A short clip from ITV News’ coverage of the Queen’s funeral has gone viral, causing a Twitter storm.
With more than one million views in less than 24 hours, the 21-second video seems pretty straightforward when watched without sound, as it shows drone footage of the Queen’s procession as it travelled to Windsor.
But, turning the sound on tells a different story.
There’s a few seconds of silence, before a hushed, seemingly female, voice talks over the live footage, saying: “The death is irreversible and the fact that she’s trapped...”
A commentator then talks over the strange voice, saying, “as you can see –” before being cut off again for a few moments.
Eerie silence settles over the clip before the broadcaster starts up again as though nothing has happened: “As you can see here in London, it’s a lovely day as the hearse heads out into west London...”
Of course, this clip set Twitter alight.
Some people have suggested there could have just been sound interference between the live broadcast and someone who still had their microphone on in one of the main studios.
A few accounts have pointed out that psychotherapist and Prince George’s godmother, Julia Samuel was on ITV’s Lorraine on September 15 – four days before – and appears to have a similar voice.
She told host Lorraine Kelly how parents can help their children understand death by answering their questions honestly, and being truthful about what death actually means.
This explanation is not flawless, though – it does seem unlikely that an interview from the previous week would suddenly interfere with sound during a live broadcast. The voice on the clip seems much more hushed than Samuel’s is on Lorraine, and the psychotherapist does not actually say the phrase heard in the clip during her interview – so the issue remains unsolved, for now.