OK, even the Beeb couldn’t control the weather but it might have done something about the wet ineptitude of its employees who seemed to have no idea what all these boats were doing in that sodden flotilla. “It’s about the river, stupid!” said one headline next day. Bull’s eye! Earlier some half-witted reporter had clutched his microphone and referred to Her Majesty the Queen as “her royal highness”. That was then, this is now. The list of the departed Duke’s achievements and life-affirming works was a long one and there was no shortage of people to speak of them and how they had been inspired to plant trees or camp out in winter. I remember the young offender let out so he might climb a mountain for his Duke of Edinburgh Award. “Did you do it wearing a ball-and-chain?” his highness wondered.