‘The Coronation Concert’ Was A Sorry Sales Pitch for a Brand New King: TV Review
variety.comMike McCahill Guest Contributor Ahead of the “Coronation Concert” – aired on the BBC on Sunday as the climax of the weekend’s royal celebrations – all the talk was of who wasn’t going to perform.
Multiple A-listers (Adele, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles et al.) were reported to have declined official invitations, and their wariness around hitching their brands to what often feels like Britain’s longest-running soap opera, currently scattering followers after a succession of unsavory plotlines, now seems understandable.
Tonight, as we were confronted with the concert’s arbitrarily assembled ensemble, it’s clear we were probably only a few refusals away from witnessing the Duke of York bashing a tray with a spoon.
Hopes that the evening would prove a London Olympics-style triumph-over-adversity rapidly dimmed. If these two hours recalled anything, it wasn’t Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony, channelling Williams Blake, Morris and Shakespeare, but the justly forgotten closing ceremony, with its eggy whiff of Simons Cowell and Fuller.
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