Well well. The last episode of The Queen’s Castle attracted almost 800,000 viewers, more precisely 796,000. It was followed by the premiere of the film on Graham Kennedy, The King, which attracted 835,000. Now this is not the audience that, say, the opening of the Commonwealth Games achieved, as we noted here on 7 February, 2007. Remember, this broadcast of The Queen’s Castle was a repeat, in an abridged version, with a full version available on DVD. To appreciate the size of the audience of The Queen’s Castle, compare that near 800,00 to, say, the leading ABC current affairs programme the 7.30 Report, with 752,000 viewers, Four Corners with 754,000, Media Watch with 644,000, Lateline with 306,000, or the SBS 6.30 PM World News with 199,000.
Or alternatively, compare the audience size with the two popular breakfast programmes, Seven’s Sunrise with 375,000, and Nine’s Today with 253,000. (Incidentally did you see Barry Everingham on the Nine Breakfast programme on Tuesday, 29 August, 2007 most inadequately camouflaged as a “Royal Commentator.” Citoyen Everingham looked as though he were about preside over a Jacobin tribunal during the French Revolution. But no doubt wanting to be invited back, he had the sense for once not to spray the audience from his ample reservoir of republican vitriol, except for his gratuitous and predictable use of tired old cliché “chinless wonder.“ A republican royal commentator remains the ultimate oxymoron.)
In the meantime, The Age published (in Daniel Ziffer’s column, The Diary, on 24 August 2007) these thirty words from a letter of 187 words from Harold Schmautz, ( published here on 20 August 2007) concerning Trooping the Colour on The Queen's Birthday: "Since 1977, German TV has broadcast the parade with great success. Do you think they'd do that if nobody was interested? It is even repeated twice, once just before midnight." Mr Ziffer could not resist this barb:”Basil Fawlty never misses it.”