VE Day 80: Military procession to Buckingham Palace and Red Arrows flypast to mark anniversary

Overnight rehearsals and tailored uniforms – what goes into a VE Day parade?published at 08:17 British Summer Time

08:17 BST

Ashitha Nagesh
Reporting from The Mall

Let’s take you back to a little bit earlier, when rehearsals for today’s procession were getting under way – in near complete darkness.

Lt Col Charles Foinette is the
Brigade Major of the Household Division – which means he oversees public
duties and state ceremonial activity. He and his horse, Percy, will be leading regiments in today’s
parade.

He tells me that there has been “quite a lot of preparation” put into this year’s parade, including “properly tailored” uniforms and lots of practising of foot and rifle drills.

There’s been several rehearsals throughout the weekend, and if you’d visited Green Park in the
early hours on Saturday, you might have seen regiments rehearsing along the real route.

“I got on my horse at about 02:00 and got off him again at
somewhere around 05:00,” Lt Col Foinette recalls.

Rehearsals are important for such big ceremonies, he points out, “but
until you actually get on the ground itself it’s quite hard to visualise where
you need to be marching”.

Image caption,