Elizabeth II's was the first coronation service shown on TV

The coronation of Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953 was the first coronation service ever shown on television. BBC cameras were allowed inside the Abbey for the first time, and for the first time more people in Britain watched a national event on television than listened on the radio. The BBC’s own history calls it the event that did more than any other to make television a mainstream medium.

It was not the first royal coronation on TV, strictly speaking. The BBC had broadcast a limited television transmission of the procession when George VI was crowned in 1937, but the service itself stayed off-camera. In 1953 the young Queen gave permission for cameras in the Abbey against official advice, a choice the BBC reads as the monarchy agreeing to move with the times.

How many watched depends on whose estimate you use:

Audience	Estimate
UK TV viewers (Royal Household)	27 million
UK TV viewers (BBC)	more than 20 million
Watched in friends’ or neighbours’ homes	10.4 million
Watched in pubs, cinemas and halls	1.5 million
UK radio listeners	11 million
US viewers of recorded highlights	85 million

The two UK television figures differ by about 7 million, and the ‘36 million population’ often quoted beside the 27 million cannot be the whole country: the 1951 census counted 43.7 million people in England and Wales alone. Either way, about 12 million of the viewers watched on someone else’s set, which says as much about how few homes owned one as about the event.

The Abbey itself held 8,251 guests, and the service, which began at 11.15 a.m., lasted almost three hours. Richard Dimbleby gave the television commentary from inside the Abbey, and abroad the coverage travelled far: in Germany all 11 hours were transmitted.