These shots are taken from the short feature 'Elizabeth is Queen', made by British Pathe in 1953. Many people bought a television set for the first time in 1953 to watch the Coronation. The drawback was that the screen was only 9 inches and in black and white. Two film companies tried to entice people to the cinema by advertising the Coronation ceremony on the big screen, and in colour. It was a race who would be the first to get their film into the cinemas, Pathe, with theirs running to 51 minutes, and narrated by Leo Genn, and Rank's 79 minute feature in Technicolor, narrated by Laurence Olivier. The Rank version was nominated for Best Documentary. The Pathe Version was awarded the Bafta Certificate of Merit.

Before the month of June was out Pathe had copies for hire, plus a 400ft extract for home use. In terms of sharpness and sound quality, this is the worst 16mm print I own; I think the problem was that it was produced in a hurry, plus filming conditions were probably difficult, and most scenes will have been shot through a telephoto lens. The one thing in its favour is that all copies were printed on Kodachrome stock, so the colours are stable.

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That must be quite an interesting film Robert. That is an important piece of history there.