Andrew Lownie, historian and author, suggested that the Duke supported a German plan to put him back on the throne as head of a puppet state, although the evidence for this was sketchy. Lownie was the main driver of this film, with the other talking heads – A N Wilson, Anna Pasternak and others – chipping in. 

I’m not sure what Wilson’s jokes about the Duke’s alleged bisexuality added to it, or Pasternak’s assertion that Wallis Simpson has been made a scapegoat. Altogether, this had the feel of many history documentaries on Channel 4 or Channel 5: strong findings packaged in a way that made the finished project feel lightweight.

Still, some of the little details from people who actually knew the protagonists were entertaining. Sara Morrison, whose stepfather was an old friend of the Duke, smartly cut him down to size. She recalled: “After the war, when I went to Paris, I remember every sentence from the Duke always started, ‘When I was King…’ I said, ‘You crammed an awful lot in considering you were only King for about 10 minutes.’”