IN this week's edition of glossy drama The Palace (ITV1, 9pm), Eleanor and a friend have a brush with the real world when an intruder enters their lives. To maintain security levels, the women are ensconced within the palace walls, but how long will they be able to live there?

Meanwhile, Richard finds the thought of constantly asking Alice to lie for him increasingly irritating, but they still pose as lovers to attend Neil's wedding.

Plus, Abi is disheartened when her publishers refuse to let her abandon the expose. Will she do the decent thing, or will she bow to the enormous pressure her bosses are placing on her shoulders?

Veteran actress Jane Asher plays Queen Charlotte, and reveals how the older woman sees a kindred spirit in daughter Eleanor.

"She is, in character, very like her," she says. "This is perhaps why she is the first person to spot exactly what Eleanor is up to, because it's not that dissimilar to the way Charlotte herself might behave - albeit for a very different cause.

"She quickly susses Eleanor and heads her off and, from having been very withdrawn and occasionally openly critical of Richard, comes to support him totally.

"Charlotte even manipulates things so that he has an easier time of it and is able to do his duty and represent the country in the way she thinks he should."

Small screen

Asher, who was last seen on the small screen playing Lady Byrne in BBC One medical drama Holby City, adds: "Queen Charlotte has had a pretty privileged upbringing, although not a royal one, having married into it rather than being royal by birth.

"Before her marriage she was a society model and has moved in rich, upper-class surroundings for much of her life - so to become part of the ruling elite was perhaps no great shock to her. She has certainly enjoyed her 25 years of being queen, and the power that goes with it."

"We only get little hints of what her marriage to King James was like, and it clearly wasn't idyllic or desperately loving by any means.

"But it seems to have been a marriage that worked well for the monarchy: on becoming Queen she very quickly acquired the sense of duty and responsibility that went with it, and she still feels very strongly about what the royal family stands for and must publicly maintain - whatever the problems and crises that go on behind the closed doors of the palace."

So, although we've seen glimpses of the woman beneath the public image, is there less to Charlotte than meets the eye?

"Although Charlotte is not a very warm mother," admits Asher, "underneath she loves them all deeply - even Eleanor.

"Duty comes first, and when personal problems, whether emotional or practical, interfere with that duty, Charlotte is uncompromising in her views: the monarchy and its position are paramount and must be protected at all costs."

Any royalists watching will know that idea has a ring of the familiar about it.