Royal wedding: How ITV, Sky News and BBC covered Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's ceremony

There can be no greater televisual challenge than covering a royal wedding, where the logistics of a live outside broadcast meet layers of protocol. With just six months to plan for Harry and Meghan, which channel managed best?

Let’s start with the sets. The BBC chose a medley of blues seemingly based on the home colours of the Indian football team. There were sofas from Ikea and occasional tables straight from your nan’s house. If the BBC was trying to show licence payers they’re not squandering on aesthetics, they succeeded.

ITV fared slightly better with handmade cushions in juxtaposition with a Noguchi coffee table, no less. But Sky News won hands down with a full-on red, white and blue theme complete with abstract Union Flag carpet.

The BBC coverage started well with a moving poem by George The Poet. Then we got to the presenters. Dermot O’Leary’s shirt looked horribly tight around the neck. Perhaps that’s why he spent the whole morning squirming, prompting @Crawfordbyname to tweet “Dermot O’Leary do you have piles…”

Meanwhile, Kirsty Young seemed to have dressed for another event entirely in a dark green frock best described as dour. Still, it picked up the green in the kilt worn by an early BBC guest who, legs akimbo, threatened to show viewers he was a true Scot before most of us had the prosecco out.

The BBC stuck Huw Edwards in an eyrie with more Ikea tat, where he did a mighty job of filling dead air before the service began. Later he reflected on Bishop Michael Curry’s address with “forceful” understatement. “Certainly not the kind of address to have been heard at a royal wedding for a while,” said Huw.

Poor Kirsty never looked entirely comfortable, having to share the sofa with Dermot, but she had some of the day’s best lines. As Meghan’s car left Cliveden, Kirsty helpfully announced that the bride was “wearing a veil and not much more than that”. Later, while celeb spotting, “Oh there’s my husband in the church… and my children.” More establishment than a Dimbleby.

ITV had its own insider in the shape of Tom Bradby, who got an actual invitation to the ceremony, which was great because it meant he couldn’t commentate.

Instead, ITV’s coverage was fronted by Philip Schofield and Julie Etchingham, who must surely be a contender for the People’s Presenter. (Unlike Holly Willoughby, who tried to pull focus from the lovely Julie by announcing that she would be wearing her own wedding dress to watch the footage. Bad, Holly.)

Apparently, Schofield’s day started with a trip through some horse manure. He spent the rest of the morning talking about it, coming out with such classics as “I can see that Victoria wanted to smile”, of Victoria Beckham, and of George Clooney “his silver suit matches his locks”.

Sky News presented a formidable tag team in Anna Botting and Kay Burley. Botting was dressed for the possibility of a sudden banking crisis in Angela Merkel chic, while Burley wore white lace, like a mother-of-the-bride determined to remind the congregation she was once beautiful too.

Botting held fort in the studio, while Burley mingled with the “commoners”, at one point using the word with something approaching relish to describe Meghan herself. Meanwhile, Burley’s handling of the younger people in the crowd was a masterclass in why you should never work with children.

Burley reached peak-Partridge when she lifted nine-year-old Christobel over a barrier so the cameras could get a better look at the little girl’s dress. She didn’t lift Christobel back but complained, on camera, as she moved to the next shot, “oof, she was a bit heavy for me”.

All in all, the television coverage of the royal wedding was exactly as you would expect it to be: inane and sycophantic. But at the same time, it was occasionally touching, a feeling summed up in the sight of Julie Etchingham jumping up to see Meghan’s car and spontaneously waving as the bride passed by.

It was a beautiful moment in a surprisingly lovely morning’s TV. Just like Julie, you couldn’t help getting carried away.