Tim Dower: It's a spectacularly over-the-top ritual, but it's important to people

At the beginning it all looked a bit ridiculous to me, I was waiting for one of the military bands to break into the Liberty Bell march.

The over-the-top costumes, the silly horse-drawn carriage worth more than most British people will earn in a lifetime, thousands of military personnel rehearsing for days and weeks on end to walk not much than a kilometre.

And all this to escort a man who enjoys a lavish privileged lifestyle and we're supposed to bow and scrape to, purely thanks to an accident of birth.

Those thoughts lasted about five minutes.

Then the magnificence kicked in pretty quickly, the whole spectacle took hold, and I was on board for the ride.

The parade down to Westminster Abbey itself was pretty special, although I felt sorry for the guards having to march straight through fresh horse droppings on The Mall, just to keep in step.

The service, very long, very formal, but a tradition —that’s the key word, tradition— going back a thousand years, and when they put the screens around the King for the anointing part it was kind of eerie.

Charles himself looked terrified to begin with, even a bit faint. Maybe he too was thinking about that an accident of birth... I'll bet there've been times along the way when he'd rather have been just an ordinary Joe.

Star of the show in the Abbey for me was the vicar, with his passionate declaration of 'God Save the King' — he really meant it, it came from the heart.

Then that fantastic parade back to the Palace, the troops massed on the lawn around the back, three cheers for the King.

It was all perfectly orchestrated, pulled off in a style only the British Royals can get away with.

And Princess Anne's hat! Something tells me it was no accident Harry's face was obscured most of the time.

End of the day, it was a spectacularly over-the-top ritual, but it's as big a deal to a lot of people here as it is to people across the Commonwealth, across the world.

Do we feel better as a result of it? Probably! Even if it's only for a short time.

Events like this boost the popularity of the monarchy, and they need it right now.

It's still popular among people over 55, but only one in 8 of the 18 to 34 age group say the monarchy is “very important”.

The challenge going forward will be relevance, and for the monarchy to appeal to a younger generation.

That’s something the next King seems to be well aware of.

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