is um you probably remember the queen when you see her very often on the television programs and the duke 2 they walk in and they quite often have a rather serious almost stern look on their face um and that's because um they're probably taxing their corporate their their briefing memory of the briefing notes who they're meeting next what what they should be saying particularly diplomatic occasions and um what and i always brief people what will happen next is the queen will look up and she will look at you and the duke too and they will look at you and suddenly they will smile and when they smile it's like someone's turned all the television lighting on in the studio it's bright and illuminated and and you will just feel relaxed because they want you to be relaxed and when they talk to people one-to-one face-to-face face-to-face close-up they're very relaxed and they listen very carefully which is why the duke of course was always one for quipping back because people would say things perhaps spontaneously perhaps not having fully thought them through caught in the moment you might say and the duke would quit back very very quickly because he was listening and uh and he would fire you a question that would take you unawares and immediately the atmosphere would become informal but above all spontaneous and people could be themselves he had that extraordinary knack of of relaxing people to be themselves and and when we look at what's happening today obviously because of covert a very small number of people attending this funeral just the the number of 30. right decision do you think for the prime minister not to attend well i it's not for me to decide whether it is or isn't the right decision for the prime minister that's one for him but i think it is a it is a very family very family affair and um i i'm sure there will be other occasions when um there can be perhaps recognition in a different setting for for the life of the duke um but i think in a way our thoughts should not be about um the politics and the political persona around this um and indeed i could see sort of complications if the prime minister was there then why not the leader of the opposition and the leaders of other political parties and uh actually when when when when great figures die very often there is a funeral just for the family because this is after all that last moment when a family gets to say farewell to a family member and i can remember my father's own funeral he was a general um and we had a funeral for family and friends and yes there were some other military people there who came but not representatives from all the charities and regimental associations and so on that he had represented they came to the memorial service so the funeral was very much for us a family and friends event and i think that will be the same and what matters very very much to the queen as you can see from the photographs she was very family oriented and so was the duke and i think our thoughts today should be with the queen and for her immediate supporting family around her david leahy a former black rod good to talk to you thank you very much well our correspondent aleister bunkel is with me here at windsor castle uh and alistair um david nicky they're talking about the fact that a lot of people won't be at the funeral because of the size and because it is a family event but there will be a lot of military here throughout the day won't they representing uh different units that the prince was associated with 730 military personnel so we talk of a small and intimate funeral uh it is by ceremonial funeral standards but there will be a large military contingent here and actually i think because of the absence of uh foreign dignitaries and heads of government ambassadors extended family the sort of people who would attend if it were not in covet times the focus on the military will be even greater uh their role will be even more impactful than it would have otherwise been now like so many they have been planning this funeral for years and years and years they've been revising it tweaking a little bit they knew that if something were to happen if he were to pass drink overtimes they would need to shrink it back and sort of strip out a number of the elements they're thought of so as you'd expect with the military not only do they do an awful lot of planning the entire time but they're pretty well rehearsed as well and they've been making sure the last couple of days i've watched it that they are getting it absolutely step perfect and i'm sure it will go right on the day sure it will alastair thanks very much well just a reminder that full coverage of prince philip's funeral will take place here on sky news we'll have a special program today from 12 30 they'll also be live coverage from 2 40 on sky one well let's take a look at the front pages of the papers this morning lots of them are focusing on today's event here the times previews prince philip's funeral with the simple headline the queen bids farewell the mirror's headline farewell my love the sun says farewell my prince the express offers its support to the queen declaring always there for you mom the mail looks ahead to today's funeral saying one last moment with her prince the telegraph quotes from remarks expected to be given by the dean of windsor as he conducts the service with grateful hearts we remember the many ways in which a long life his long life has been a blessing to us and prince philip's legacy is reflected on front pages across the country including here in the yorkshire post meanwhile the eye reports the pregnant women on next on the priority list for the covert vaccine and that is also the lead story for the guardian the financial times has more on the david cameron lobbying row well let's take a look at some of the day's other news now and as we're just saying on the front of those papers pregnant women could be offered the covert jab as normal and should be according to britain's top scientists the joint committee on vaccination and immunization has said it would like them to be given the pfizer and moderna vaccines at the same time as people in their age group a look at the latest coronavirus figures 2596 new cases have been reported with 34 more deaths which brings the total