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BACKSTAIRS BILLY: THE QUEEN MUM'S BUTLER Channel 4, 9pm
WHITECHAPEL ITV1, 9pm
EVEN the most feeble-minded fan of regal tittle-tattle must have been dismayed by Backstairs Billy: The Queen Mum's Butler. After promising a web of sordid below-stairs intrigue at the court of Clarence House, it provided only a sense of sad anti-climax.
It also threatened to expose rampant abuses of power during the 50-year royal career of William Tallon, a teenaged commoner who rose to become Steward and Page of the Backstairs. In the end, it merely alleged that Tallon had subjected one subordinate to a fleeting bout of bullying.
Worse, the programme also echoed Tallon's shameful treatment in later life by the hypocrites of the tabloid press. For 15 years or so, you see, Tallon's homosexuality prompted Fleet Street's finest to alternate between giggling mockery and sneering hatred....