What happens when the Queen dies? UNDER INVESTIGATION with LIZ HAYES returns tonight on Nine

“The Queen is dead, long live the King” will be the words uttered first in secrecy, then eventually echoed across a nation, at the instant Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passes.

The code London Bridge Is Down will be transmitted to select and senior members of the UK Government and its agencies – and so will begin one of the most carefully-orchestrated royal successions in the history of any monarchy.

And who has been the prime architect, not only of the succession – but the funeral of Elizabeth II, that will pause the world? The Queen herself.

She’s commanded the throne longer that eighty per cent of her subjects have been alive and many ask whether the monarchy can survive her passing.

Under Investigation investigates The Crown in a post-Elizabeth world… from the first moments, and “Operation London Bridge” to the coming reign of King Charles III, and the roles that will be played – or not – by the members of his often-troublesome family.

Will the Commonwealth remain intact… will Australia regather the reins of republicanism? Wither goes the House of Windsor when the Queen is gone?

Special guests at the War Table

London

• Ingrid Seward: Editor-in-Chief of Majesty Magazine, Royal confidante, and biographer
• Geoffrey Robertson: AO, QC. A human rights barrister, academic, author and broadcaster
• Norman Baker: Former Liberal Democrat Member of British Parliament

Melbourne

• Jeff Kennett AC: Media commentator and former Victorian Premier

Sydney

• Dr Cindy McCreery: Cultural Historian and Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Sydney. An expert in the rules that even the Queen must live by, and the history of the Royal family.
• Professor Dennis Altman AM: Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at La Trobe University, pioneering gay rights activist and avowed republican who has become strangely attracted to monarchies. He has written a book: “God Save the Queen: The Strange Persistence of Monarchies” – and his academic research has uncovered the fact that constitutional monarchies are richer and more stable than republics or other forms of government.

UNDER INVESTIGATION “OPERATION LONDON BRIDGE” – SEASON 3, EPISODE 1: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 AT 9.00PM ON NINE AND 9NOW