number of people who've died within 28 days of a positive test to 127 255. another 129 782 have received their first vaccine and thousand six 417.6 and eighty-three people have received their second dose which means that nearly 4.5 million jabs have now been given out across the uk a leading scientist has told sky news that the prime minister should cancel his trip to india next week a new variant of coronavirus which has also been detected in britain is being blamed for a huge rise in the number of new cases there a protest has been held in chicago after the police shooting of a 13 year old boy adam toledo was shot once in the chest by an officer in late march moments after dropping a handgun and raising his arms protesters have called for the officer who fatally shot adam toledo to face charges for the first time in 62 years the leader of cuba will not be called castro raul castro last night resigned as head of the ruling communist party the 89 year old and his brother fidel held power since the revolution in 1959. let's get a look at today's weather now with nas look forward to brighter skies the weather sponsored by qatar airways good morning we're looking at mostly fine and settled conditions across the vast majority of the uk and island once again for today thanks to high pressure still firmly in charge it's a chilly start once again though with fairly frosty conditions out there as well one or two isolated patches of mist and fog otherwise it's dry and sunny perhaps a little less cold across the far northwest where it's cloudy and breezy and through today we'll see little change on that story really we'll continue with lots of sunshine a lot of dry weather a bit of fair weather cloud bubbling up here and there may be turning that sunshine hazy at times but all in all it's looking fine and uh temperatures tiny bit below average for time of year but we could see them slightly higher than yesterday locally up to around 15 or 16 possible later though we are seeing cloudier skies develop across western ireland western scotland too it will become breezier across these areas with rain over western ireland by this evening the weather sponsored by qatar airways thanks very much nas now prince philip has been a high-profile public figure from the day he became engaged to the then princess elizabeth in 1947. martha kellner has been speaking to the longest-serving royal photographer anwar hussein who's traveled more than 50 000 miles to more than 70 countries alongside the royal couple anwar hussein began an extraordinary life behind the lens photographing rock stars and film stars but the ultimate celebrity family became his life's work for more than half a century royal tours took him to nauru nepal new zealand and everywhere in between capturing the queen and at her side or in the background but always there was the duke of edinburgh it's an extraordinary life that he lived and you were living it right alongside him yeah all the color around the world as one of the royal family's favored photographers anwar was given license to capture them in more private moments he didn't like other photographers he he'd rather tell them he never told me he always used to say oh you are still at it yeah he had a wicked sense of your mind he's credited with helping transform their image from stiff and stuffy to relaxed and relatable the queen liked this picture of the family in montreal in 1976 so much she made it an official christmas card they were there to watch princess anne compete at the olympics it was an unusual normal a royal family goes away they leave somebody ahead behind and this time they they all went but i told them that i wanted this the first time he's dreaming man you've never been out of the country and we've got to have this picture and we must recall the stage of what do you have to answer he was also on hand to witness the vulnerable moments of the queen and her husband in morocco they were in the desert and they they had to sit down on the floor and and have a lime roasted lamb eat with their hands and you can see the picture the duke is very awake and son and looking at the queen for the silver jubilee tour in 1977 anwar travelled 80 000 kilometers alongside the royal couple duke and queen like that cultural dancing and celebration of the ways of living and everything like that and also he's quite fascinated about seeing men in grass skirts and things like that you know they used to have a joke with them you know i don't know whether he was pulling the leg or whether they understood his sense of humor he was known as being quite direct oh yeah he was terribly direct absolutely and especially with local people he used to you know save all sorts of things like that and go to everything prince philip was most relaxed spending time on the water at the balmoral estate or carriage driving which replaced polo as his sport of choice i think he quite like the uh where where didn't have to wear uniform they quite like being overseas outside their own friends and family there's nobody who has spent more time with the royals up close and personal martha kellner sky news chippenham well we are of course going to have much more on prince philip's funeral throughout the day here on sky news preparations now happening inside windsor castle behind us here and also in the wider area although people here in windsor are being asked not to come down to the castle to mark the princess passing at home well welcome back to windsor castle the funeral of the duke of edinburgh is to take place this afternoon marks the end of an extraordinary and privileged life the service will reflect aspects of his long service and often low-key lifestyle or we're joined by the british historian sir anthony himself and to reflect more uh on prince philip and his life and uh so sir anthony you you've written a piece about how he was a clearly devoted husband distinguished military man very hard working but why do you think he was remarkable because of the length of service the longest consort in british history and because he was married to the queen um who has been such a figure in almost everyone's lives it's very hard for people to remember any life without her being on the throne and because he was devoted he played the part quite