FOR once the Duchess of York was right. Announcing the prize for the best television drama on Tuesday night she quipped: "I am sure that some of you may think I should be receiving this award rather than presenting it."
The audience laughed. There was certainly more than an element of truth in her statement.
Forget Coronation Street or EastEnders Britain's most popular soap opera is the "Downfall of the Windsors".
Naturally Fergie has a starring role, even though she is now shunned by the royal family.
Princess Margaret wrote to her recently: "You have done more to bring shame on the Family than could ever be imagined. Not once have you hung your head in embarrassment even for a minute after those disgraceful photographs" the infamous pictures of her financial adviser, Mr John Bryant, sucking her toes.
"Clearly you have never considered the damage you are causing us all. How dare you discredit us like this."
But to be fair to Fergie, she did not single handedly press the self destruct button on the British monarchy. The open warfare between the Prince and Princess of Wales, so vividly played out on the front pages of the tabloid press, is certainly more riveting than many soap plots. However, it has also undoubtedly strengthened the republicans' cause.
As Anthony Holden, the veteran royal biographer who has a weekly column in a tabloid newspaper, says: "I get hundreds of letters and it is as if my correspondents are discussing characters in a soap opera. The royals have now taken on the role of a supersoap.
It is hard to recall just how deferential and sycophantic the British public and media used to be to the royal family. Remember the hundreds of thousands of people who camped out on the streets of London, hoping to get a glimpse of Princess Diana on her fateful wedding day, just 15 years ago?
For years, not a whisper of criticism was ever heard. At one stage the royals were even concerned about the lack of media coverage. "Don't forget," explained Princess Alexandra to Queen Elizabeth in the 1960s, "that nowadays we have to compete with Elizabeth Taylor and the Beatles."
Now the mystique surrounding the royal family has been shattered. We know graphic details about their sex lives, their private telephone conversations are printed verbatim in the media - and, for a small price, the public has been able to ring a hotline and hear Fergie confess her adultery while five months pregnant, Prince Charles stating he would like to be a tampon and Princess Diana blowing kisses to a male friend. Nothing appears to be sacred.
Even before this week's video footage, supposedly depicting Princess Diana in a state of undress with her former lover, Major James Hewitt, was revealed to be the "most elaborate hoax of the decade", few people raised an eyebrow.
Tory MPs, media organisations and the public all accepted the possibility that she may have indulged in "private horseplay" with Major Hewitt in full view of any peeping MI5 agents.
As the Daily Telegraph pointed out in its editorial: "It takes a fiasco of this kind to expose what we all know to be true, but which through constant bludgeoning we have tended to forget. that the tabloid approach to the royal family is one of the ugliest features of our age, even though it is true that some members of that family have themselves courted disaster."
Neither the Labour or Tory party conferences, the loss of Mandy Allwood's eight babies or the bombing of the British army barracks in Lisburn could oust Fergie and Diana from the tabloids' front pages.
Last week the Daily Mirror devoted nine pages a day to describing in detail Fergie's outpourings to her psychic, Madame Vasso.
Only a few years ago the Press Complaints Commission would have been inundated with letters defending the royal family and complaining that the media were invading their privacy. Even when the Sunday Times serialised Andrew Morton's book Diana - Her True Story, hundreds wrote to the paper to protest.
Yet, to date, not one person has complained about the Sun's "Di-spy video scandal" or the Daily Mirror's revelations about Fergie's sex life.
Lord Wakeham, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, believes this has led some sections of the British tabloid press to think they have "carte blanche to invade their privacy without any defence of public interest" and so are producing "a stream of injudicious stories centring on the private lives of public individuals".
So when did the rot actually set in? According to royal watchers the soap opera officially began in 1987, when Prince Edward persuaded his brother the Duke of York with his new wife, and, more surprisingly, his sister Princess Anne to appear in the It's a Royal Knockout TV programme.
Even Prince Charles had the foresight to predict they would all make fools of themselves and forbade Diana from taking part. It is understood Queen Elizabeth agreed to the programme because she did not want to upset Edward.
However the queen's former private secretary, Mr Michael Charteris, said that would have been a small price to pay.
"The trouble with behaving like everyone else is that you get treated like everyone else. The queen has succeeded because she has never done that."
The rest, as they say, is history. But one thing is for sure, this soap opera will continue unabated. Next month alone, three books are being published, including Fergie's own autobiography, describing her life in The Firm, which will undoubtedly shatter the mystique further. Watch this space.
