'After we've mourned Queen, the nation must refocus - Her Majesty would agree'

What a week of extraordinary imagery it has been – with ­history unfolding before our eyes and the face of our nation changing forever.

Her Majesty’s death and His Majesty’s accession were merely the opening scenes in a drama that has dominated news channels here and around the world.

And millions of viewers have been glued to the unfolding story of family sorrow, ­diligent duty, the stiff ­formality of the ­constitution and the wobbly lips of the mourning.

But while this panoply of pageantry and pomp has played out, it’s the little details, the snapshots and vignettes which are sure to will stick in our minds forever.

So many of them have made me well-up unexpectedly.

Once we have mourned her, the country must refocus, says Rachael Bletchly (Getty Images)

The children’s drawings and thank-you cards dotted amidst the flowers, Paddington Bears and marmalade sandwiches, images of the Queen drawn in sand at the seaside and knitted to ­decorate post boxes.

The look on William and Harry’s faces as they marched ­behind another coffin, the pearls on the Imperial State Crown trembling in time to the soldiers’ bootsteps en route to the lying in state.

And all those stunning aerial shots of Her Majesty’s final journey – horse riders and farmers on tractors forming guards of honour in the stunning Scottish countryside and people in London lighting her way home with the glow of their iPhone cameras.

We’ll ­witness more unforgettable sights ­on Monday as the cameras capture every moment of Her Majesty’s extraordinary funeral.

A Paddington Bear toy and marmalade sandwich is left amongst flowers and tributes outside the Palace of Holyroodhouse (PA)

But then, I believe, it’s time to wipe our eyes, shift our perspective and start to look to the future.

And our new Prime Minister and her cabinet need to zoom out from the minutiae of this historic moment and consider the bigger picture.

It was right that we paused to mourn our beloved monarch and reflect on her incomparable life of service.

But while the Second Elizabethan Age ­morphed seamlessly into the Third Carolean Age, everyday life didn’t change for the people of Great Britain.

And the dramas that filled the news bulletins 10 days ago are all still waiting to be addressed.

Crippling energy bills, the cost of ­living crisis, wages, strikes, a failing NHS, the climate crisis, Brexit hangover, ­growing numbers of asylum seekers and fall out from the war in Ukraine.

THIS is the changing face of our ­nation so now it’s time to refocus.

And I’m sure Her Majesty and His Majesty would both agree.