Richard III reburial
21st March 2015
I'm pleased to announce I'll be part of the Channel 4 presenting team covering of the reburial of Richard III.
On 26th March 2015, Richard III – the king found under a council car park in Leicester in 2012 – will be buried in the city’s cathedral. Channel 4, which captured the discovery and subsequent identification of Richard’s remains in the award-winning documentary ‘Richard III: The King in the Car Park’, will be the only broadcaster to film the burial and key services live. It will broadcast these events live and exclusively from Leicester in three special programmes presented by Jon Snow with Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Arthur Williams and me.
The programmes:
Richard III: The Return of the King Evening of Sunday 22nd March This programme will capture the climax of the procession of the King’s mortal remains back to the site of his death at Bosworth Battlefield through the streets of Leicester and the service that marks the king’s reception into Leicester Cathedral with a sermon given by Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Channel 4 will also assemble leading historians, actors, politicians, descendants of the King and key participants in his rediscovery, to ask who Richard really was and what his place in British history should now be.
Richard III: The Burial of the King Morning of Thursday 26th March Live coverage of the reburial service, attended by members of the Royal Family, as the King is formally reinterred at the east end of the Cathedral. Guests at the service and key players in the King’s story will join Jon in the studio beforehand and afterwards, and a series of short films will offer glimpses of the preparations for this unique event and explore the debates surrounding it.
Richard III: The King Laid to Rest Thursday evening A final programme showing highlights of the reburial service from earlier in the day and - live - a last moment of intimate ceremonial, in which those who led the campaign to find Richard and his descendants, gather to bid the King a final farewell. The Bosworth beacon, lit when Richard's remains arrived back at the site of his death on Sunday morning, will be extinguished as the massive tombstone is revealed for the first time.