20 Million Watch Queen of England’s Coronavirus Message

About 24 million television viewers plus online viewers watched the Queen of England’s broadcast to the nation on Sunday, according to overnight figures.

In an unusual speech, the Queen thanked the citizens of the United Kingdom for following government rules to stay at home and praised the people “coming together to help others”.

The speech was seen by 23.97 million viewers, making it the second most-watched broadcast this year, and the numbers continue to climb today as more people worldwide have been watching the video through news sites and YouTube.

Boris Johnson’s statement announcing strict new coronavirus restrictions was viewed by 27 million in March, one month previous.

It was only the fifth time the Queen has given a speech of this sort in her 68-year reign.

By contrast, the Queen’s most recent Christmas holiday message reached a combined total audience of just 7.85 million.

In her speech on Sunday, the Queen said the country “will succeed” in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and she thanked people for following government rules to stay inside and paid hommage to essential workers for their dilligence.

Filmed from a room within Windsor Castle, the Queen said the Coronavirus pandemic was a “different” struggle compared to what the nation had faced in the past.

The message ended with the words “we will meet again” – an apparent reference to Dame Vera Lynn’s inspiring war anthem, We’ll Meet Again.

The Queen’s four previous special address speeches were delivered in 1991, 1997, 2002 and 2012.

The first was made at the beginning of the ground war in Iraq, while the second was delivered on the evening prior to the funeral of Princess Diana, after her untimely death by car accident after being chased by paparazzi.

The 2002 speech came on the eve of her own mother’s funeral, while the 2012 speech celebrated her Diamond Jubilee.

Sunday’s pre-recorded video was shot by a lone cameraman who was wearing protective equipment.

Almost universally, the Queen’s message was described as “reassuring”, with many commentators calling it very calming.

However, for a number of people on social media, the solid green color of the Queen’s dress called to mind “green screens” which are used to replace the backgrounds of filmed content, and a number of people were inspired to photoshop images into photos of the Queen as she gave her speech.

Let us help you with that! This will forever be known as the Queen's #CoronavirusSpeech #QueensSpeech #QueensAddress pic.twitter.com/nu42bHULNt

— Snark O' The Beast (@SnarkOTheBeast) April 5, 2020

While the memes produced were clearly funny, the humor seems to have been predominately warm and not cynical.