Letter: We don't all need to share in their grief

I well remember the deaths of Kings George V and Vl by virtue of the effect they had on the populace. When George V died my father put his foot through the radio, bellowing, "I've had enough of those bloody bells." I was five and ill at the time, recuperating on the family sofa, and was barely missed by the hurtling radio cabinet. When George Vl died (left) I was working for a department store and the shenanigans were little short of farcical.

I don't think the BBC's plans will have any other effect than to fill the pubs and kill Nynex work-people in the nation's rush to be converted to cable ("A death is announced" 13 July). I am a republican and I do not wish to be disrespectful, but surely a lady nearing her centenary year would not wish this. BBC, spare her and the nation the indignity of this hypocritically morbid charade.

Dorothy E Gresty

Manchester