Ordinary bloke, scruffy student, polo-playing paragon - Prince William, 21 today, seems a perfect everyman. But is he just a triumph of monarchist marketing? Róisín Ingle reports.
Trawl through the forest of coverage afforded to Prince William's 21st birthday, and you discover the line most peddled by sources at Buckingham Palace is that he is as ordinary as a bloke could possibly be given his extraordinary position. Insiders have pointed gleefully to the holes in his scruffy student jumpers, the uncanny Ali G impressions, the self-declared fondness for pints of cider, motorbikes and soccer.
If the brightest star in the royal firmament is to save the creaking institution, the theory goes, it is this very ordinariness that will be the key, especially as the fuddy-duddy, remote persona of his father, the Prince of Wales, has proved such a right royal turn-off in the past.
But the notion was always going to be difficult to swallow. Tall, blond and handsome William Wales, the eldest son of Princess Diana, is second in line to the throne, heir to vast wealth and the embodiment of a unique style of diamond-encrusted, 24-carat celebrity. Ordinary is not the word that first springs to mind.
Blue-eyed, left-handed William Arthur Philip Louis was born at 9.03 p.m. on June 21st at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington in London and by the age of five had shown a flair for spelling and swimming.
At secondary school he was rugby and hockey team captain, an accomplished clay pigeon shooter and a cross-country runner.
Both mother and father were determined in their own ways that William and his younger brother Harry's childhood should be as "normal" as possible. Diana, who was known to describe her eldest son as "drop dead gorgeous", took the boys to fun parks and queued with everyone else at burger joints. Charles was adamant that his son would go to Eton, where he would mix with a more diverse class of posher than average students.
William's parents' very public break up in 1996 was inevitably traumatic. "He's a child that's a deep thinker and we won't know for a few years now how it has gone in," Diana said at the time.
Just one year later, she was dead, succumbing to fatal injuries incurred in a high-speed car accident in Paris.
The image of William and his younger brother Harry walking behind her cortège is a lasting one. Overnight, the British public became surrogate mothers and fathers, while Charles, who is now with Camilla Parker Bowles, was recast as an unfeeling ogre - an image he has since managed to shake. Father and sons are said to be especially close now and enjoy a tactile, if occasionally turbulent, relationship.
With a media ban on coverage of the princes largely upheld by the British press in the wake of Diana's death, Prince William remains something of an enigma.
The facts we do know are hardly earth shattering. He likes polo, hunting, fishing and has little time for the anti-blood sports brigade. His gap year in Chile and Africa gave him a thirst for adventure. He gets irritated by media intrusion and likes his Eminem played very, very loud.
In the one interview, given to mark his birthday, he revealed little about his inner thoughts or feelings, keeping instead to innocent comments about his student life at St Andrew's University in Scotland where he is halfway through a four-year History of Art degree.
"People here just treat me like everyone else, it's really nice," he said. "I'm able to live a near normal life because of a combination of reasons really.
The media have been very good, considering. I'm sure how tantalising it is having me up here, and the students themselves have been very supportive. So basically I feel very comfortable."
So far so bland. We know he "wobbled" during his first term at St Andrew's and considered quitting until his father persuaded him to stick it out. We know he calls dinner with flatmates "house supper" and enjoys buying loads of food in Tesco and, as "the world's worst cook", enjoys just looking at it in the fridge.
We know he loves Scottish dancing. "It's great. I'm hopeless at it but I do enjoy it. I usually make a complete muck-up of the Dashing White Sergeant. I do throw my arms dangerously about and girls fly across the dance floor," he said.
And we know the dashing young prince can expect girls flying around him for some time to come, with Britney Spears already having expressed an interest. He has been linked with almost every tall, attractive and similarly bred young woman he is pictured with around the campus or on the polo field.
Female applications for St Andrew's swelled when he enrolled there, while pin-up Prince William is currently competing with Hollywood hunk Aston Kutcher for the title of world's most eligible bachelor. People magazine, which is conducting a readers' poll, says he has "the sensitivity and thoughtfulness of Charles, but also Diana's dirty sense of humour, physique and sportiness". Said to be careful with money, William currently lives on a generous monthly allowance and will come into Diana's £21 million (€30 million) legacy, to be shared with Harry, when he turns 25.
Satirical BBC television show Double Take features look-alike actors resembling members of the royal family, politicians and celebrities in supposedly "off-camera" situations.
In one programme, a woman who appears to be Camilla Parker Bowles is seen swigging champagne from a bottle at a party alongside Prince Harry, well known in real life for experimentation with drink and drugs.
His older brother is also featured in the programme but in less outrageous circumstances. As the man who will be king, he can never be seen to let his hair down as publicly as his younger brother and the satirical coverage reflects this.
And yet a recent "road-rage" incident involving the more restrained elder prince suggests William's wild side may just be better hidden than his brother's. Septuagenarian Earl Bathurst, a former Lord in Waiting to the Queen, was incensed when, driving on a narrow lane on his own Cirencester Park Estate in Gloucestershire, he was overtaken in a 20mph zone by the speeding prince. It was the first black mark for William in 21 years of gold stars.
Not knowing the identity of "the young yob" the Earl gave chase and was told off by William's police escort for his trouble while the prince sped away.
"Young will be young," said the Earl afterwards, when Charles had phoned to apologise for his son's behaviour. "But I'm afraid they've got to learn. I hope he will tell his son to abide by the rules in future."
Viewed as the last great hope of the monarchy in Britain, there is a heavy weight resting on the broad shoulders of the young man they call the reluctant royal. In an effort to delay the inevitable, the prince is expected to wait several years before taking on his full public role.
Tonight, 300 of his closest friends and family will congregate at his Out of Africa-themed birthday party at Windsor Castle, while in a few days he will hold a more informal bash in Scotland.
So far, he appears to be abiding by most of the rules while living his extraordinary, ordinary life to the full. It will be interesting to see whether he can remain as restrained over the next 21 years.
TheWilliamFile
Who?
Prince William
Why in the news?
He turns 21 today
Most appealing characteristic
Good looks, good humour and good prospects
Least appealing characteristic
His love of blood sports
Most likely to say
Duty comes first
Least likely to say
Duty my hat, kiss me, Britney, one more time