Review: The Diamond Queen, BBC1 (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Review: The Diamond Queen, BBC1

2:53pm Friday 24th February 2012 in Television reviews By John Anson, Features editor

OVER the coming weeks and months our TV screens are going to be filled with hours of programmes devoted to the Queen’s 60 years on the throne.

But, to be honest, they are all wasting their time.

For the definitive series finished this week, demonstrating the kind of quality that still makes the Beeb the best broadcaster in the world when it wants to be.

It helps that The Diamond Queen, fronted by Andrew Marr, had the kind of access which most presenters can only dream of.

Presidential visits, garden parties and banquets, the cameras were there recording everything and for the first time virtually every member of the royal family was interviewed.

Whether you are a royalist or not, you cannot fail to be impressed by the work of the Royal Family.

Now well in her eighties, the Queen can never retire.

The almost daily demands on her family will never go away.

Sure she has palaces to live in and Rolls-Royces to drive around in but, to be honest, given the workload, who can begrudge it?

It’s all too easy to cite the monarchy as being an expensive, historical anomaly.

But, as The Diamond Queen demonstrated, its value in terms of diplomacy and commerce is incalculable.

Plus, to all the critics, would you honestly want the job? I very much doubt it.

Comments are closed on this article.