Queen Elizabeth II’s rare address to the British public and the Commonwealth became one of the UK’s most-watched TV events of the past decade after 24M tuned in to watch Her Majesty.

In a nod to families and friends being kept apart by coronavirus, the Queen’s speech included the emotive line that “we will meet again,” evoking memories of Dame Vera Lynn’s World War II song We’ll Meet Again. She also called for “self-discipline” and “good-humoured resolve” during the pandemic.

The five-minute address was seen by 24M across BBC One, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky One, BBC News and Sky News at 8PM on Sunday evening, according to BARB ratings supplied by overnights.tv.

The majority of this audience (14M to be precise) watched on BBC One, and it does not include those watching online or other countries, including the U.S. where the Queen’s message was shown by most major news networks and BBC America.

The 24M viewers means it sits just behind the TV crowds that watched the Opening and Closing ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympics (24.2M and 24.5M respectively). It was not enough, however, to match Boris Johnson’s address to the nation two weeks ago, when 28M watched the prime minister put the country into lockdown.