The best laid plans of mice and men — and Princes and their glitzy girlfriends it seems — often come to nought. Prince Harry’s hopes of slipping away occasionally from his army camp for trysts with Chelsy Davy, have been dashed by Army top brass.

The Prince, now a Second Lieutenant in the Household Cavalry, is starting a four-month course today at Bovington Camp, Dorset. The training will teach him everything there is to know about commanding an 11-man Scimitar armoured vehicle. He will also learn surveillance skills and stealth tactics.

However, Harry has wanted to rent a cottage nearby in Lulworth village where he could spend time with Chelsy. A senior regimental source is quoted: “Harry has been making enquiries about renting a cottage for him and Chelsy, to provide a secluded love nest … but when the top brass heard of it, they had a word in Harry’s ear and told him he should stay inside the camp — in the interests of group morale and his own security.”

Clarence House said: “Harry is a committed member of the Armed Forces. He will be living at Bovington.”

Is Harry destined to be the Princess Margaret of his generation, a younger sibling prevented from marrying his first choice because of unsuitability factors? Now that could really send him off the rails.

Royal sources are saying that a date has been pencilled in for the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton “next spring or early summer”.

Last night a spokeman for Clarence House refused to comment.

The UK Mail on Sunday is reporting that Kate has had a series of private meetings with the Queen and that she has been given an induction course in how to be a member of the Royal family. Her unofficial media training has included watching footage of the late Princess Diana.

All this sounds like serious business at the Palace which would not allow such stories into the public domain unrebutted if they were not true.

Stand by for a major Royal wedding unmatched since Charles and Diana in 1981.

Princes Charles, William and Harry have given a TV interview at Highgrove to mark the 30th birthday of the Prince of Wales’s Prince’s Trust.

We might have expected a high-profile interviewer. After all, the Prince gave a one-hour tour of his thoughts to ITN’s Trevor McDonald only a few days ago. But Jeremy Paxman it was not.

Who then? Ant and Dec, a couple of children’s presenters, recently promoted to the giddy heights of reality TV. So what did we get out of it?

Princes William and Harry reveal that they adore “trash TV”. Examples: Friends and Pop Idol. They also fight with their father over the television remote control.

William claimed to be a star in the kitchen. “I’ve done a bit at university when I had to feed my flatmates, which was quite hard work because a couple of them ate quite a lot,’ he said.

On their musical tastes, not surprisingly there’s a big generation gap. Just as the two boys look set to praise rap, their father interjects: “I tell you who I also think is wonderful is a chap called Leonard Cohen … do you know him? … he’s remarkable. I mean, the orchestration is fantastic and the words, the lyrics and everything, he’s a remarkable man, and has this incredibly sort of laid back gravelly voice, it’s terrific stuff.”

William points at his brother and comments: “Actually I’d say his taste was pretty shocking, but mine was very good.”

The interview was was filmed two weeks ago while William and Harry, both Army officers, were on leave from Sandhurst.

If you’re in the UK, you can watch “The Prince’s Trust 30th Birthday — Live” on ITV at 6.55pm tomorrow. An extended version of the Princes’ interview will also be shown on Sunday at 12.45pm.

Prince Andrew has a female devotee who is fixated on him, says the Royal Protection Squad.

The woman, who turns up at various functions pretending to be a reporter, changes her hair colour to avoid detection.

The stalker came to light when Annette Walker, 44, a genuine reporter with the Whalfedale and Airedale Observer was hauled in to have her credentials checked: “I was told I bore an uncanny resemblance to a female devotee of the Prince who follows him around the country, pretending to be a reporter to get closer to him,” she said.

The reporter was escorted into a room at Leeds-Bradford airport and checked against a sheet of photographs of the stalker. “In one photo she had dark hair and in another red curly hair.”

The Prince’s spokeswoman said they became aware of the unnamed woman two years ago when she pretended to be a member of the Royal party. “She was a little fixated on him. We don’t like to talk about these matters as it only encourages similar instances.”

When Prince Andrew was a dashing young naval officer he might have taken a different course, we suspect.