Saturday 4 June 2022 07:55 AM SARAH VINE: Forget the warring royals, brave Kirsty Young stole the show trends now
As the great and the good flowed into St Paul’s Cathedral by the coachload – quite literally in the case of minor royals – the Queen sat watching her service unfold from home in Windsor, one hopes with a small glass of something congratulatory at her elbow.
In that respect she was, as ever, in sync with her people, most of whom — myself included — experienced it that way.
It’s at moments like these that the BBC, for all its flaws, comes into its own as the broadcaster of record.
Other channels are of course available, but why would you bother when Auntie has it all: The avuncular tones of David Dimbleby, the best vantage points, years and years of experience – and, on this occasion, Kirsty Young.
There is a certain gravitas that only comes with wisdom and experience, and Kirsty Young has both, having suffered badly for the past few years with the debilitating condition fibromyalgia
Ah, Kirsty Young. All eyes were on the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at St Paul’s, but for me it was Young who really stole the show, surrounded by flowers and wildfowl, apparently adrift on a jubilee-themed pergola in the middle of St James’s Park.
I had forgotten quite how good she is, how she brings a sense of quiet intimacy to the most public of moments. There aren’t many women broadcasters of her calibre around, not least because at the BBC there has been a tendency to pension them off much earlier than their male counterparts, who, like Dimbleby, seem to go on forever.
But there is a certain gravitas that only comes with wisdom and experience, and Young has both, having suffered badly for the past few years with the debilitating condition fibromyalgia.
There’s a warmth and sincerity to her presenting style, but she’s also sharp as a box of tacks. Her guests, the former Archbishop of York
