A Nation Mourns/Scorns

The country faced it's most troubled Easter weekend since the Crucifixion, after millions of people suffered indecisiveness over how to react to the death of the Queen Mother.

In the event, reactions were predictably mixed, with with sombre reflection and thanksgiving for the life of the Nation's favourite grandmother counter-balanced by Republican merriment, Anarchic jubliation and hurriedly-written jokes on the Internet.

Overwhelmingly

Among politicians, celebrities and religious leaders, the mood was overwhelmingly sympathetic, with tributes rapidly flooding in from the countries most respected figures.

The Queen Mother, pictured shortly before her death

The Archbishop of Canterbury paid tribute to 'a woman of enormous character who brought joy to us all', while US President George W. Bush was 'deeply saddened', and Osama Bin Laden described her as 'a beacon of light, an inspiration to so many people for so many years'.

Other tributes included:

• Australian Prime Minister John Howard: 'dedicated to service, duty, support and her family'
• Opposition Leader Ian Duncan Smith: 'An incalculable loss; My sympathies are with the Royal family at this troubled time'
• Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott: 'I am glad she is dead'

But while the Nation mourned, celebreated, or remained indifferent to, the events of Saturday afternoon, the news media were working around the clock to turn out the prepared coverage which they had been working on for the previous 35 years.

Newspaper The Daily Mail were left with Easter Egg on their faces, having scheduled 'Queen Mother Dies' as an hilarious April Fool story for Easter Monday. But when the 102-year-old actually died just two days before going to press, the elaborate hoax had to be pulled, for obvious reasons.

Salvage

'It was the toughest time I'd faced in 20 years of news-gathering' said editor Piers Morgan, 'but we were able to salvage much of the pre-prepared material and use it as part of our genuine coverage. I don't think the public were aware of our cover-up at any point'

'Of course, it did mean that we had to dream up a new April Fool story by the Monday, and this kept our writers stumped for several hours. Eventually we came up with 'Barry Took Dies'.'

Meanwhile Channel 4 came in for criticism for their screening of Royal Variety Deathmatch, presented by Sir Gerry Adams.