"The people have spoken": Dame Vera Lynn's daughter jubilant at U-turn on Rule Britannia!
3 September 2020, 11:03 | Updated: 3 September 2020, 11:06
Daughter of Dame Vera Lynn Virginia Lewis-Jones brands it "wonderful" that Rule Britannia! will be sung on the last night of Proms in a U-turn from the BBC.
Rule, Britannia! and Land Of Hope And Glory will now be sung on the last night of the Proms following weeks of debate, the BBC has announced.
The broadcaster previously said the pieces would feature without lyrics following controversy over their perceived historical links with colonialism and slavery, however the move was reversed one day after Tim Davie took over as director-general.
Daughter of national treasure Dame Vera Lynn, Virginia Lewis-Jones, was jubilant at the reversal of the decision, branding it "wonderful."
"The voice of the people, they have spoke...it's absolutely right and it should be," Ms Lewis-Jones told LBC's Nick Ferrari.
She likened it to the moment her mother Dame Vera proposed singing "Yours, Sincerely" during the Second World War and the BBC rejected this for fear of demoralising the troops.
"They completely misconstrued the spirit and feeling of the people and unfortunately they've done it again."
Rule Britannia! sung by Dame Vera Lynn went to number one on iTunes in protest of this decision, which Ms Lewis-Jones said her mother would find it "really funny and absolutely super."
She told Nick that when Dame Vera first sang Rule Britannia! it was in Holland and there was such a demand for the song that she ended up recording it as a single.
"It was number one in the charts for weeks and weeks and weeks," Ms Lewis-Jones said.
