Three-dimensional History
Channel 4 has been making much this week of re-discovered 3-D footage of the Queen's coronation. I didn't have the special spectacles needed to get the full effect, but the reviews I've read suggest I didn't miss that much.
At times, the deferential narration and gushing reminiscences of those who were there gave the feeling that we'd never really left 1953. It was also jarringly anglo-centric. The news that Everest had been conquered, for example, was seen as a fitting start to England's new Elizabethan age. Never mind that it was a New Zealander and a Nepalese who did all the hard work.
The one amusing moment came when the programme turned its attention to the Queen of Tonga. Queen Salote, we were told, endeared herself to the crowds by riding to Westminster Abbey in an open carriage in the pouring rain. Weighing over 350 pounds, Salote was accompanied by a very small man. Asked who this might be, Noel Coward replied: "Her lunch."