extraordinarily were well at a time when many people in public life disappoint uh and let um let themselves and the country down he put service first and he put his efforts into a lot of great causes including young people and building uh the environment and building uh the fabric of society so you know in every way just a remarkable person with somebody also of their time not somebody who was gummed up um his uh often uh off repeated bloomers his uh um his perhaps um uh ill-chosen uh words showed him to be a very human being i mean i think people felt that they were listening to a real human being you talk about the the his devotion to the queen and being a consort there will be some women who will who will look at at what has uh the tributes have been paid to him over the last week and say well you know there are lots of of female consorts all around the world who do this job day in day out and never really uh nobody really makes a big fuss about this but we have to remember don't we that it was a very different era in the 1940s when he took on this role which which is what perhaps makes it quite so remarkable yes i mean you can draw an analogy with british prime ministers they've been 55 british prime ministers but only two of them have been female and their in particular consorts dennis thatcher and philip may to marx thatcher and theresa may had an unusual role because the role has so much cast out uh as a woman playing the part to the male leader and that for a man of action i mean he was no whip he was an extraordinary uh action man uh full of uh um full of a determination to make a mark and interested in so many areas i mean that must have been much more difficult for him to play a role where he was always behind um his wife the queen literally behind her but also couldn't uh speak his own mind and always to an extent in her shadow and and for somebody who was so um uh full of life larger than life such a a big presence so full of ideas and uh determinations to act them out in so many ways i mean you know that was i think remarkable uh for him uh farm will say than in the more conventional role of a a woman to a male leader he um was he a good father would you say well you know look we don't really know at the same time not least with the netflix series the crown but in so many uh films and television documentaries and dramas they are the most known about filming sorry family in the world i mean what other family possibly has had the uh limelight the exposure uh that the royal family have had and yet also and paradoxically we don't know that much we think we know because we're told by very authoritative sources like netflix which actually and with the crown which actually are not so truthful but this is the truth and it portrays it as the truth but you know we we know much less uh about what really has happened but the strong sense from those people who really do know what's happened is that he was a very good and a very loving father to his daughter anne and to his three sons but also could be firm and held the family or helped with queen hold that family together so yes i think he was a good father but i think we should do a check on that that we really know much less than we think we know sir anthony selden uh interesting to talk to you today thank you very much for joining us many thanks while while proceedings are taking place here normal life across many parts of the country is expected to pause for the funeral after being married to the queen for more than 70 years the duke of edinburgh is known to people all over the united kingdom skystand whitehead has been to torbay and devon and spoken to people young and old about how they will pay their respects prince philip a man much admired always upright and strong immaculate perfectly attired he seemed to put no foot wrong oh that's so nice it's a chance to remember a man they grew up with residents at woodland court care home in torquay are preparing to pay their respects to prince philip he always said to be upright and strong and he wasn't hiding or kind of um i don't know he just seemed to be genuine ninety-three-year-old cyril met the prince when he visited devon it's only just come to light what he really did when he was alive i mean all the things that he was capable of and all the visits he made to different places and things he did i mean he was always in the background of the queen and i'm sure she's going to miss him terribly with large gatherings still banned many will be marking the moment in their own way thank you very much no problem the babakum inn will be halting service at three o'clock joining the nation in a minute's silence i should be at home with a beer sat down with my dear wife and we'll be watching it yeah we will be sorry to miss him well i should be watching it you know and um you know i think he'll be very emotional to be honest yeah i think he was wonderful man i think just taking a moment to reflect and i think hopefully they will have nice weather and it will just be a moment to sort of stop and take stock celebrate his life as well nationally there will be little pomp and ceremony while many people will be watching the funeral from home or raising a pint in the local pub for younger generations they may be spending their saturday preparing for his award as the duke's legacy lives on ashley hohn has helped run the duke of edinburgh awards scheme for 18 years i think the duke would want them to to continue doing what they're doing to be positive to broaden their horizons to seek new experiences and to remember that his legacy should enable them to to have access to that any events on saturday will be low-key just as the prince would have wanted regardless the nation will pause to remember a lifetime of service prince philip good luck there well done david an officer and a gentleman dan white is sky news in torbay well as well as living through many moments of history the duke of edinburgh remained often reluctantly in the public eye until the final weeks of his life we're joined now by emily nash royal editor for hello magazine emily great to talk to you this morning um how do you think his passing changes the royal family it's going to be a huge blow for the queen in particular obviously she has worked without