Harsh truths about fairytale weddings and other flights of fancy
Most children dream of marrying a prince or a princess, don't they, living out their bedtime stories for real? I know I did. I was going to be doing something amazing, like rescuing a baby from a troll (the under-the-bridge-variety; this was pre-internet). Then this beautiful princess would just happen to be passing, and instantly fall in love with me. Back of the net.
The girls in First Cut: Marrying Prince Harry (Channel 4) have taken the dream one step further, and have transferred their affections from the princes of their bedtime story books to the real-life third in line to the throne. Well, one and two are both taken, I guess. And Harry is more fun. Come on, his best mate is Usain Bolt.
So they cut his picture out of magazines, they follow him around on the internet, and sometimes – if they've saved up enough pocket money – they'll turn up to at some charity event he's going be at, and they'll shout "Harry! Harry!" from a safe distance.
They'll grow out of it, I think. Posh Flora from Dulwich and less posh Joy from Chingford seem far too sensible not to redirect their attention towards a boyband soon. I'd be a bit more worried about Cassandra and Whitney who have come all the way from Iowa to the King's Road, hoping Harry will walk out of Peter Jones. "Hi girls, from the midwest, are you? Brilliant, don't suppose one of you wants to marry me, do you?"
Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past (BBC2) has nothing to do with Samantha (Brick), I'm afraid; it's about the painstaking reconstruction of an aviation factory building in Hendon. Oh, nice, though perhaps not the most exciting building. There's a good story about early 20th-century flying that comes with it, though, and a colourful character in aviation pioneer Claude Grahame-White. Two colourful characters, if you include presenter Dan Cruickshank, who takes bouncy gasping enthusiasm to a whole new level. Sometimes I think he's going to explode.