Today’s news summary – Paper Talk
All of Thursday’s newspapers focus on the start of the Queen’s four days lying in state. A number of papers use full-page pictures to report on yesterday’s events as Prince William and Harry joined their dad, King Charles III, in walking behind the Queen’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.
Queen’s coffin travels from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall
“Our jewel, her crown” is the headline on the front splash of the Metro. The paper features the procession taking the coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, with the Imperial State Crown placed on top of the coffin in sharp focus.
The Daily Mail leads with a single photo, showing the coffin in place at Westminster Hall guarded by a soldier with his head bowed. She lies at peace as her people bid solemn farewells”, says the headline.
The Daily Express highlights the scale and grandeur of the occasion, with the Queen’s coffin towards the bottom of an image that includes the magnificent hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall.
The Times shows members of the First Battalion Grenadier Guards carefully laying the regiment’s flag on the steps leading up to the coffin, in what the paper says was their last act before becoming the King’s Company. The paper’s headline: “Her Crown And Glory” – as well as a quote from the Queen from when she responded to the 9/11 attacks in New York, saying “grief in the price we pay for love.”
Prince and Princess of Wales alongside Duke and Duchess of Sussex
The Daily Mirror and the Sun use the same image of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
The Mirror says the “pride and the pain” was felt by the royal family as they mourned the Queen “amid scenes of pageantry” – while the Sun says their faces were “etched with grief” as they look on at an “emotion-filled” ceremony.
The Daily Telegraph says the royals “carried their grief with dignity” for six long days before passing the Queen’s coffin from their care to the public – “as the greatest lying in state spectacle in living memory begins.”
The Guardian reports the first mourners allowed into Westminster Hall to file past the coffin tell the paper they were overcome with emotion as they paid their respects.
Whilst the i reports that a tourist from Minnesota said it was the “honour of a lifetime” to be the first American through – adding that he described the scene as “very understated, elegant, regal and perfect.”