I wasn't sure whether I would make any mention of events which have been unfolding over the last few days, most regarding the death of our monarch, HM Elizabeth II, but is such a momentous event that it's really not something I can ignore. The media made us aware that Her Majesty was seriously ill in her favourite place, Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, was announced on Monday, and she had to go to Balmoral to meet the Queen and be invited to form a government. It was Thursday evening when we eventually learnt that Her Majesty had passed away. Television programme schedules were quickly reorganized as the news came through. I had been watching the game show 'Pointless' which under normal circumstances would be on BBC1 at 5.15, but as news of the Queen's health had come through, BBC1 went over to continuous feed on that information and the normal programmes that were usually on BBC1 were moved onto BBC2, which is where I watched 'Pointless' as I ate my evening meal. It was when that ended that I returned to BBC1 and the news of the Queen's death was announced.
They were interviewing people who had met the Queen, under a variety of circumstances. I can't say I ever met the Queen, but there were a couple of times when I saw her in person. I was an A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970s (as I'm sure I have mentioned elsewhere in these posts.) Her Majesty visited Liverpool to open the new Mersey Tunnel. We were doing an Alan Ayckbourn play 'Relatively Speaking' on which I was responsible for the 'book.' They were going to put on a variety show (of sorts) at one of the other theatres in Liverpool, the Empire I think, although it might have been another local theatre. It wasn't considered appropriate for the Queen to see 'Relatively Speaking', the idea being that the show at the Empire would be extracts of plays, performed by actors who were connected to the Playhouse (I believe Rex Harrison, best known for playing Higgins in the stage and film versions of the musical 'My Fair Lady,' was such an actor, who had performed at the Liverpool Empire earlier in his acting career.) It was decided that an extract from another play which had been in the season should be included in the show, this show was called 'The Lancashire Twins', based on Goldoni's 'Servant of Two Masters.' As a result, a part of the set for that show was taken to the Empire Theatre and I was part of the crew which took it in a lorry and unloaded it in the scene dock at this theatre. It must be one of the largest theatres in Great Britain, with a very large stage and an audience which must have been able to accommodate around 2,500 people.
Her Majesty did a walk-about either before or after opening the tunnel and I was amongst the crowd on one of the Liverpool streets and when she appeared I was surprised at what a tiny figure she was, certainly a lot shorter than I expected.
More recently, she came to Milton Keynes, and she had several engagements in the city, one of which was to declare The Hub open. The morning she came, I went down the road and waited near the entrance to The Hub to be able to see her arrival, which she did, in the official black limousine, no doubt a Rolls-Royce. But you couldn't see her inside the car, as, I think, the windows were dark, and the car went into The Hub, so quickly it was over in a very few seconds. She was only in Milton Keynes for perhaps two hours, and then she was taken to Stowe Landscape Garden for some other official engagement, but I'm not sure exactly what it was for.
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