Platinum jubilee pageant mixes British eccentricity with a touch of chaos

Sunday's parade descended into random silliness after a bizarre and forgetful look at the UK through the decades

Forget Diana Ross, Rod Stewart and Elton John phoning in an appearance from abroad. It was always going to be a hard act to follow Paddington Bear and the corgi light show at Saturday night's party at the palace. But the royal family had decided that there had to be four days of platinum jubilee celebrations, and so the show had to go on. This time to a pageant that at times looked as if it had been organised by Prince Edward for It's a Royal Knockout.

The BBC's coverage began an hour and a half early at 1pm and presenter Kirsty Young initially looked as if she could not face another day of having to ask random guests about why the monarchy was so important both to them and the nation. She had already heard just about every possible answer, most of which were variations on duty, service and no one having come up with anything better.