A veritable 'balancing act' for King Charles to 'revive the popularity of the British Monarchy'

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00:00 Staying in the UK, world leaders and foreign dignitaries are arriving

00:03 in London ahead of the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday.

00:06 It will be around this time tomorrow that the King will be crowned.

00:10 2,000 guests will be at Westminster Abbey

00:12 and there will be millions watching on TV.

00:14 Every coronation since 1066,

00:17 and William the Conqueror has taken place at the Abbey.

00:19 We'll also see the crowning of Charles's wife,

00:21 the Queen Consort Camilla as Queen.

00:24 Now, the popularity of the royals has waned,

00:27 according to the polls, since the death of Queen Elizabeth,

00:30 but the majority still appear to support a monarchy.

00:33 Well, I want to bring in an expert on this

00:36 and talk to Quentin Peel, who's a senior research fellow at Chatham House.

00:41 Quentin, it's been described to me that

00:42 what people are about to see around the world,

00:44 because let's face it, not many of us are old enough

00:46 to remember the last coronation,

00:48 it's a kind of marriage between the King and the nation.

00:53 It is really, because I think King Charles was quite well described

00:58 the other day as not a head of state, more a head of the nation.

01:02 And I think that's what the older generation certainly see him as.

01:08 People who are my age, and I'm actually very close in age to the King,

01:12 seem to be really quite very positive still

01:16 about the existence of the royal family and the monarchy.

01:20 Over 70% think it's a good thing.

01:22 But when you come to the younger generation,

01:24 the sort of 18 to 25 year olds, it's a much lower number.

01:29 There is not so much enthusiasm.

01:31 And I think it's a balancing act that King Charles

01:34 is going to have to work at quite hard in order to, if you like,

01:41 revive the popularity of the monarchy.

01:44 But one thing that's going for him is perhaps precisely

01:47 what you've just been reporting,

01:49 that the state of the political government, the real power in the country,

01:54 is actually very weak and it's very unpopular at the moment.

01:57 So perhaps he's got a chance to assert more unity

02:02 and more stability from Buckingham Palace.

02:05 We'll see this touch of the archaic with touch of the modern.

02:09 And you'd have been, if I'm right in saying,

02:11 only a four year old lad back for the coronation in 1953,

02:15 if I'm right in saying, for the Queen Elizabeth II.

02:18 It's going to be different this time.

02:19 Back then, there were earls and marquises and refineries

02:23 or tiaras out of the bank vaults.

02:24 This time they're placed on the seats in the Abbey.

02:27 Lots of NHS workers, lots of charity workers.

02:30 The refinery, the finery of people in there might not be quite the same.

02:34 A more modern occasion.

02:36 Yes, absolutely.

02:37 And I think that's what King Charles very much wants to underline.

02:41 Although it must be said that he's still going to be travelling

02:44 in the golden coach and he's still going to be wearing very fancy uniform

02:48 and the crown, of course.

02:50 So all the flummery is still there.

02:53 But it's going to be a shorter service.

02:55 It's going to be a wider audience.

02:59 But it's still very controversial because it was just announced a week ago

03:04 by the Archbishop of Canterbury that everybody would have the chance

03:09 to make an oath of allegiance to the king,

03:12 whether they're sitting in their sofas in their sitting rooms

03:15 or wherever they may be.

03:17 And that's actually gone down rather badly.

03:20 I think people have said, what is this all about oaths of allegiance?

03:24 It's very medieval.

03:26 Surely the world has moved on.

03:28 So it's really quite a delicate balancing act all the way.

03:32 It's a very good point, Quentin.

03:33 Can I ask you something that has been raised to me, which is

03:37 we are going to see Queen Elizabeth, sorry, Queen Camilla from Queen Consort Camilla.

03:43 Now, go back to the 90s.

03:45 This was somebody that Princess Diana, the late princess,

03:47 described as a Rottweiler in the relationship with Charles,

03:50 an emergence that maybe a decade ago, few people seemed to see this.

03:55 Give us a sense of perhaps surprise, perhaps the planning from Buckingham Palace

04:00 to allow this to be almost seamless.

04:04 Yes, I think the palace has been working very hard, really,

04:07 on improving the image of Queen Camilla,

04:12 as we'll have to get used to calling her,

04:14 because the memories of Princess Diana are still very real to an awful lot of people.

04:22 She was very widely loved.

04:24 And I think there's a suspicion about the new queen that somehow she let the side down.

04:33 And that came out very much in the recent biography of Prince Harry,

04:39 which has certainly created some waves and created a difficulty

04:43 for King Charles and his queen.

04:46 I think that it's again, this is the soap opera side, really,

04:52 if you like, of the whole occasion,

04:54 that it's a family like any other that has stresses and strains within it.

04:58 But of course, if they're going to be seen as the monarchy ruling over the nation,

05:05 albeit without much power,

05:08 then I think that they have to somehow heal the wounds within the family,

05:13 just as they seek to heal the wounds within the nation.

05:17 Quentin, great to talk to you.

05:18 Quentin Peel, a senior research fellow at Chatham House.

05:22 Well, that will be tomorrow around this time,

05:24 and we'll bring you live coverage from there.

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