The Prince of Wales, we’re told, is determined to do things differently to his father. In What’s the Monarchy For? (BBC One), David Dimbleby shows us that he too would like to be seen in a different light to his own dear papa, the late BBC journalist Richard Dimbleby. “My father was once called the high priest of the monarchy cult,” says Dimbleby in his erudite but determined three-part savaging of the British Royal family. Is the BBC, he wonders, the temple of that cult? If so, Dimbleby Jr will no longer be an acolyte.
Over three episodes, Dimbleby conducts what he has called his “audit” of the Royal family, looking at their power and influence, their financial affairs and their image control. While he asks many reasonable questions, and balance is achieved via a spectrum of high-calibre interviewees, his scathing tone is only interrupted by moments of incredulity. He appears so discomfited by the BBC’s close working relationship with the monarchy that the whole series comes across as a mea culpa. Dimbleby questions everything – the purpose of the monarchy, the purpose of the BBC, the purpose of himself.
There is an impertinence to the series that would surely not have seen the light of day – and certainly not on the BBC – when Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne. Three hours of hard-nosed, sceptical questioning of the Royal family, on primetime BBC One no less, suggests a loosening of deference from the corporation towards the monarchy in the new Carolean era. That it comes from the man who has been the voice of so much of the BBC’s royal coverage for so many decades, who commentated on the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, and came out of retirement to cover the late Queen’s funeral, only adds to the sense of an altered stance. The Palace will feel under siege from W1A.
