Description

The Music of Royal London… It starts with a bang – and an arrest (!) and a death (!) – with Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and ends with a fanfare and a calypso at The Abbey.

In between we’ll discover…

• The strange secrets of the Queen Mother’s LP collection

• The weird and wonderful myth of Queen Elizabeth II‘s piano

• The King who wanted violins banned

• The Queen who hated Handel

• The opera house that never was

• Buckingham Palace as the world’s poshest jazz club

• The music of the Changing of the Guard

The soundtrack to this great royal soap opera is provided by Mozart, Purcell, Handel, The Beatles, Louis Armstrong, Queen, Chopin and Madness – playing a heady mix of hymns, jazz, baroque, rock and showtunes.

 

As usual in the great royal soap opera, scenes of adultery, abdication and scandal alternate with the high pomp and happy days of national celebration – coronations, christenings and many, many more than just four weddings and a funeral.

 

From jazz Dukes to pop Princesses, from Green Park to the Abbey, from Henry VIII to Queen Elizabeth II – this is the Crown’s greatest hits.