Two of the most unpopular men in recent history are profiled on television this morning: Prince Charles and Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon: Man and President (Pearl, 8.30am) is based on the premise that, despite all his misdeeds, a forgiving public ended up regarding Nixon as a beloved elder statesman. The public will forgive anything, given time.
Prince Charles would probably do well to note this. Now he is the rat who dumped Diana and set her on a path that led straight to that fateful Mercedes ride, but in time the public will forget all that - though not if other television stations around the world follow ATV's examples and repeat Prince Charles, the Private Man, the Public Role (World, 10am). The screening is timely.
This programme was initially seen as Charles' attempt to tell his side of the story after the first version of Diana: her True Story, and of course the latest version, with transcripts, is in the bookshops now.
Diana persuaded a second-rate royal hack called Andrew Morton to put together her story, but in 1994 Charles went for someone with serious journalistic clout: Jonathan Dimbleby. But, even before the programme went to air, Dimbleby's friends were wondering whether he had sold out completely so he could become a Friend of Charles.
The whole thing backfired horribly. Dimbleby promised to ask 'the question': Have you been seeing Camilla again? Charles answered him: yes, but only after things got pretty horrible with Diana. He must have hoped frankness would win sympathy.
Instead he was castigated by press and priests alike, appalled that he could admit to adultery on national television. For me his credibility took much more serious knocks when he appeared in a kilt, and later talked of his preposterous plans to rebuild an 18th-century village on his own land. He came across as longing to regress, not as a king who could lead Britain into the 21st century.