The romance film of the decade may have been inspired by two strangers who met while waiting in line for more than 12 hours to pay their respects to the Queen.
Jack and Zoe, two mourners waiting in line to see Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Hall on Saturday (17 September), were interviewed by Channel 4 News.
The two people seemed to hit it off while waiting in line together. They claimed to have been waiting in the public queue since 10:30 p.m. on Friday night.
They got along so well that on Monday they planned to watch the Queen’s funeral together (19 September).
“We’ve been with each other throughout the whole thing,” Jack told newscaster Minnie Stephenson. It turns out that we have a lot in common.
When asked if they would keep in touch, Zoe added, “Yeah, 100 per cent.”
Jack continued, “We’re going to the funeral on Monday together.”
When Zoe was “sharing stories, having laughs, and… good chat” with Jack in the line, the time flew by, she said.
Twitter users were quick to draw parallels between the couple’s meeting and a romantic comedy, with some even joking that the director of such classics as Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral, Richard Curtis, was already on the case.
I think it’s safe to assume that everyone is aware that Richard Curtis has been working on #TheQueue for the past few days… “It could now be ‘based on a true story,'” one person speculated.
A second source stated, “David Beckham will make a cameo appearance in the Richard Curtis romantic comedy The Queue, set to release at the tail end of 2023. I feel the need to forewarn you.
Puns involving the word “queue,” such as “meet-queue-t” and “queue-pid,” sprang up in response to Jack and Zoe’s encounter.
One commenter said, “I love meeting people like this. They bring a little sunshine into a very dark time.” After being locked up for two years in isolation, having other people around is crucial. What a wonderful way to bond!
One more voiced their hope that love would blossom between strangers waiting in line. If that happens, I hope the best for that couple. “I’m such a hopeless romantic!”
At the time of this writing, the government’s live tracker of the lying-in-state queue estimated that mourners joining it would have to wait 13.5 hours before they reached Westminster Hall.
The queue will close well before Monday morning’s end of the late Queen’s lying-in-state at 6.30am, its organisers have warned, so mourners won’t be able to join it too late and miss the procession into Westminster Hall.
Beginning at 11 a.m., people all over the country will observe a moment of silence before the service begins. At 12:15 a.m., the Queen’s funeral procession will set off from Westminster Abbey and make its way through the streets of London en route to St. George’s Chapel in Windsor.
Find here the most recent information about the aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing.