The British monarchy is in a beleaguered condition. With the death of the Duke of Edinburgh it has lost its most robust exponent. All commentary on the royal family is conducted against a distracting background noise of shrill solipsistic denunciations, beamed from America by the Sussex duo. The BBC interview with the Duke of York, conducted by Emily Maitlis, was a disaster for the royal family. So, long before that, in 1995, was Martin Bashir’s BBC Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, secured by fraudulent means, which resulted in the wife of the heir to the throne and mother of the eventual heir confessing on television to adultery.