TV review: The Prince and the Plotter

By Jeremy Clay

Like all good do’s, the investiture of Prince Charles went off with a bang. Twenty-two bangs, in fact – one more than expected.

Just before the traditional 21-gun salute, there was an extra blast. It was the one the security forces dreaded: a bomb, set by Welsh terrorists.

Yup, Welsh terrorists. Nope, me neither.

The Prince and The Plotter (8.30pm, BBC2, Saturday) told a fascinating tale of a moment in time that’s either little-known or largely forgotten.

It was the story of a small cell of Welshmen nursing grudges against the English which dated back centuries. With the eyes of the world on Caernarfon Castle in July 1969, when Charles would be made Prince of Wales, they decided to hijack the ceremony.

The night before the investiture, two nationalists who had spent the night drinking and playing darts staggered off to set a bomb by the railway line on the route of the Royal train.

It detonated prematurely, blowing them to smithereens.

“An old woman found a human hand in her bed, blown in through her window,” said presenter Huw Edwards, gravely.

He was pretty much born to deliver grave sentences, was Huw.

He could ask for a Curly-Wurly, and it would still sound like he was announcing an Earth-bound asteroid. But he had an unexpectedly sardonic tone here.

Curiously, he seemed more Welsh than usual too, relishing every upward lilt and dramatic downward drop of the word Caernarfon.

On the actual day of the investiture, that bomb went off as the Prince headed for the castle.

“What was that?” said Charles, in the ceremonial carriage. “Um, the Royal salute,” lied his escort, the Welsh MP George Thomas. “Peculiar sort of Royal salute,” mused Charles.

“They’re a peculiar sort of people up here,” Thomas replied. And with that, the Prince seemed satisfied. Rumour has it he wore a bullet-proof vest that day.

In the end, of course, he didn’t need it. Like the baddie equivalent of Viz magazine’s Pathetic Sharks, these were rubbish terrorists.

In this uncertain age of Tube bombings and planes turned into guided missiles, it would be easy to feel a faint twinge of nostalgia for an era of bombers who played by the rules, who actually rang the authorities to report where they’d left their device.

But that would be wrong. A week after the investiture a kid on holiday chanced upon another bomb, which hadn’t detonated.

It went off, and took a chunk of his leg with it.

We’re pretty well-versed in the arguments for and against the hijab.

But 12-year-old white girl Aysha had a fresh take on it on Muslim School (7pm, Channel 4, Sunday).

She likes her veil so much, she wears it even when there’s no need. Why? She hates her  ginger hair.