Well, it had to come. Someone like Kate Middleton is not going to stay single for long.

Yesterday she was pictured with an unknown chap in a pink shirt at — yes, you’ve guessed it — the Mahiki club, a favourite Royal wateringhole.

Attending the throng with the ubiquitous Guy Pelly, Kate was seen leaving with her mystery man, and clearly very happy about it too.

No doubt a name will emerge today and we’ll know whether Kate is serious or just having a laugh with us. He could, after all, just be a decoy.

But enough of conspiracy theories. We’ll wait on results.

The British public has voted massively for the Queen as “The Greatest Living Briton 2007″. The ITV show was broadcast live and viewers asked to vote for their choice. The awards ceremony was to celebrate British achievement.

The Queen at her Coronation in 1953

Her Majesty finished top of a list of other famous — but in some cases less worthy — Britons, including Sir Paul McCartney, Dame Julie Andrews, Baroness Thatcher and Robbie Williams.

The Queen wasn’t present to receive her accolade. Her son Prince Edward paid tribute via a video transmission.

Coincidentally, Dame Helen Mirren, who claimed an Oscar earlier this year for her portrayal of the Queen, took the top prize for the Greatest Briton in Film.

All round a good result for the Monarch who has been on the Throne for 55 years. It really puts the politicians to shame, doesn’t it.

Channel 4, a UK commerical television channel, is once again under fire over a programme it intends to screen on June 6.

Royal Anecdotes’ response to Diana death pictures

The item is a documentary, Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel, which contains graphic images of the crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales. Despite protests from a Conservative party spokesman, and pleas from Prince William and Prince Harry, the broadcaster has refused, so far, to pull the film from its schedules.

Last year the Princes took the unusual step of issuing an emotional statement expressing their disgust after an Italian magazine printed a paparazzi photograph of their mother’s death. The documentary is said to include images taken by French photographers immediately after Diana’s fatal car crash in Paris in August 1997, including one picture of Diana receiving oxygen from a French doctor.

The programme also features new interviews with photographers and other witnesses to the crash.

Channel 4 has recently been forced to apologise on air over the alleged racist treatment of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on its Big Brother reality show. On Thursday it will raise Royal hackles again with a documentary on Camilla, now Duchess of Cornwall, claiming that Prince Charles is determined to make her Queen.

Royal Anecdotes banned the photographs of Diana’s death when they were made available, publishing a black space instead (pictured).

As Royal Anecdotes speculated after their surprisingly amicable split in April, Prince William and Kate Middleton may have taken the step to give themselves some breathing space. A reconciliation may not be out of the question. Kate is pictured leaving her London home yesterday.

Now, according to the Sunday Express, the couple intend to spend a holiday together at the Prince’s Teapot Cottage on the Balmoral estate in August.

William is also due to accompany Kate to her cousin’s wedding on July 21. A friend says, “Kate and William will be going to the event together. The plan for the day was agreed before they split up and William is determined he will still go with Kate. He wants to honour that commitment.”

The source added, “[They] still speak all the time and are on very good terms”.

We also hear that friends are revealing they could well rekindle their romance at some date in the future.

A relationship psychologist is reported as saying, “There is no doubt that William and Kate were extremely close for a long time and you don’t turn something like that off like a dripping tap. Kate has not let any upset show since her split. If she wants him back, she is going about it perfectly.”

Is this another of Prince William’s famous “smokescreens”? Could the golden couple still walk down the aisle together, having confounded the media publicity machines and bought themselves some peace mid-term in their relationship?

How clever is that — if true?