Willie O’Reilly: BBC was too desperate to look loyal and royal

Clearing the schedules entirely to mark the death of Prince Philip was a huge own goal by the British state broadcaster

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip pictures in 2015: the BBC dropped all of its programming across BBC One, Two and Four in favour of a series of tributes when Philip died

The BBC is usually sure-footed. It has endeared itself to a British public which rightly feels proud of the corporation’s sizeable presence in global media. There are lapses, of course, but it is the envy of many a national broadcaster, including our own.

And yet it got it so wrong when the Duke of Edinburgh died last week, and it dropped all of its programming across BBC One, Two and Four in favour of a ...