The Queen’s Green Planet
ITV, 9.00PM
Continuing its fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship with the Royal family, ITV presents this documentary – a low-key charmer which showcases an important global project while also capturing the Queen at probably her most relaxed and informal on camera in quite some time. That is in no small part thanks to the presence of David Attenborough, who narrates the film and accompanies her on a turn around Buckingham Palace gardens. It is a pleasure to see these two formidable public figures, neither prone to suffering fools, grumbling about health and safety, and making each other laugh.
The scheme in question was the brainchild of Labour MP Frank Field, who grew so exasperated at the lack of political interest in conserving the planet’s resources that he approached the monarch to lend her support instead. The Queen’s Canopy is aimed at encouraging Commonwealth countries to plant protected forests. Over 30 have signed up to date, and while the Queen can’t do the globetrotting promotional work herself these days, her grandsons and, slightly incongruously, Angelina Jolie all talk about their active involvement in tree planting from Namibia to Canada. Gabriel Tate