Pomp and pageantry as royal family takes stage

Even Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has trouble in securing the top media spot in the UK as the country's longest-serving monarch celebrated her official birthday.

Saturday marked Queen Elizabeth's official birthday, timed to coincide with the better weather of May and June. The 90-year-old monarch's real birthday falls on April 21, the date on which she was born in 1926.

However, the day of birthday celebration kicked off with a televised funeral, when BBC and Sky News broadcast live coverage of the long memorial service for American boxer Muhammad Ali, marking his contribution to peace and love across the Atlantic.