The princess strolls through deep woodland with her husband and their young family. She sits hand-in-hand with William, her head resting on his shoulder. The family plays a boisterous game of cards. Kate leans pensively against a tree and wanders through a cornfield. She hugs her children. She lets a butterfly flutter free from her hand. All the while, emotive music plays in the background.   

"As the summer comes to an end," she says, "I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have finally completed my chemotherapyA treatment for cancer that uses powerful drugs to kill cells. treatment. The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family. Life as you know it can change in an instant...

"The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you...This time has above all reminded William and me to reflect on the simple, yet important, things in life which so many of us often take for granted, of loving and being loved."

The video, filmed near the couple's house in Norfolk, is incredibly slick and professional - not surprisingly, since the man behind it has made ads for Red Bull and Tesco.¹ Some of it is in slow motion, some of it looks like an old home movie made with a cine cameraA type of movie camera that rapidly takes photos in order to produce a moving image.. Stills from it dominated yesterday's front pages.

Reaction has been divided between those who find it genuinely moving and those who think it soppy and twee. The BBC's Sean Coughlan sums it up as "Norfolk meets Hollywood plus Instagram", noting that "It's a world away from old-school royal releases which stuck to the barest of details and stayed as dry as the desert.

"This much lusher treatment follows the trend of celebrities and public figures taking their messages straight to the public... It allows a great deal of control."

The video can be seen as a response to the wild speculation earlier this year about Kate's disappearance from public life - something Imogen West-Knight describes in Slate as "a massive public relationsThe management of how the public see and feel about a company, brand or person. Often known as PR for short. failure" by Buckingham PalaceThe home of Britain's king or queen..

"The royal family," she writes, "turns its members into figures who exist purely as spectacle... They have taught the public that they exist for us to see. That's a hard lesson for people to unlearn."

Writing in The Times, Kate Mansey highlights the show of affection between the prince and princess. "The way they interact shows Kate at her most private and most genuine... This is a shift for a couple who have fought to protect their family's privacy at every stage."

As Mansey notes, it also contradicts the constitutional expert Walter Bagehot, who "stressed the importance of retaining the mystery of the royal family to ensure its enduring appeal. 'We must not let in daylight upon magic,' he warned."

Ironically, it is this very image that Kate uses at the end of the video: "To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey: I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand. Out of darkness can come light, so let that light shine bright."

Is Kate's video good for the monarchy?

Yes: It shows that the royal family are human and their life is not just a bed of roses. Whatever their advantages, they have to face terrible things like the rest of us, and deserve our sympathy.

No: The whole point of the royal family is that they are different: if they are not, why should we let them lord it over us? This video is contradictory to decades of messaging from the royals.

Or... It is too much like an advert and sends out contradictory messages. It tells us that the family have been through a terrible time, yet is filmed as an idyllicPerfect or idealised. portrait of life in the countryside.