Dermot Murnaghan reported Queen’s death one week after his mother’s

Speaking to Metro.co.uk about how he prepared to deliver the announcement to the nation, Murnaghan revealed: ‘You don’t need any words [to explain] how sad it is how terrible it is, how shocking it’s going to be.

‘The queen is dead: those few words they’re where the enormity lies and it’s my job to get that across as respectfully but as clearly as possible.’

Murnaghan also opened about the ‘personal’ impact of giving updates on the Queen so soon after his own mother’s death, explaining his voice slightly broke when reading the Palace’s statement.

He continued: ‘There is a personal side, of course, I’m not an automaton. It was just a week before that, Thursday the first of September, when sadly my mother died.

‘I was at her funeral delivering a eulogy about a life well lived of an old woman much loved by her family. And that came flooding back to me, it’s coming back to me now.

‘There I was exactly a week later telling the nation that another much loved older woman had passed away.

The Queen’s state funeral will take place on Monday September 19, with the service beginning at 11am in Westminster Abbey.

It is expected to be watched on TV by billions of people globally and by thousands of members of the public who will be lining The Mall.

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