PRESENTER
You join us on Radio 5 tonight in
the midst of what can only be described as a royal birth. This is a moment of
unrivaled national significance and on the ground for us with the rapturous
crowds is our royal correspondent Sam Cumberton. Sam can you hear me?
SAM
I can hear you Deborah. ‘Crowd’ is
certainly the word I would use for this, there are indeed several people here Deborah
grouped in various pools...forming what can really only be described as
‘crowds’ or en masse, collectively of course they are a single crowd, it very
much depends how you look at it Deborah...
P
Ok Sam, can you tell us a little
more regarding the baby itself?
S
Well yes, of course the crowd are
here to see and to witness the royal birthing of his royal highness the Royal Prince.
The crowd must be pushing nearly 50 or 60 people, most of who are not just
passing through, some of course are stuck or lost and some have been hired from
events agencies by the royal family to save the embarrassment of absolutely
nobody turning up.
I must be honest Deborah , when we
first arrived the crowds were mainly made up of journalists and broadcasters
and so it was a confusing huddle of questions, interviewee’s were noticeably
absent and journalists simply asked other journalists questions which were
answered with more confused questions. It was a conversational dead end but now
of course the crowds have gathered and these crowds, as we discussed earlier on
quite rapturous and jubilatious in their spirits.
Earlier on I was speaking to a
family from Kent who were quite overwhelmed by the events here. They, of course,
knew it would happen, had read about it in the newspapers, had 9 months to
prepare for it and had been making baby shoes from their own hair and prams
from cereal boxes for many weeks leading up to it, but actually being here to
witness the royal mirth of the crowds post the actual birth and actually coming
to terms with the birth having really and genuinely occurred was really too
much for them. The reality of the situation really hit home, in fact the father
of this family from Kent suffered from a minor stroke during our conversation
and the youngest daughter, Daisy aged just 12, was repeatedly vomiting into her
own hands staining her shorts and drenching her brother with rancid sick who
was already passed out from jubilation on the floor. Paramedics have been on
hand but they really don’t have the training to deal with these overdoses of
national pride and joy.
P
It is then quite an atmosphere down
there Sam. Can you give us any idea of what the moment was like when the birth
actually occurred?
S
Well of course Deborah. The moment
itself was momentous to say the least. I was in among the onlookers here at the
Palace gates, we had been waiting with our faces pressed up on the iron bars since
sun rise, expecting the duchess to present herself in the palace courtyards out
here in front of the palace. This was following speculation that the royal
birth would occur in a public royal birthing tent for the public and press to
see as the event unfolded. Plans had been made for the royal baby to be given a
very basic iPhone, maybe the iPhone 4, so he could tweet throughout the
proceedings and maybe even Skype the anxious crowds and the press which was
eagerly awaited as one of the first press conferences with unborn royalty. These
ideas were scrapped in favour of a more conventional birth and I think their
royalnesses were sensible in that decision.
A conventional behind-closed-doors-birth
took place instead, the duchess here showing her roots as very much a ‘woman of
the people’ and a commoner; born into absolute destitution into a bin outside
the co-op she has really shown that the modern royal family today represent the
average working person.
In answer to your original question
Deborah, the moment itself was of course jubilatious with the crowds cheering
and whooping in ecstatic jubilance. An old man beside me whispered in my ear
and told me that he was now ready to die, and wondered off into the park behind us here and, I think, put
himself face down in a bin as things could really not get any better than this;
quite poignant really.
P
It is also an international event
of course, sending political tremors throughout the globe. Do you get any real
sense of that down there Sam?
S
Well absolutely; the United
Kingdom’s dominant presence around the globe as the chief exporter of hats and Sellotape is quite evident down here. Apart from the many tourists who just
happened to be here I also saw, just after the announcement actually, a group
of Brazilian tourists in a state of frenzied happiness after hearing the news
and they ran around and around cheering gaily and then proceeded to rip their
faces off in a state of absolute glee. Really fantastic to see the
international community coming together for this a very international event,
the nation’s presence still very very very strongly felt around the world.
After the birth itself, the
official announcement was actually made by the royal yeoman of the guardsman’s
royal yeomanry of their royalness; the official representative of the
queen’s council’s yeomanry. He was
wheeled out ceremoniously on one of the upright boards, held in with white
straps, since he is, by tradition, only used during events of great national
interest such as a royal birth, or a royal wedding or a royal swimming gala. He
was wheeled out here, carefully unstrapped, and allowed to ring his bell and
shout incoherently for a few hours much to the joy of the crowds who still have
quite an appetite for curious characters like these who, I think, hark back to
simpler times. After ringing his bell for about two and a half hours he finally
announced the royal birth and that of course was the moment when the royal
birth was announced.
P
Thanks very much Sam, we will come
back to you later in the show.
