TV review A more combative Dimbleby debates royal power

Settling down in front of David Dimbleby's new three-parter and looking at that title, you wonder why the question it asks is not debated more often.

- Jack Seale

Dimbleby himself has trailed the series by worrying aloud that as a BBC staffer he was part of an organisation that didn't challenge the monarchy robustly enough. But retirement means the shackles he wore when he was the corporation's top politics presenter have been loosened.

The opening episode cleaves closest to the titular question - parts two and three are more like "Is the Monarchy a Giant Ponzi Scheme?" and "Are the Monarchy Personally Repellent?" - with its theme of how much power the monarchy has and how it wields it.

Much of the hour is spent trying to ascertain whether King Charles influences government policy by advocating for his own beliefs. He certainly has politicians' ears: the prime minister takes a weekly trip to Buckingham Palace for an in-person chat, while nobody interviewed here denies that letters from the king - he is a prolific epistolarian - are placed at the top of the relevant minister's pile.

David Cameron says he appreciated going to see Queen Elizabeth every week when he was PM, it being a chance to clarify his thoughts by rehearsing them in front of a well-briefed listener who could be relied on not to blab to the media. It was therapeutic. But is the monarch's access to top politicians democratic?