If you had told people in January there David Dimbleby would be fronting a documentary later in the uear that was cynical about the British Monarchy, there would have been a lot of raised eyebrows.
Yet here we are with the former 'Panorama' presenter raising his own eyebrows about the Royals' influence over politicians, their huge wealth and their efforts to control their image.
'What's The Monarchy For?' finds Dimbleby interviewing a range of public figures from ex Prime Minister David Cameron and former Irish President Mary McAleese to Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn, former Conservative ministers George Osborne and Jacob Rees Mogg, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, journalist Ash Sarkar and former BBC Director General Greg Dyke about their experiences of the House of Windsor.
Stretched over three episodes, the docuseries trades off Dimbleby's history as a commentator of major Royal Events and as a probing interviewer.
What's surprising about it is just how far he is prepared to pursue a narrative that doesn't quite follow the official line.
In the first episode, Dimbleby questions King Charles' efforts to lobby various UK Governments on issues ranging from agriculture to the environment and the impact those interventions have had on Ministers.
He also recognises the soft power that the Royals wield on behalf of the United Kingdom, referencing Prime Minister Keir Starmer's dangling of a second state visit in front of US President Donald Trump and Queen Elizabeth II's use of her state visit to Ireland in 2011 and her handshake with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness in Belfast a year later to promote reconciliation.
In Episode Two, Dimbleby probes the extent of the Royals' wealth and pushes former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on the financial advantages they have accrued through the management of the Crown Estate.
In the final episode, we also see the lengths the Royals have gone to try and control their public image, especially in the wake of public anger over their initial response to Princess Diana's death in 1997.
This includes the concept of "perpetuity edits" where the Royal household dictates to the BBC and other television companies what shots during live broadcasts of state occasions must be edited out of the archive.
And with a nod to the current scandal surrounding Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, it notes how the Royals are trying to limit the damage to the institution.
Dimbleby's questioning approach to the concept of the Monarchy has unsurprisingly rubbed ardent Royalists and Conservative newspapers like the Daily Mail and the Daily Express up the wrong way.
The 87 year old presenter seems to anticipate that in the first episode with a sequence where he is approached by a member of the public during the filming of an anti Monarchy protest in London.
The passer by berates him for giving British republicans airtime and introduces Dimbleby to his wife as "a famous liberal lefty".
Dimbleby laughs off his accusation about his politics because it is laughable.
However there's no doubt the tack he takes in the show will surprise many people because of his family's long association with Royal occasions.
Nevertheless it's certainly refreshing to see a BBC1 documentary that is willing to look at the Monarchy from both sides of the argument.
Whether you like what Dimbleby depicts will ultimately depend on where you stand on the Royals.
However it's hard to escape the conclusion that the Monarchy is such a huge income generator and source of soft power for the UK internationally that it is unlikely to disappear.
('What's The Monarchy for' was broadcast on BBC1 between December 2-16, 2025 and was made available streaming on the iPlayer)
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If 2025 was challenging year for the Royals, it will also be remembered as the year when there was a changing of the guard in the Vatican.
Pope Francis passed away at the age of 88 after 12 years in April as the leader of the Catholic Church.
This led to a search for his successor, with 135 Cardinals summoned to the Vatican on May 7 for a Conclave to vote on who would lead the Church.
BBC2's 'Secrets of the Conclave' attempts to give its audience an insight into the process which takes place behind closed doors in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.
Interviews have been conducted with two of the three English Cardinals who were eligible to vote - Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster and the Rome based Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe.
His Eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, Cardinal Michael Czerny from Canada and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago are also asked to give insights to an audience whose interest was no doubt piqued by Edward Berger's Oscars contender 'Conclave'.
But does it do exactly what it sit says on the tin?
Yes but not nearly to the degree that you may hope.
Much of the beans spilled by the interviewees will be familiar to those who have followed past Conclaves or enjoyed Berger's movie.
Only occasionally does a bit of detail about the two days process to eject Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pontiff, spill out.
The Cardinals reveal the extent to which the Vatican goes in the digital age to strip them of their electronic devices during the Conclave, claiming it is much tougher than airport security.
Cardinal Tagle, the most forthcoming of the interviewees, confesses to suddenly realising during the digital detox how reliant he has become on his smartphone.
Later he reveals the nervousness of Cardinal Robert Prevost was in the run-up to the final vote that would result in him being elected Pope and how he tried to calm him down with a candy.
Cardinal Radcliffe describes how after the lighting of the ballots that produced white smoke after the election of the new Pope how the Conclave was able to hear the roars of the crowd outside on St Peter's Square.
However there are not nearly enough of these insights and the result is a rather dull and disappointing documentary which feels like an effort by the Vatican, much like a lot of recent media activity by the British Royals, as an exercise in image control.
A little more David Dimbleby style probing wouldn't have gone amiss.
('Secrets of the Conclave' was broadcast on BBC2 on December 22, 2025 and was made available streaming on the iPlayer)
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