To the extent that we in Ireland think about the British royals – we rarely do – the genuine deference shown to the monarchy by its subjects is a source of profound bafflement.
That incomprehension will not be made better by What’s the Monarchy For, BBC veteran David Dimbleby’s enjoyable but rambling survey of the British crown and what purpose it does and doesn’t serve in 2025. Ultimately, there can be only one takeaway: thank goodness they are saddled with this arcane institution while we are not. It’s a free shot of smugness, served piping hot like cocoa, just before bedtime.
There is a significant Irish component in this first of three episodes, as former president Mary McAleese recalls Queen Elizabeth’s May 2011 visit to Ireland. McAleese talks about the historical significance of the trip – and about the allure of monarchy, which continues to fascinate people globally.
That attraction is especially potent in the US, where Donald Trump was recently rendered speechless when UK prime minister Keir Starmer pulled from his pocket an invitation for a state visit from King Charles. Trump was lost for words: he might as well have bagged a golden ticket from Willy Wonka or a seat in the Hogan Stand on All-Ireland Sunday.
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“An elected president has a lot of influence at home,” says McAleese. “In the world we live in, kings and queens still hold the Hello magazine spot when it comes to celebrity. It is history, isn’t it? We still have the big overhang of colony and empire, power and majesty. There is still a kind of mystique there.”
She’s absolutely right, though it can be argued that this allure is not confined to the former Saxe-Coburgs nor to Britain. A century on from their downfall, we are still absorbed by the Habsburgs and the Romanovs. Similarly, the long-defunct Continental monarchy – all those French counts and Prussian junkers – are as romanticised as their British equivalents. Stick someone in a fancy suit and give them a title that sounds a bit like something from Game of Thrones, and half the world swoons.
The rest of the film is less interesting from an Irish perspective. Dimbleby – remarkably spry at 87 – considers King Charles’s past life as a busybody penner of letters about architecture and shrubbery, which would invariably and immediately make their way to the top of a ministerial dispatch box. He also wonders about the tête-à-têtes between the UK prime minister and the queen and is baffled by former PMs’ reticence to reveal the contents of those conversations.
If they were merely exchanging platitudes, why the secrecy? If they were talking policy, surely voters have a right to know?
His sounding board for these questions is a rotating cast of grandees, including Captain Brexit himself, David Cameron, and weaponised Bertie Wooster, William Rees-Mogg. As these ridiculous figures flap and fawn over the British royal family, you can’t help but think, better them than us.
