As snubs go this was not an Exocet. But “I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough of dressing like this, thank you very much” is going into the quotation dictionaries, because it was said by the Queen. It will perhaps become as celebrated as Queen Victoria’s imperial putdown: “We are not amused.” And its provenance is equally problematic. The fragile source of the “quotation” from Queen Victoria is Notebooks of a Spinster Lady, not published until 1919. The source of the Queen’s apparent wobbly was a very dodgy trailer to advertise a BBC fly-on-the-wall television documentary, A Year with the Queen, to be screened in the autumn. Clever editing made it look as though Her Majesty had lost her cool, and committed the modern treason of walking out in the middle of a photo shoot. In fact, she made the remark while walking to the photo shoot with her attendant flunkey. Some creative artist sexed up the trailer by cutting the tape to make it look as though the Queen was storming out in a strop. Yesterday the BBC apologised for distorting reality.

It is sport to see the corporation caught in the narcissistic web of its passion for self-promotion. But the quotation from the Queen stands as a rare instance of reality royalty behind the formality. It may not be Dorothy Parker. But it is still a royal collectible.

Putting up with a celebrity photographer is an act of royal mercy, but to have One portrayed as leaving a room as One was actually entering said room is surely an act of television lèse-majesté. Her Majesty has every reason not to be amused, as do the members of the BBC Trust. We wonder if they know whether they are coming or going.