Sitting pretty: the Queen on her throne. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP
Nancy Banks-Smith writes about parallel lives in her review of last night's telly. Due to doubtless treasonable incompetence at the BBC, she didn't manage to see the first part a series that captures the absurdity of a parallel universe inhabited by a small band of people who look like us and even sound like some of us but who definitely don't live in the same world as the rest of us. Watching The Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work last night, I was struck not by how jolly and splendid it all is, nor by what was probably described in the press material for the series as "unprecedented access" to Her Maj. No, I was struck by the tremendous amount of profligate fuss that surrounds her.
If we really cared about things like carbon footprints and wasteful expenditure, this series should have people marching in the streets calling for the end - or at least the massive scaling-down - of the monarchy. How much money was spent on the two months of preparation the people of Williamsburg, Virginia, put into her 45-minute visit?
And the scenes of preparation at the hotel Her Maj and the duke were to stay in were breathtaking. You can forgive them wanting to give her a new loo seat in her suite; after all, nobody really likes the thought of the number of bottoms that have, er, gone before one in a hotel room. New towels, too. But the revelation that the new towels and sheets had been washed four times before being placed in the suite took my breath away. That's the last time I say "yup, in response to that plea on the hotel bathroom door, I'll use my towels again tomorrow". To hell with that, I want clean towels - not new, not four-times-washed, just clean will do - every day next time I'm in a hotel.
Multi-car motorcades, aircraft: does the royal family have no grasp of the concept of the carbon footprint? It would be a disgrace if the whole notion of a state visit to the US were not such a comedy with its agonising over which china to use and tags showing on the towels.
It is quite revealing to have a look at the world the Queen inhabits. I can't think it would be much fun to live in a world where you have to sit through interminable dinners and speeches and talk to people who can only make inane small talk. That said, a new loo seat everywhere I go might be nice.
