I was watching it on the live on the BBC and decided to switch over to Sky News for a different view and to my surprise found organ music playing as the bearer party walked up the aisle of the Cathedral, switched back to BBC .. no music. Kept switching back and again no sound of anything. then on Sky a short prayer was read, again nothing came over on BBC, but the moment the religious content was finished, the sound mysteriously returned to the BBC i wonder why?

i think showing funerals on TV are ridiculous

The TV is full to the brim with banal shoite and you think showing funerals on TV is ridiculous, .... of course, we could have ignored his passing and shown the edited highlights fron Big Brother instead.

I watched it on Sky News and had to switch over to BBC News 24 because after a reading, they decided to cut to a commercial break, we turned over and in our disgust watched on BBC News 24 as Sky had cut away from the funeral during a performance of a viola piece.

We had to watch the end of the funeral on Sky News as the BBC decided to show the rest of the funeral on their interactive service. So we went back to Sky News and they kept interrupting the vicar's final prayers at the end of the service.

Quite frankly, Harry Patch deserved better coverage than what happened in those two incidents.

I don't know why, but public access to funerals seems to have the mysterious power of uniting people more in moments of grief than in celebration.

Today was one of the largest occasions I've ever seen people come together like that to give thanks for Harry's service to the country and for peace.

Similarly, I think military marchpasts are becoming more popular now than they ever were because of the terrible situation our troops are involved in Afghanistan.

They also seem to have this weird entertainment value as well - people are bored so they hear a funeral will be televised, so they will watch it.

So far this year, because of the amount of easily accessible news channels there are these days, I've seen Jade Goody's funeral, the Michael Jackson memorial service and the funerals of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch.

If Sir Bobby Robson's memorial service is broadcast later on in the year, I might watch that.

I don't think they watch it because they're bored.

A fitting tribute.

It's not the main reasom for watching I admit, but today was one whole hour of coverage and something has got to fill that hour.

The news channels showed that funeral today because they had plenty of reasons to justify showing it (history and so on), and they have in order to attract viewers to the channel and keep them attracted. How they do that I think is by mainitaining the audience's interest for that hour by trying to entertain them (i.e. the viola piece, readings,sermons, hymns etc).

I think funerals should be a private affair for people who were close or were affected in their lives by the person being put to rest.

I completely understand strangers wanting to pay their respects to someone like Mr Patch, I don't have a problem with that whatsoever, but as for the Jade Goody's of this world.......

Sir Bobby Robson was buried yesterday, we found out today in the newspapers and that is exactly how it should be, I completely respected the man and was saddened by his death but I have no place at his funeral, grief is surely something that should be private?

It said on the news that Harry Patch was destined for a state funeral but he didn't want one as a matter of principle. Even more respect due to him.

That's right.

I thought because the Duchess of Cornwall was there representing Harry's regiment, I thought they were going to sing the National Anthem at the end even, but of course, he didn't want full military honours like a fly-past, gun salute etc.

Why the vow of silence like Mutters? You wanna be careful, else you might end up like this bloke!

Whats happened last night I come back on to find PoK making some sence for once. Did you have a drink last night?

It's all a matter of the individuals preference and I thought yesterdays service was a seamless mixture of the two.

It is Camilla I'm afraid, Mutley. She was there because she was representing Charles as the Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment Harry Patch was in, the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.

Charles was given the small title of Duke of Colonel amongst his many other titles and when Camilla became his wife, she became Duchess of Cornwall.

I don't say what I say, you know, if I don't think it's justified, Compo.