the duke aside since 2017 when he stepped back from public duties but nevertheless the loss of her husband of 73 years is going to be absolutely devastating for her so they will want to rally around her and support her as best they can and given her own advanced stage that's something that's been happening increasingly over the last few years but i think we will continue to see senior royals joining her on engagement where appropriate and you know spending more and more time with her away from away from the cameras as you say she's known for stoicism and we look at this lovely image of her and prince philip together do we do we know at all how she is coping privately we're hearing that she's bearing up well she's taking daily walks in the gardens at frogmore with her puppies which is must be a huge comfort to her she has a new doggie and a corgi one of them is actually called mick i believe is the pronunciation which is a reference to this beauty spot where where sheena duke were photographed by the cat wessex back in 2003 so there's obviously a lot of reminiscing i'm sure um and spending time where she can at a distance with her loved ones the amount of of of flowers that have been brought to royal residences and the warm tributes that have been paid to the duke and we heard just some of them there on a short time ago do you think he would have been surprised but by how warmly he he clearly is regarded well several members of the family have commented on the fact that he would have been amazed by the outpouring and of course this is despite the royal households asking people politely not to leave flowers but to instead perhaps make a donation to a charity associated with the duke or one of their own choice but i think it really shows the level of respect that people had for the duke and also of course for the queen and there you know there's also a sense that so many people in in the uk this year have had to grieve people in these very difficult pandemic circumstances and there's a huge amount of sympathy for the royal family at this moment there will be um a lot of people watching today uh because they want to to mark the occasion but there will also be those uh rather curious to to look and see what is going on behind the scenes of the royal family looking at the body language between the dukes of cambridge and sussex funerals can often be awkward times for families can't they do you think this one may be an opportunity to build bridges i think anything that is going on in terms of the relationship between william and harry will be very much happening behind the scenes we're not going to see any outward displays of affection or otherwise this is a funeral it's all about honoring their grandfather it's about supporting their grandmother the queen and everyone wants the focus very much to be on giving him the most fitting send-off they can um that said inevitably there's going to be a huge amount of scrutiny this is the first time we'll have seen prince harry in the uk more than a year and of course the first time we've seen him with his family so there's a lot of pressure on him and on on the other royals in fact um to do this in the media spotlight um i think they will be having any discussions around deeper family issues away from this and after the funeral emily nash royal editor of hello thanks a lot for joining us this morning well with us also this morning to review the papers are nigel nelson political editor of the sunday mirror and catherine osler contributing editor for the daily mail uh nice to see you uh both again um nigel kick off now which which is the first paper that you've picked for us this hour we're looking inside the times now um uh where uh the total focuses in on uh some of the things that that uh prince philip was uh slightly less known for and they're pointing out the significance of the carriage and two ponies that will be in the quadrangle of windsor castle today now of course that um carriage driving became uh prince philip's sort of favorite sport after he was forced to give up polo at the age of 50 and he was still doing it into his 90s now carriage driving can be a pretty sort of dangerous occupation especially competitively and sophie wessex talks about how uh on several times he had to be pulled out of a few ditches but it seems to show that um uh prince philip really did like to live life to the full um and on the edge so it's obviously a very fitting symbol for what he's doing the particular carriage uh the carriage today will be one he designed himself in the same way he designed the or helped to design the land rover for his funeral so what one can see how prince philip had actually planned this day right down to the last letter to give himself the kind of send-off he wanted but without too much too much of public fuss around it and the pigeons nigel and the pigeons yes i i believe that there was uh there was going to be the pigeons that were released today as well oh that's right yes so yes and and uh that that it that is part of it again so something that he'd ask for and something that he that um was that he planned all the way through i mean everything from the uh from that the hymns that are going to be sung uh right through to the uh to the prayers and the service all of this was something that he'd been working on for for some time and catherine let's bring you in you you've picked the mirror uh for this hour and uh something we no i haven't actually i haven't seen the mirror oh i beg your pardon uh well sorry i'm not a contributing editor to the daily mail either can we just get that right oh goodness me i'm so sorry catherine okay i will have some stern i'll have some stern words after after we've we've done this um the mirror is talking uh about the queen and how she is hoping that the funeral uh will will lead to healing the rift between william and harry um yeah i suppose a lot of people will will hope that won't they yes they will i mean i think with all families we have that feeling that there are things you've just got to sort of overlook and move on from and this is the perfect opportunity isn't it for these two to you know which we all hope that they will overcome this sort of terrible hurdle um and and the chance to put it in context with