THE royal wedding may be the first in modern times not to be televised after objections from Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In a blow to the Prince of Wales’s desire to gain wider acceptance for his marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, insiders admitted the public may not even see news clips of the church service.

The Queen, who is also thought to harbour doubts over a broadcast ceremony, will make a decision this week. St George’s Chapel, Windsor, the venue for the service of prayer and dedication, is subject to her personal jurisdiction.

It has been agreed that the civil ceremony, to be held in the Guildhall at Windsor, will not be broadcast. Informed sources conceded this weekend the prospect of live or recorded coverage of the St George’s service was no better than “50-50”.

Williams believes that allowing cameras in would invite comparisons with the 1981 royal wedding of Charles and Diana in St Paul’s Cathedral.

A royal insider disclosed the archbishop’s fears, saying: “He is set against the televising of the ceremony. There are particular sensitivities around the marriage within the church.”

Charles is reported to be dismayed by the blunders which have disrupted his wedding plans and, according to new claims, believes he is being punished by the public for his affair with Parker Bowles.

According to a book by Gavin Hewitt, the BBC correspondent, the prince complained privately to him that he was being “tortured” by the public over his relationship. “I thought the British people were supposed to be compassionate. I don’t see much of it,” he is reported to have said.

Hewitt also alleges that the prince told him at the British ambassador’s residence in Bulgaria in 1998 that he felt his private life had become “an industry”.

“All my life, people have been telling me what to do. I’m tired of it. My private life has become an industry. People are making money out of it,” he is reported to have said.

For Charles, though, the broadcast of his marriage was to be an opportunity finally to gain public acceptance for the woman who has replaced Diana in his life.

A failure to follow the pattern set by the weddings of all of the Queen’s children, including Princess Anne’s second marriage, would be interpreted as a lack of acceptance of Parker Bowles.

Charles’s first wedding in 1981 drew a British audience of 28.4m and an estimated worldwide audience of 800m. Princess Anne’s first marriage, to Mark Phillips, drew 27.8m viewers in Britain, while the Duke and Duchess of York’s attracted 20.5m. Even the second wedding of the Princess Royal to Timothy Laurence in 1992 was shown in extended news clips.

One source close to the discussions said that Charles had already secured as many concessions as he could hope for from the church. Seeking to parade his marriage to a fellow divorcee could push that beyond breaking point.

The archbishop’s concern is that if the wedding is televised it could endanger the delicate compromise engineered to secure the church’s blessing. Williams has been fighting to maintain unity in the Anglican communion, and officials are conscious that images of Williams ministering to the divorced couple might antagonise the church in Africa, the West Indies and Asia.

It is understood that the dean and chapter of Windsor support Williams. They are still deliberating on music, with one option being a single anthem and a single hymn during the 20-minute service.

A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said: “The Queen is still to make a decision on the broadcasting or televising of the service in St George’s chapel.”

It also emerged this weekend that the legal solution devised by Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, to overcome the bar to royals having a civil marriage could be used to challenge the 300-year-old acts that ban Catholic monarchs in Britain and give the right of succession to male heirs.

Professor David Feldman of Cambridge University, an authority on constitutional affairs, said the Human Rights Act, which Falconer invoked, could be used to challenge the constitutional foundation stones of the monarchy.

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