Not only did Diana’s death blow away the stuffiness and force the Royal Family to be more informal, but it forced British society to become more informal.
“Authority” needed to become more “with it”. Thankfully, out went the commitment to professional excellence of the likes of Barry Davies and snooker commentator Clive Everton, who famously refused to call players by their first names. This would no longer be acceptable practice.
In came Coronation Street, Eastenders and Brookside hastily writing new scenes for their next episodes to take account of real-life events, where characters discussed how sad they were that Diana had died, doing away with the age-old convention that soap operas do not discuss real life events. The public demanded it.
In time, in would come the shit jokes that Gary Lineker tells on Match Of the Day, the blokey, informal incompetence of Adrian Chiles’ presenting would thrive, the dildos smacking Bryan Swanson’s head on Transfer Deadline Day would become a communal event, the “Call Me Dave” election slogans, the Daily Mail comment sections, the taking seriously of nonsensical opinions about science. All that is down to the inane and superficial informality, the need to connect with the public that the Queen so badly misread that week. It would all, in time, be thankfully forced on British society by Diana’s death.
