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CU PAN down from religious portrait to altar.
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SV Franco's wife and daughter in church
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CU Mourners and priest during prayers (4 shots).
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GV Franco lying in Coffin.
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The body of the Spanish Head of State, General Franco, was lying in state in Madrid's Oriente Palace on Friday (21 November) as preparations went ahead for his funeral and the swearing-in of his chosen successor, Prince Juan Carlos, as King of Spain.

Thousand of Spaniards, muffled in warm clothes, queued to pay their last respects to the man who had ruled Spain with an iron hand for the past forty years. Many carried souvenir copies of magazines and newspaper supplements recounting General Franco's career. They crossed themselves as they paused briefly in front of the open coffin holding the body of Franco, dressed in the full uniform of Captain-General, Spain's highest military rank.

General Franco died on Thursday (20 November), aged 82 after a series of illnesses. He is to be buried on Sunday in the Basilica of the grandiose monument to spain's civil war dead - the Valley of the Fallen.

The day before the funeral service, 37-year-old Prince Juan Carlos will be sworn in as King of Spain. As he prepares to assume command of a Spain that has known only one ruler since the end of the Civil War in 1939, opposition voices began calling for and end to the authoritarian regime General Franco bequeathed to his people.

Not all people mourned Franco's death. In France thousands of Spanish Basques danced in the streets and drank toasts of champagne. About half a million refugees settled in France at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939.