These never before seen colour pictures from the 1953 Queen’s coronation show just how far we’ve come
TODAY millions around the world will watch the Coronation in pin-sharp quality on high-definition TVs, laptops, PCs and mobile phones.
But it was all very different 70 years — and a technological revolution — ago, when Charles’s mother Queen Elizabeth was crowned.
Back then just one in five families owned a television and an estimated 277million people worldwide crowded together in churches, cinemas, halls, schools and community centres and even peered through the windows of electrical goods shops for a glimpse of the new monarch assuming her role in grainy black and white.
Our exclusive colourised pictures show the global clamour to see the landmark event, which did more than any other to popularise TV.
More than 20million Brits tuned in, outnumbering the radio audience of 12million for the first time ever.
Here, we look at how people managed to catch a rare early sight of the woman who went on to become our longest-serving queen.