somebody who's just led such a long life of service and also saw so much suffering himself when he was young um philip having had the most desperate childhood the mother being taken away hospitalized for five years the father sort of abandoning him really um the great aunt who was sort of murdered by the bolsheviks in the russian revolution i mean not only does he span european in history but he has overcome sort of great pain and you see that the happiness he found with the queen made up for this tragic upbringing but you sort of hope that uh his grandchildren will see how he could sort of move on from hardship and disagreement and sort of set them an example really nigel the male is touching on the fact that the queen will get her own private time she will she will have uh some time on her own uh with uh the coffin before the public funeral yes and you know how bright this is that um i mean the the primary person uh at this funeral has got to be the queen and the family are there to support her one hopes that prince charles is certainly uh doing it doing an awful lot of that but what she wanted was just some private time before the coffin left windsor castle to spend with her husband and i think that's quite understandable i mean she wants to actually reflect on the 73 years of marriage that they had the fact that he was there always uh two steps behind her when she was out out in public and in privately constantly advising her and i think to give the queen a bit of quiet time for this is actually incredibly important um i mean it has been a great loss to the entire family but to her specifically so you could understand that she just once wants that brief period of reflection before the whole funeral begins and of course by that time in a sense that's where we all share it that's where the public come in and although we can't be there physically uh we will be there spiritually and catherine you know you we do think that all of these kind of events that the last big event that was here you know with prince harry's prince harry's wedding um that at all those events the queen had the duke by her side and and she will feel that loss when she is as as the as the bentley pulls away on on this ceremonial procession down that that actually he he would have been by her side yes isn't it touching i actually can't bear the thought of her sitting in there alone as we're reading that she has to sit on her own with a mask on that seems sort of so inhumane and is such a sort of reminder of the whole sort of horror of the past year really um but on the other hand she has released this wonderful picture so i think she wants us all too to remember how happy they were this is a glorious you know sort of so relaxed sunny picture of the two of them just you can see this is her sort of message of saying this is when we were happiest they're outside he's lying on the grass they they could be any lovely couple with uh better quality cashmere in the cardigan perhaps and that lovely trademark string of pearls and jane they look lovely there her lovely sort of tartan rug and the obvious chemistry between them there and nigel uh taking a look at the express um something that we've not touched on a huge amount really the importance of religious beliefs uh for the duke of edinburgh yes that's right and so um he was he was brought up in the greek orthodox church and i think religion well religion did play a huge part uh in his life and also bear in mind he was also um console to uh the monarch who is also the the uh head of the church of england and so not only was he giving her the kind of royal advice that you would expect and some of presumably some constitutional advice too but there was also her very important role which she took incredibly seriously being head of the being head of the church and obviously that was a key plank of monarchy and so the chur as far as the constitutional monarchy monarchy goes it is um being head of the church of england is part of that and it is a major part so when you look at the actual service you can see how he planned the service um always with one eye to what was appropriate so one of the great hymns coming up will be the naval hymn it's not the title but for those in parallel on the sea is one of the lines which is the most famous it was the hymn played at uh president kennedy's funeral in 1963 and that was to commemorate his service during the war in the pacific and of course prince this is to commemorate prince philip's wartime service uh what would you would he serve so bravely and catherine that's something that the sun newspaper picks up uh as well doesn't it it also has this lovely photograph of the couple but it also talks about the significance of the duke's naval career yes and that portrait there of him in uniform it's um the naval career is is sort of the side of him that we seem so far away now but he was so sort of brave and a sort of man of action and a man of duty really and that ties into this idea of his faith as well doesn't it there he is and all his wonderful sort of medals looking so handsome but um with on on the faith question i was intrigued to read today in the times as well or rather be reminded how close he is to faith you know his own mother became a nun and his great aunt also became a nun i don't know how many people can boast two nuns in their close uh family but so i think that you know there are all these strands of him we're seeing today aren't we sort of the family man the naval man this sort of deep faith this representative of european history going through from the sort of birth on the kitchen table in corfu to the russian revolution what an extraordinary life he led and how many angles you

Channel: Sky News

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Keywords: NEWS, SKY NEWS, NEWS.SKY.COM, SKYNEWS.COM, SKY, sky, news, prince, philip, funeral, plans, duke, of, edinburgh, royal, family, queen, meghan, harry, william, charles, elizabeth, camilla, duchess, windsor, castle, coffin, guards, procession, military, state, burial, vault, royals, plan, The Queen, Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward, Countess of Wessex, goodbye

Id: aC9s2tL1MgY

Length: 50min 14sec (3014 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 17 2021