Why Charles, Wills and George will be writing a lot of telegrams

Sir DaviD attenborough, 91, is looking forward to his 100th birthday, he confided yesterday as he promoted his latest wildlife spectacular, Blue Planet ii.

Every telly fan will be delighted to wish the world’s Greatest Living Broadcaster many happy returns. But there’ll be nothing very surprising about living to be 100-not-out in decades to come, as a Panorama special revealed.

Life At 100 (BBC1) suggested one in three babies born this year are expected to see their 100th birthdays — a figure that is both thrilling and alarming. any baby born today would do well to start a pension plan straight away. They’re going to need it.

Presenter Joan Bakewell, herself a youthful 84, had all the statistics at her fingertips.

in 1917, when George v began the custom of sending telegrams of congratulation to 100- year- old subjects, there were 24 recipients in Britain.

Today, there are nearly 15,000 centenarians — but by 2050, there could be around 190,000.

it doesn’t require much imagination to realise that hospitals, care homes and pension funds will all struggle to cope.

This Panorama special didn’t dodge those looming problems, but it managed not to wallow in

Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents (BBC2) told how the Virgin Queen had portraits of herself printed for sale to loyal subjects. If only she’d thought of doing teatowels, she could have invented the gift shop.

worries either. The programme was gentle rather than trenchant.

its overwhelming message was that Britain’s oldies are a wonderful bunch and, as Esther rantzen wrote in yesterday’s Mail, we’re lucky to have them.

Take Diana, who is 105 and was once an haute couture seamstress. She keeps her body active by playing with a diablo, a sort of spinning top on a string. rolling up her sleeve, she proudly showed off her biceps.

and there was George, a former tax inspector with a gift for watercolours: at the tax office he used to send out little paintings with the tax demands.

When Gladys, his wife of 68 years died, he filled a book with his memories and illustrated it with 95 paintings, including one of her aged 16 — pretty as a picture in her blue dress and white cotton cap. ‘When we first met, i couldn’t believe me luck,’ George chuckled.

But old age doesn’t come alone and some of these stories had bitterly sad endings.

anne Olivier Bell, a writer who edited virginia Woolf’s diaries, had almost lost the power of speech after a series of strokes.

Now the costs of her care were draining her savings, and eating into the money she had hoped to leave to her children.

and 102-year-old Margaret was struggling to cope with caring for her beloved son, richard.

He had always lived at home but, now that he was dying from cancer, her brave wish was: ‘i should rather i put him to rest while i’m here than i should leave him behind.’

richard died in a hospice a few weeks later. Margaret’s dignity in her loss was as moving as anything you will see on television this year.

Compared with this, Piers Morgan’s Life Stories (iTv) was so trivial as to be irrelevant. The interview with Kim Cattrall, in front of a studio audience, was efficient enough, but it might as well have been a press release.

‘ You are one of the most acclaimed actresses in the world,’ Piers Morgan told her.

Even Kim looked like she knew this was flim-flam to flatter her ego. She responded with well-rehearsed anecdotes and evasions, and a hefty dig at her former co- star Sarah Jessica Parker: ‘i just wish that Sarah had been nicer.’

We learned that Kim won’t make more Sex and The City films, or marry again. But really, who cares?

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