Country laugh

This probably won’t go down too well with the Diana Forever fandom, but I need to confess something about her nemesis, Camilla.

By the end of Camilla’s Country Life on ITV on Wednesday night, I was beginning to warm to her.

Not in an “I’m going to camp in the Mall for a week to get a good view at her old man’s coronation” kind of way.

It was more of an “if we’re going to have to put up with these freeloaders, I’d prefer it if they were all like her” vibe.

It helped that she received the seal of approval from Paul O’Grady, a wise man who doesn’t tend to suffer fools.

It also helped that she turned what sounded like the most boring documentary

idea ever – royal edits issue of Country Life magazine – into a very passable hour of television. I mean, as with almost all documentaries the royals agree to take part in these days, certainly since annus Maitlis, it was very much a PR exercise.

Lots of great works for charidee, lots of pals saying how fab she is, lots of ordinary mortals saying how down-to-earth she is…

However, I don’t mind the hard sell if there’s entertainment to be had. And Camilla certainly provided that. She struck me as a great laugh who’d be the life and soul of any party. Put it this way, had Camilla been at Wimbledon last Sunday, you might have forgiven the BBC director if they’d cut to the Royal Box when Nick Kyrgios alerted the umpire to a chatty woman “who looks like she’s had about 700 drinks, bro”. My favourite bit in this documentary – apart from the stone-cold revelation that she once revenge-buried her sister’s teddy bear and refused to give up its location – was the news that Camilla likes to collect royal mugs. Ones that you drink from, that is. Not ones that you marry. PS: Is Country Life’s Mark Hedges the most aptly named magazine editor in the UK? Please tell me he has an assistant called Mo Lawns.

NB. Re: Channel 4’s Paul Hollywood Eats Mexico. I’m afraid the straining motorbike leathers suggested our hero may have taken a few nibbles out of America and Brazil as well. Great show though, Paul.

‘‘ Camilla would be the life and soul of any party