Life imitates art

I never had Prince Charles pegged as either self-aware or a TV fan, but recent events would suggest otherwise.

Earlier this week he visited the flood-stricken Somerset Levels and launched an attack on the tardy response of the authorities, branding it a "tragedy". Coincidentally, Jen and I were watching the House Of Cards trilogy based on the novels of Michael Dobbs. The second in the trilogy, To Play The King, sees the new monarch, played by Michael Kitchen and transparently based on Prince Charles, take on the Prime Minister, Ian Richardson's Francis Urquhart, and his right-wing government's policies. Apparently recognising the parallels between fiction and fact, Prince Charles' response when questioned whether the Environment Agency was doing a good job was to borrow the dastardly Urquhart's catchphrase: "You might very well think that - I couldn't possibly comment".

Unlike the rest of the mainstream media (as far as I can tell), the Daily Heil reported the quote but didn't make the connection. It may have leapt out at us, given we were watching the trilogy at the time, but I'm amazed that no one other than a small handful of bloggers and Twitter users seem to have picked up on this.