Fans of the Queen’s Christmas Day broadcast will be able to listen without lifting a finger – and not just because the TV’s been tuned to BBC One since The Gruffalo at 8.55am. Alexa users will be able to summon Her Majesty into their living rooms from 3pm GMT with the words “Alexa, play the Queen’s Christmas Day message”.
The privilege isn’t reserved just for Brits. Anyone with their Amazon Echo set to English – be that British, American, Australian, Canadian or Indian – will be able to listen to the speech, Amazon has announced.
“After a challenging year, millions of people from across the Commonwealth will be eagerly awaiting Her Majesty the Queen’s message on Christmas Day,” said Eric King, the director of Alexa Europe. “By creating this world-first innovation, just as we did in 2012 with the release of the Queen’s Christmas speech on Kindle, we hope that even more people will be able to enjoy the uplifting words of Her Majesty.”
The Queen may not often be the first to new technologies, but when she arrives it’s often with a splash. Her first televised Christmas broadcast came in 1957, four years after her televised coronatio was credited for boosting TV take-up across the UK. She sent her first tweet in 2014, more than six years after the service launched, from an iPad at the Science Museum.
For those without an Amazon Alexa device at home, all is not lost – so long as you get the timing right. Google Home owners just need to wait for the clock to strike 3pm and then say “OK Google, play BBC Radio 4”.
This year the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will have a quiet Christmas, having taken the decision to celebrate as a couple rather than forming a bubble with their relatives, despite coronavirus restrictions in the UK being temporarily relaxed.
It will be the first time in more than 30 years that the monarch and Philip have remained at Windsor Castle for Christmas rather than heading to Sandringham in Norfolk.