Channel Seven
I’m very excited. It’s so lovely to do such a joyous, happy, fun story. Who doesn’t love a good love story? It’s one of those really special nights where we just want to see a gorgeous Hollywood actress in a really beautiful dress walking down an aisle marrying our favourite prince.
I haven’t done live telly for a while given my Sunday Night commitments. I’m looking forward to doing that, but there’s nothing like being somewhere at a moment in time covering a piece of history. I feel so privileged that I get a front-row seat, whether it’s a royal wedding or a papal election or Obama’s inauguration, and I’ve always thought my job is to give our viewers as close of an experience as they possibly can to tell them what the atmosphere is like, and why we’re there and why it’s so important.
Beforehand, the main area I need to focus on is reading everything I can find. It’s my job to make sure we are across every detail, the nuts and bolts of the day, the timings and what will go on, and know who all our experts are and what they bring to it. It’s their job to provide the expertise and the knowledge, and it’s my job to be the ringmaster along with Michael Usher to make sure we get the right information and as much as we can out of our guests.
One of the people I’m most looking forward to talking to is the BBC’s Angela Rippon. She just knows everything and everyone, and will tap into a great network of people who live and breathe royal history. And Victoria Arbiter, who grew up with the Royal Family at Kensington Palace. To be able to talk to people that know them well, and have experienced the Royal Family, is what’s so special.
On the day, we go from 7AM London time, which will be 4PM back home, and we will do two hours in the lead-up to our news, so we will have a lot of experts coming through at that point. Some are into the history of the Royal Family, some are into the fashion and some are into the guests, and we will cater to everybody’s interest.
Michael will read the news from over there, then we will go continuously throughout the day, which is into the night here. We will take a little break when it’s all done and they are heading off, then we will probably stay on and do Sunrise, which will be morning in Australia but late at night for us in England.
We anticipate sitting out there in our warm (hopefully!), custom-built booth from six o’clock in the morning until probably midnight. It will be a long day, but gosh, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else! I have packed comfortable shoes, gloves and thermals because the weather in London is unpredictable. It can be surprisingly warm and it can be surprisingly cold, so I’ve taken lots of layers.
I look at how big this is and everything that’s attached to such a massive wedding that’s going to be broadcast worldwide, but then you have to remind yourself that it’s a young woman marrying a young man. When you boil it all down to the very basics of it, it’s a young couple who met and fell in love, and they are getting married and that’s really special.
Melissa Doyle and Michael Usher will anchor Channel Seven’s live coverage of the Royal Wedding, and be joined by a line-up of royal experts, commentators and insiders.
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