The royal wedding
A look at the royal wedding fascination and what it says about the popularity of the British royal family.
| The royal wedding |
It is estimated that about two billion people around the world watched the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton – that is one in three of the world’s population.
What does that say about the popularity of the British royal family, or more particularly this newly-wed couple?
Joining Sir David is William Shawcross, who wrote the official biography of the late Queen Mother, and Eve Pollard, a British journalist and editor of several newspapers.
He was the first amateur jockey in 30 years to beat the professionals in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, one of the most prestigeous horse traces in the UK. Earlier this month he was tipped to become the first amateur to add a Grand National to his Gold Cup in the same season. But in the event he came in second with his horse “Oscartime”.
But as well as being a jockey Sam Waley-Cohen is a businessman who runs a chain of dental practices around the country and is also known as the matchmaker who helped to get Prince William and Kate Middleton together again after their brief split in 2007. So what is it like to be a businessman, amateur jockey and royal matchmaker?
The royal wedding fascination has gone global. Apparently 60 per cent of the US population followed the run-up to the wedding and hundreds of thousands set their alarm clocks early to watch it live, making it a record television viewing event in the US. Piers Morgan, one British journalist who hosts his own prime-time show on CNN, returned to London for a week of special coverage.
He joins Sir David to discuss the US interest in the royal wedding.
| What next for Syria? |
For the first time, tanks were deployed on Syrian streets this week with reports of indiscriminate firing on demonstraters. Human rights groups say that at least 400 people have now been killed in six weeks of protests. This comes one weeks after Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had lifted the hated emergency laws, which had been in place for 48 years. But with little sign of change on the ground – what next for Syria?
Ribal al-Assad, the chairman of the organisation for democray and freedom in Syria, but also the cousin of President Assad, and son of Rifaat al-Assad, joins Sir David to talk about the events in Syria.
Five weeks ago, as the intervention in Libya began, the British government voted to participate in the action. British Conservative Members of Parliament, Rory Stewart, who voted with the government, and John Baron, who voted against it, discuss about the intervention in Libya.
Also joining Frost in the studio are the four members of the band “Blake”, who have just released a new ballad “All of me” – a song about love and commitment to coincide with the royal wedding.
This episode of Frost Over the World aired from Friday, April 29, 2011.