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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.