Royal reports

WE don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it, but 2012 is something of a historic year for Britain. Not only are the Olympics coming to the UK, it’s also the Queen’s diamond jubilee.

It’s also going to a pretty busy summer for presenter Sian Williams. Although she left the BBC Breakfast sofa earlier this year after deciding against following the show to its new home in Salford, she won’t just be spending the next few months enjoying a well-earned lie-in.

As well as hosting her Radio 4 show Saturday Live, she’ll make a temporary return to Breakfast during the Olympics, when the programme will be broadcast from London, and she’s playing her part in the Beeb’s coverage of the Queen’s milestone anniversary with National Treasures – Jubilee Special.

So no one can accuse Williams, who has also recently presented the series Elizabeth’s Wales, of not doing her bit for Queen and country, and she’s said she hopes the mood will echo that of 1952, when the Queen came to the throne.

She said: “What would be lovely would be to think we can have that same sense of community this time round that we did 60 years ago. People were coming out of a time of austerity and there wasn’t much to go around, but everyone worked so hard – they were baking, or doing the banners or the costumes for the kids, which were phenomenal. Everything was home-made – it had to be.”

She doesn’t have to look too far to see example of how patriotic spirit can take hold. “My grandmother was a fervent royalist – she had all the books and all the plates – and I think it was because she saw the young Queen and her husband when they visited Llanelli. I’m sure the jubilee will have the same effect on some people this time.”

Let’s hope Williams has kept hold of some that memorabilia as the value of 1950s collectibles comes up for discussion in this live show, which comes from Westminster Abbey.

Along with co-presenter Dan Snow, she’ll meet some of the choristers, who sang at the Queen’s Coronation, and learn the secrets of last year’s royal wedding.

Style icon Twiggy has been drafted in to discuss the Queen’s clothes with designers who have worked with her, while Larry Lamb finds out why 1950s vintage items are all the rage.

It’s not all about the current Queen’s reign though, as Lucy Worsley compares modern London with the capital in 1897, the date of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee.

ALL good things must come to an end, so after eight drama-filled years, it’s time to say goodbye to Dr Gregory House.

In truth, he’s been a pain in the backside ever since we first saw him darken the doors of the Princeton Plainsboro Hospital, and we’re sure he’ll be just the same in the final episode of House, which airs later on in the evening at 10pm.

That edition will see him examine his personal demons while treating a drug addict, and will feature appearances from former cast members Jennifer Morrison, Olivia Wilde, Amber Tamblyn and Kal Penn.

House Special: Swan Song, however, is more of a celebration. No doubt Hugh Laurie will pop up to say why he’s enjoyed playing the miserable medic, and we’re promised a few surprises along the way.

FREDDIE FLINTOFF gets to travel the world and have some incredible adventures all at the Discovery Channel’s expense in Freddie Flintoff Goes Wild.

In the first of a new series, he collects bush-tucker with Aboriginals in the Northern Territories of Australia. On the menu is everything from berries to saltwater crocodiles.

In other episodes, he joins the Maasai tribe on the hunt for the great wildebeest migration in Tanzania, tracks orangutans and pygmy elephants with the Dusun natives in Borneo, and is taken into the heart of the Discovery Islands, in Canada.