Long to Reign over Us (1953)

His colour film of events leading up to and including the Coronation in 1953 is a reverential review of state events punctuated with fascinating glimpses behind the scenes.

John de Vere Loder, 2nd Baron Wakehurst, was a colonial administrator and politician who had served as the last British Governor of New South Wales and held the post of Governor of Northern Ireland from 1952 to 1964. His position provided him with the opportunity to film many grand occasions. This film alone covers the opening of the 1948 Olympic Games, the Festival of Britain in 1951 and the death of King George VI, and culminates with his footage of the Coronation Day on 2 June 1953.

Royal occasions would mostly be filmed professionally by newsreel companies. The Coronation was also filmed as the 1953 feature–length cinema release A Queen Is Crowned. This would also be the first royal ceremony to be televised by the BBC, leading to a massive increase in the purchase of television sets by the public, effectively beginning the age of TV’s supremacy over the cinema.