Repeatedly throughout last night’s The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebration (ITV), we were told emphatically that the whole event was designed with the Queen’s interests in mind. There would be no youth-appeasing Live Aid-style concert. In fact, there would be no concession to popular tastes whatsoever. Instead, it was going to be two straight hours of looking inside Queen Elizabeth’s brain. So, if nothing else, at least we now understand why she looks so bored all the time.
Good lord, was it a slog. The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebration was essentially made up of three elements: celebrities, history and horses. And horses. And more horses. In retrospect, this unending equine onslaught should have been expected because, in a duplicitous move, ITV had basically just filmed the annual Royal Windsor Horse Show and passed it off as a once-in-a-lifetime jubilee celebration. The repackaging was so shameless that, for the most part, it was unclear whether the Queen actually knew any of this was for her jubilee or not.
