This year, the Queen reached a feat no other British monarch has: seven decades on the throne.

The Queen ascended the throne at the age of 25, when her father King George VI passed away, however she was not crowned until almost 18 months later on 2 June 1953 to be sure that an appropriate period of mourning had passed.

While Her Majesty officially marked her 70th year as Queen on 6 February, the achievement will be more formally celebrated with an additional bank holiday weekend in June this year.

The Platinum Jubilee weekend runs from Thursday 2 June to Sunday 5 June, and will see the Queen and the royal family participate in several scheduled events to celebrate, including Trooping the Colour, a Service of Thanksgiving, the Derby at Epsom Downs, a star-studded party at the Palace and the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.

To celebrate the Queen’s 70th year as Britain’s monarch, Laura Hampson speaks to royal experts Jennie Bond and Sean O’Grady about Her Majesty’s most memorable moments, the biggest scandals she has faced, and how she redefined what it means to serve one’s country.

This virtual event will take place on Zoom on Thursday 19 May at 6.30pm.

Running time: 60 minutes

After registering, you will receive a unique link 48 hours in advance to access the event online. This event will be hosted using Zoom. Please refer to their privacy policy before registering.

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This event will be available to watch on demand in the days following via our events page.

FAQs

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Before the event takes place, please ensure you have downloaded Zoom onto your desktop or mobile device. You will also need to register for an account with Zoom. Once you have done this, you will be ready to access the virtual event.

Desktop/laptop:

If you are using a desktop computer/laptop, click here to download Zoom: https://zoom.us/download. The download should pop up automatically, and you will need to click ‘Continue’ on each stage of the installation to ensure Zoom downloads successfully to your device.

Mobile:

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Once you have downloaded Zoom and created an account, you will be able to access the virtual event by clicking on a link we will send you 48 hours before the event starts. Simply click on the link to open Zoom and join.

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If you have any questions about the event please contact our Customer Services team by emailing customerservices@independent.co.uk, or calling 020 3615 2990. Our phone lines are open Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm.

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