“Pushy, that’s the word for it, pushy.” We can but hope that Great Aunty Alice has an invite to the party of the year on April 29 because she of the pink woolly hat is a absolute hoot. And actually has the distinct knack of hitting the nail on the head, writes Tracey O’Sullivan.

I’m sure Carole Middleton, the future King of England’s mother-in-law-to-be, was dreading last night’s foray into her nearest, but possibly not so dearest, as Chanel Four screened its Meet the Middletons programme. And she must have cringed behind the sofa as her dear old aunt described her mother Dorothy – no holds barred – and confirmed what the rest of us thought all along.

Waity Katie is more than just patient. It seems she comes from a long line of women determined to scale the dizzy heights of social climbing, a line that  started with Granny Dot.

Let’s face it, last night’s exercise in exploring a family tree now to be connected to the royal clan proves that no matter how high you climb you can’t leave the hairdressers and the shopkeepers behind.

The question is should you want to? No, distant as they may be, the ordinary folk trotted out last night do feature somewhere on Miss Middleton’s sprawling ancestral map.

The programme makers claimed it was a look at the two families coming together to form a bloodline for future generations of the royal family because of our obsession with class. But do we really care?

While you can imagine the Queen joining Carole in cringing behind the sofa at the mere hint that she could have to share a family occasion with those taking part, it did surely garner some sympathy for the new addition to one of the most famous broods in the world.

I mean, who hasn’t been persuaded by so-called wedding etiquette to invite a madcap old aunt to their nuptials and one only too willing to dish the dirt and cause a stir in their obligatory love of gossip? And who among us would really know who our cousins-twice removed are and what they would have to say about us should a television crew knock on the door.

Luckily for Kate they didn’t really have much of interest to say, except for Aunty Alice. Again – what a great addition to the guest-list she would make and surely even in these times of austerity they can spare the odd vol-au-vent for the sister of the bride’s granddad. And she may just have the right words of wisdom for Kate on that fateful morning.

She’s certainly the first to brave muttering the words “she’s too good for him”. Amusing as that line was along with the rest of the programme you couldn’t help thinking she had got it spot on when she said her great-niece didn’t know what she had let herself in for.

Harmless as Meet the Middletons was, it was yet another glimpse at the goldfish bowl Kate is now going to live in. Intense for Kate but equally as pressurised for her immediate and extended family.

There was a sense we were lining up last night’s hall of fame with all eyes on who might be the first to take the shine off that highly polished veneer the Middleton matriarchs have worked so hard to put in place.

But essentially this programme introduced us to decent and ordinary people who had little but good things to say about their kith and kin – let’s hope the same could be said of the family the newly-named Catherine is about to join should a few distant relatives be trotted out to have their say.