An impressive memorial to the Queen Mother was unveiled by the Queen today on The Mall, directly before and below the statue of her husband, King George VI.

The Queen was accompanied by her children and grandchildren, the Prince of Wales with the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne, Princes William and Harry, and the Duke of York with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

Prince Charles gave a dignified personal tribute to his grandmother, to whom he was particularly close.

“At long last my grandparents are reunited in this joint symbol which, in particular, reminds us of all they stood for, and meant to so many, during the darkest hours this country has ever faced.

“All of us gathered here today will, I know, miss my darling grandmother’s vitality, her interest in the lives of others, her unbounded courage and determination that allowed her — incredibly — to continue her official life to the age of nearly 102; her perceptive wisdom, her calm in the face of all adversities, her steadfast belief in the British people and, above all, her irresistible, irrepressible sense of mischievous humour. How blessed we were to have known her and her generosity of spirit.”

It was the kind of occasion that put last night’s Channel 4 documentary, The Problem Princes in perspective.

For readers in the UK, there’s a new documentary airing tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.

Dispatches: The Problem Princes in which the slightly leftwing reporter and newscaster Alex Thomson examines “what the future holds for Prince William, and how the activities of the Princes are shaping the modern Monarchy that he will one day inherit”.

It also promises a look at their love lives, finances and their military training. As a bonus, it asks what lessons uncles Andrew and Edward can offer.

They seem to have spent some money on it and done a good dig around. No doubt the usual C4 coolness to the Royal Family will figure in the show, but Thomson may just winkle out new information on the Kate Middleton cloak of invisibility.

For all our North American friends, this is sure to make it onto YouTube. In any case, I’ll report back on it tomorrow.

Update: In the end the show was just another C4 trashfest dominated by republican talking heads who have never had a good word for the Monarchy in their lives. Total biased rubbish. Channel 4 should have its public-service remit withdrawn.

I’m afraid the slow news month for the Royal Family continues into another.

Prince Harry learns to fly

Prince William and Prince Harry are away learning to fly helicopters and their girlfriends have gone to ground. Chelsy Davy has broken off her relationship with Harry, while Kate Middleton seems to have popped into a black hole … again.

We hear that Harry has failed the first written test on his flying course and is receiving special tuition from his officers.

Lord “Freddie” Windsor has become engaged to Sophie Winkleman and will marry in September. Sophie played the irascible Princess Eleanor in The Palace, an irreverent, and almost unwatchable, ITV drama about a fictional British Royal Family, which appeared too close for comfort to the present one.

The Queen will soon have two Sophies to contend with: Sophie Wessex and Sophie Windsor.

A source said, “The first thing on the agenda is to get the parents to meet as they have not had the chance so far. Princess Michael is currently in South Africa but they’ll arrange a meeting as soon as she returns. Everybody is thrilled.”

Sophie’s father is Barry Winkleman, a publisher, and her mother, Cynthia Black, is a children’s author.

Prince Philip took a fall while carriage driving recently, suffering a badly strained back and knocks to his eyes and nose. Typically, he bounced back quickly and has resumed his busy engagement round.

Let us hope the Depression has not stifled all the activities of the Royals and those around them.

Tonight Channel 4 broadcast an explosive documentary about Prince William and Prince Harry.

Typically for Channel 4 it covered a lot of “toff” activities, like hunting and polo in a deliberately disparaging way, and hyped up every glitch and problem that the Princes endured in their youth.

More interesting were journalist Richard Kay, who was close to their mother Diana, and James Whitaker, the Mirror photographer and lately pundit on all things Royal.

Richard Kay suggested that William is using Kate Middleton as a kind of decoy to cover his other activities. Both Princes, he said, are reluctant Royals who don’t want to do the job.

Whitaker also pursued this line, saying that their decisions to continue in the military “were extraordinary” and indicated they were turning their back on Royal duties and, by implication, marriage.

William does not come out of this very well. We hear that Diana referred to Harry as King Henry because she felt he would be more able to handle the role.

Chelsy Davy’s recent split from Harry was spliced onto the end of the tape, but carried the same message: the Princes are not interested in settling down, and both girls now seem to be aware of that.

Royal Anecdotes has known this for some time, as regulars will know, but the most astonishing assertion, made by Richard Kay, is that Kate is a decoy for William’s private activities.

No doubt a lot of flak will be generated by this documentary, and by the main interviews in particular, so we will await the outcome without commenting further for the time being.

(Overseas readers may be able to watch it on the Catchup service under the title “What happened next”.)