The coffin of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II will lie in state starting today, and for anyone incapable of trekking to London to pay their respects, the BBC is set to livestream the period until her state funeral on Monday, September 19. The BBC’s stream of the period begins at noon ET today (5 p.m. BST) and will be featured on its website as well as BBC News’s various apps and platforms such as the iPlayer and BBC Red Button. It will follow the news service’s ongoing live coverage of the coffin’s journey from Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the queen died, to Westminster Hall, where her body will rest until Monday.
Born in 1926 and having reigned since 1952, Queen Elizabeth lived the bulk of her life onscreen. As Vulture critic Kathryn VanArendonk wrote, she “came smack up against TV and celebrity culture’s increasingly insatiable thirst for personal detail.†After the livestream and Monday’s funeral at Westminster Abbey, her body will ultimately rest in Windsor, among other royals in the King George VI Memorial Chapel. Much of the U.K. will shut down for a bank holiday on Monday, including all of its McDonald’s.