[itsrobert]

Thank you for people saying they weren't born, makes me feel old! For me it was the week before I started secondary school and I remember it well.

This thread has made me feel like an old fossil! I must be the same age as you as I started secondary school the week after, too. 

I don't recall the coverage with much detail now, although the video clips above give a good idea of what it was like. I very much remember the whole nation being in mourning; Princess Diana was a much loved member of the Royal Family. It was an utterly shocking and devastating event. I seem to recall that Mother Teresa died very shortly afterwards (i.e. within the week) and her death was pretty much reduced to a footnote. 

My own recollection of hearing the news: it was a Sunday morning and my parents had a bit of a habit of having a cup of tea in bed while reading the Sunday newspapers (delivered to the front door by the paperboy....there's something unusual for you young'uns!). My Dad would go downstairs to make the tea and while doing so he would have a quick look at the sports news headlines on Ceefax/Teletext (again, I bet the youngsters here don't remember that - basically a pre-internet information service received through the TV). That morning, he turned the TV on and immediately saw that Diana had died as it was being shown on every channel. We abandoned our usual routine and all gathered round the TV to watch the news. Mine was a BBC household so I have vivid memories of watching Martyn Lewis and Peter Sissons on the Nine O'Clock News set (previously unheard of at that time of day) and hearing the National Anthem every so often throughout the day. I do remember watching the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, make a statement. He'd only been in office for about 4 months at that point.

Probably the reason there is very little footage of how it unfolded as the news initially broke is because it happened overnight and most people wouldn't have been recording programmes broadcast then. And in fact, BBC1 used to close down for the night in those days! This is an updated version of the page linked to earlier which has some audio clips that might be interesting for you: telly.site 

I did enjoy the reference earlier in the thread to VCRs and VHS tapes as DVRs/DVR tapes! No such thing as a DVR in those days. Analogue tape all the way....! Even the longest VHS tapes only recorded up to 4 hours in 'short play' or 8 hours in 'long play' but the picture quality of long play was much worse. I don't remember VHS tapes being expensive; you could buy a pack of them fairly cheaply as I recall. I only remember getting my first DVR in about 2006 when I got Sky+. Up until then I very much continued to use the VCR and I think I did have a DVD recorder at some point, but I can't remember when exactly.

Here endeth the history lesson.