This is the documentary that there was all that fuss over and that meant the head of BBC One felt he had to resign. Let's not go into how silly and over the top that was right now, but rather focus on the fact that, in the end, all that furore probably meant that Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work received rather more viewers than it otherwise would have done.

And would those viewers have been pleased with what they tuned into? Well, yes and no. There were some interesting insights into the daily life of 'The Firm', but, at an hour and a half, it also felt like the producers simply thought "we're never going to get this sort of access again; better use everything we've got."

The first words we heard uttered from the Queen were these: "I can't be everywhere and I can't do everything." It was obvious, then, that one of the aims of this documentary was to make it clear that Queen Elizabeth is, in fact, a real human being. I know, amazing. To be less flippant, they actually did this rather well. It certainly came across loud and clear that, no matter what you think of the monarchy itself, being a head of state is most certainly 'a job' - with responsibilities and boring meetings and pressures - and that this particular Queen happens to do it very well.

The infamous scene with photographer Annie Leibovitz was certainly the best. The Queen arrived for the shoot, as requested, in full regalia, and in a bit of a bad mood (because of the full regalia). After a few minutes Leibovitz asked if the crown could be removed "to make it look a bit less dressy". The Queen gestured towards the silks and velvets and furs she was wearing and said "Less dressy? What do you think this is?" - probably making her the wittiest person in the whole documentary. A ripple of nerves fizzed around the room, but - no doubt after purposefully letting them sweat for a moment - the Queen eventually smiled and all was right with the world again.

The programme was based around the Queen's state visit to the United States, and here we saw another aim of the documentary - to suggest that Americans are generally dumb and English people are generally stuck up. All of George Bush's pieces to camera were accompanied by comedy, plinky-plonky music - but when he says things like "I hope the Queen wants to meet my dog, cos I know he definitely wants to meet her" you can hardly blame them. It has to be said that while statements like this may have had you asking yourself, once again, how this man possibly became president, an answer was actually forthcoming: his wife. Out of everyone, Laura Bush probably came out of this programme the best - genuinely concerned that the royal party would enjoy their stay, an eloquent speaker and even rather humble.

At 90 minutes, this was probably half an hour too long - creating drama out of the fact that the Queen walked straight past a photo opportunity at the Kentucky Derby was pretty unnecessary - but there were some highlights and insights along the way. Next week concentrates on the inner workings of Buckingham Palace.