Play / pause The Eyes of the World

The Eyes of the World

  • Fg Off James Hudson
  • Interview by: Ewan Burnet

Transcript

As we were driving out of Northolt, come out, turn right

There was

seven or eight people deep,

all or all down the road,

And that's when

we were like, obviously we knew

It was big

and really big, but we were like,

Nothing will probably ever top it.

I was kind of oblivious to it

We lowered the coffin

and then out of the corner,

the Royal Family and

members of Parliament, etc.,

And I think, again,

knowing what social media is like now

no one wants a bad photo.

No one wants a picture that shows us

in a bad light.

We get scrutinized

So we just wanted to do everyone

proud of the RAF, proud

So it was a bit of a kind of

seeing the media.

It did

But then

again, you just

You're not really thinking about anything.

You're

where your hands are going to be,

you know, all these little things that

You're just you're

listening to the boss,

And it was just

you've got to just have tunnel vision,

block everything out and just listen

And so we

so we didn't

We didn't say anything.

But I didn't see any

until I was lower in the coffin.

And as I came down

the ramp, turn left

and the bearer party

OC

Hollinsworth gave the order to turn

As I was lowering,

and the only thing I could think of was

whoever's watching this

is watching you.

And it wasn’t nerve racking

because I actually I was

But that's kind of going through my head

And I'm like,

You're all over it.

Like you're all over TV screens now.

Like,

don't mess up

I block all that stuff out.

I think that comes from experience.

The senior officers and

and officers at work, they say, oh, don't

They'll be there, though.

But because

the experience is

just another day at the office for me,

But it's just another another job,

I feel

I'm going to repeat myself.

If you if you

went into a job of that magnitude

with pressure on yourself,

Personally, I just zone out

because you have to,

they’re just extremely emotional.

You just have to zone out

and you just have to get that task

you want to put on a good show

When we left RAF Northolt

for the 11 miles or whatever it is,

There wasn't one break in the roads.

Everyone throwing flowers

everyone clapping.

And that's when for me

it hit home of how overwhelming it was

And I won't be ashamed to say

I shed a little tear

Princess Anne was on there but

But once The Queen was taken off

once I came off the aircraft,

and I was met by the Chief of the Air Staff

well, the former Prime Minister

They were really happy

that was quite a good

But at that point,

you know, still

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