CONCERT FOR THE QUEEN BIGGEST SHOW OF 2012 IN U.K.

TV coverage of the first day of 86-year-old Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Sunday may have been blasted by numerous commentators, but the second day — featuring a memorable pop music concert at Buckingham Palace — received mostly praise, with several writers noting that the absence of 91-year-old Prince Phillip from the affair (he was hospitalized for a bladder infection) added a touch of poignancy to the proceedings. (It also gave some writers an opportunity to include a bit of British indignation in their reports. Noting that the entire affair on Monday was held in cold weather under rainy skies, the Daily Mail remarked that for four hours, the royal couple stood on the Royal Barge waving at spectators, not once sitting down and all the time heading into a sharp wind, with a contingent of photographers focusing their cameras on them continually. “This was an event timed almost to the minute. It must have occurred to palace advisers that for this couple of such great age to spend the entire time on their feet was at least unwise and at worst, foolish,” the Mail said.) The televised concert featured stars from each of the queen’s six decades on the throne, followed by a massive fireworks display over Buckingham Palace. Early ratings indicate that it drew 14.7 million viewers, or 57.4 percent of the entire British television audience, peaking with 17 million/65.4 percent, the highest-rated program to air on British television this year, according to a BBC spokeswoman.