I finally did it.

Sorry. I know this is supposed to be a sailing blog. Maybe I should be writing about winch handles, or the whole true vs apparent wind thing. Do you mind, for a second, if I talk about The Crown instead?

The juice of it for me, is that the girls are into it too. I like how they’re discovering the past in this way. The questions about Thatcher, 1980s Bitain and the historical context. And who am I kidding? Charles and Diana. Oof.

We started with Season Four, because well, the intention was only to watch this season. Now we’re ready to work our way backwards. ‘It’s like Game of Thrones, Delph said, ‘without the boobs or the blood.’ I raised my eyebrows at her. Seal of approval then.

And it’s pretty shocking in its own way, the artistic licence the writers have dreamed up. Watching those scenes and conversations, it becomes hard to separate fact from fiction.

Surely the Royals must believe that any publicity is better than none. And are they watching it too? The news story yesterday was that Camilla would be enjoying watching the season, real or not, with a tall glass of wine. Well, I guess she would.

Yesterday, we were watching the episode where The Queen is surprised by the Prime Minister, who tells her she has a favourite child. That Mark one. Poor Carol. Anyhow, this sets off a course of events for the Queen, especially as Prince Phillip tells her just as straightforwardly that he also has a favourite child. It’s Anne of course – which must have been the easiest thing in the whole season for the writers to write.

He also tells the Queen she too has a favourite child. The Queen is shocked and denies it at first. She decides however, to meet with each of her children individually to explore the issue for herself.

Anyhow, it’s Andrew. Surprise, surprise. Also couldn’t have been a big challenge for the writers. They must have hashed that one over a tea break. The scene with Charles explaining his garden design at Highgrove though, and the Queen zoning out and hurrying to lunch was our fave on Quest. Hehe. Charles is such a silly billy.

I got the usual question from the girls. ‘I don’t have a favourite,’ I replied. Groans of disbelief.

‘Who’s yours?’ I countered with.

Lu sat back. ‘Well, it was Dad when I was little.’ She looked at me a little furtively. ‘Not that I didn’t love you, it was just you were more the disciplinarian. Dad was just so fun. He was always the cool parent, the one more like a kid.’

Lu kept staring at me in case she offended me. I sat back. Finally someone saw me as a disciplinarian? Thank you.

But none of us had realised the first part. Jack and I had both completely missed it – for years. I know because I told him (he wasn’t there at the time), and he was just as bowled over as I was. The favourite. He’s been grinning ever since, much to Lu’s eye rolls. Thank you, The Crown.