HRH the Prince of Wales wears a cheese-cutter cap, cream slacks, and, knotted over his laryngeal prominence, a bright green scarf that looks for all the world as though it is made of terry-towelling.
In Royal Paintbox his outfit includes a beige belted mid-length jacket with large pockets at the front, the contents of which are protected by ample flaps, the whole of which keeps the prince warm as he strides across the exposed grasslands on what looks a bitterly cold day in the English outdoors.
To top off the stunning ensemble, the collar of the jacket Prince Charles wears is turned up - raffishly.
Royal Paintbox - finally - is a show that takes the Royal Family seriously.
People my age will remember standing (or at least trying to stand, considering the arthritis and rheumatism and gout that affected us as we approached old age) at the movie theatre as God Save the Queen was broadcast to the audience in the 1960s.
Later, of course, the social upheaval of that decade ruined all good things about civil society, and made simple respect for one's betters ''uncool''.
There are now only a few of us who take the endeavours of the monarchy seriously.
The makers of Royal Paintbox do, and with input from the finest art historians, they follow the prince as he journeys through history to reveal a treasure trove of artistic brilliance from his ancestors.
This is a show dripping with artistic merit and a history to fascinate even the dullest mind.
It is a show about the next monarch of this land that doesn't flippantly concentrate on the minor, pointless details of scandal and dress.
On the Arts Channel tonight at 8.30pm we meet Prince Charles as he tramps the windswept moors talking about his, and his ancestors', art.
He carries the sort of cane one could easily use to wallop a political radical or marijuana smoker around the ears.
The prince was not wearing the fine full-dress naval commander's uniform he wore at his first wedding.
How grand that looked, next to the puff-ball meringue silk taffeta wedding dress with huge puffed sleeves and frilly neckline, lace decorations, hand embroidery, sequins and glittering fascination of 10,000 pearls, topped off by a 25-foot train, his wife-to-be wore.
He does, however, later in the show, turn up in a terrific grey woollen jacket with a maroon and dark blue tie.
To top off the stunning ensemble, the sleeves of the jacket Prince Charles wears are turned back - just once - raffishly.
Later, we are wowed by blue and white tie flapping atop a white shirt with a blue grid pattern.
Prince Charles - take a bow.
- Charles Loughrey
