45 years ago today, Princess Anne married Captain Mark Philips at Westminster Abbey. Although it’s now supplanted in the nation’s memory by the subsequent weddings of Anne’s brothers and nephews, at the time it was huge. 14th November 1973 was declared a National Holiday and the service attracted a global TV audience of 500 million. It was also the reason thousands of Britons got a colour TV for the first time. And once they’d experienced colour, they (literally) couldn’t look at black & white again. I’ve always rather liked Princess Anne. Never flash or embarrassing, she’s always just got on with her life and consciously avoided the limelight. Before she married, she was a world-class show-jumper and when her marriage didn’t work out, she and Mark Philips quietly got divorced and Anne discreetly re-married. This track (sort of) has Anne in the title but would you dare call her “Annie”? No, me neither.
The forgotten royal wedding

- It was a quot...14th May 2016
- To Finch's in...12th May 2016
- The greatest ...11th May 2016
- Farewell to U...10th May 2016
- Happy Birthda...8th May 2016
- Why no jazz f...6th May 2016
- Oh God. I sh...5th May 2016
- Leicester Cit...3rd May 2016
- A death you m...2nd May 2016
- To the paint ...27th Apr 2016
- The Bard.25th Apr 2016
- The London Ma...24th Apr 2016
- The Man who o...23rd Apr 2016
- The Queen at ...21st Apr 2016
- RIP Victoria ...20th Apr 2016 prev next