Royal row: The Prince of Wales will feature in Reinventing the Royals, the BBC documentary airing tonight

Charles was reportedly left fuming over controversy caused by the row

Clarence House says it never tried to block transmission of the show

Reinventing the Royals will air on BBC2 tonight at 9pm

Two part programme opens with the aftermath of Princess Diana's death

 When BBC documentary Reinventing the Royals was first listed on TV schedules in Iate December, few paid it much attention.

But when claims that Clarence House had refused to release archive footage and had tried to stop it from being aired emerged in the Radio Times, the programme suddenly became front page news.

Tonight, Reinventing the Royals, a two-part series written and presented by Panorama journalist Steve Hewlett will finally air, while Clarence House has denied ever trying to prevent it.

So is it really as damaging as some have claimed? The series opens with the death of Princess Diana in 1997, with the first episode focusing on the brickbats hurled at Prince Charles in its wake.

With his personal popularity in the doldrums, Charles asked PR guru Mark Bolland, who was hired in 1996, to give his public image a makeover - and integrate Camilla Parker Bowles into palace life.

Dubbed 'Operation Mrs PB', the campaign is the source of one of the most embarrassing allegations aired in the programme - namely that Bolland leaked news of Prince William's first meeting with Camilla to the media.

Bolland has denied this incident ever happened, but the Duke of Cambridge was reportedly left angry and upset by the leak and is said to have nicknamed the PR supremo 'Blackadder'.

But even that has been overshadowed by the controversy over the programme itself, which Clarence House insists it never tried to interfere with.

'The original broadcast of the programme was delayed by mutual agreement (BBC and Clarence House) whilst permissions were sought,' said a Clarence House spokesman.