Diluvian times and even earlier ones

There's only so much rain I can tolerate, and November's pushing its luck. There's very little about reigning and its accoutrements that don't strike me as Pythonesquely ridiculous. We happened upon footage of Queen Elizabeth opening the House of Parliament. It isn't as simple as appearing, pounding a gavel or swooping a scepter around, it's a seemingly endless series of inexplicable, even with narration, events. There's the Queen, being barged sedately along to a throne, wearing her purple-velveted crown; there are pages, in outfits that would have driven Foley wild if the US Congress's little helpers had worn them, all gold braid, posh fabrics, fancy-like; there are incomprehensible mentions of the Cap of Something or Other and the Sword of State - a sorting hat and corrective weapon? We'll never know; and there was a wellfed, redfaced older man they kept referring to as Black Rod, who was trundling along carrying, well, some kind of fancy-looking black rod, who was approaching the door to the House of Peers, I think it was, and the narrator informed us in hushed tones more suitable to a golf tournament that the door would be slammed in his face, ceremonially, of course. And so it was! He then pounded on the door with his black rod, and they opened it and out streamed the Peers. I thought some wizened suspicious face would peer out of the little brass-caged peep and demeand a password, but the door simply swung open. A very funny bit was when Black Rod informed the head Peer that the Queen was waiting to open the House, and the Peer fellow quipped," Is Helen Mirren standing by?"
Then off they went to meet the Queen, who nodded with great dignity - well, how else can a queen do anything? - and said, in her fruity voice, something like "Carry on," at which point I could not bear any more of this high hilarity. Last night we watched the end of "Prime Suspect 7", starring Helen Mirren, who, some ways along in the episode, had this exchange with one of her underling detectives:
He: "Well, you're my governor, mum."
She: "All right. And don't call me 'mum', I'm not the Queen!"