A day for Charles, our mournful monarch: in his pomp but out of his time | Marina Hyde

It's everything he had hoped for, just the wrong era. Still, one makes the best of these things

Are you all set for the coronation? Whether you plan to pay the people's homage" - swearing aloud the newly proposed oath of allegiance to the king while watching it at home - is, of course, a private matter between you and your television set. This morning, Charles's friend Jonathan Dimbleby suggested that this faintly controversial innovation was some ghastly evangelical idea of the archbishop of Canterbury's (I paraphrase), and that Charles himself would find it abhorrent". Which feels fairly definitive.

Even if the archbish hasn't made a bish, it must be said that the full-spectrum reverence of the run-up to the coronation can leave one always on the point of collapsing into giggles. I hugely enjoyed a Spectator article this week about the spoon used to anoint the sovereign with holy oil, which was described as a very special one" (agreed), one of the most beautiful examples of that humble genus" (OK), and doubtless the world's most important spoon" (sorry, I've gone).