Somer Valley Remembers The Queen

Somer Valley FM hosted a selection of special shows on Monday the 19th of September for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. The Midsomer Norton based local radio station joined millions of people around the world in tribute to her late majesty as she is laid to rest in the first state funeral to be held since Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965.

The day started with Jo Davis at Breakfast where we got to learn a lot more about the Queen and the achievements she had achieved in her amazing life. We also got to learn some interesting, less known facts!

Debbie Chatting then hosted hosted a special all about remembering the queen with clips from her recent visit to London where she took in the amazing tributes left for The Queen.

Dom Chambers brought us a three-hour special programme produced by Pete Helmore covering the funeral live and bringing you the thoughts of the local people. Dom joined community leaders, including Jennifer Duke, the High Sheriff of Somerset, from across the county for the Service of Thanksgiving on Sunday the 18th led by Dr Michael Beasley, the new Bishop of Bath and Wells, in Wells Cathedral.

Dom said, “As a local broadcaster it is important that we capture how the remarkable life of the Queen impacted the communities of Somerset. As we follow the events in Westminster our programme will have many local voices sharing their reflections with our audience.”

In 2019 Dom joined 100 people for lunch with the Queen, celebrating community life in Somerset, when she last visited the county. He is a cousin of the Earl Marshal who is tasked with organising the state funeral in London today.

Pete Helmore followed up with a Midday Reflection Special.

We then finished our special shows with Seb Bailey who took a look back at the morning events, and shared some of our listeners thoughts throughout the day.

You can listen again to all the shows below.

(Just click on the show to start it playing)