Overview
- The BBC has released a three‑part documentary, What's the Monarchy for?, presented by David Dimbleby after two years of research and production.
- Dimbleby speaks with historians, palace press officers, government advisers, the anti‑monarchy group Republic, and politicians including Jacob Rees‑Mogg and former prime minister David Cameron.
- The series revisits Prince Charles’s private letters to ministers and the influence of weekly prime ministerial audiences, framing any royal sway as informal rather than legislative.
- It re‑examines the 2019 prorogation of Parliament, later ruled unlawful by the UK Supreme Court, to question the limits of constitutional power vested in the sovereign.
- The programme contends the monarchy’s contemporary leverage is diplomatic and ceremonial, and coverage notes the royal family has not directly engaged with the fresh critiques.