TV PREVIEW: Was it really 30 years ago?

MY husband always laughs at me when I claim to remember Charles and Diana’s wedding. He says it’s impossible as I was all of two years old at the time, but I think that the huge fuss over the nuptials means they were forever imprinted on my infant brain. Or perhaps the memories have been manufactured in the intervening 30 (yes, 30) years, which wouldn’t be difficult, given the magnitude of the occasion, and the media coverage of the subsequent fallout.

Marking the three decades since the fateful ceremony is Charles and Diana: The Wedding of the Century (ITV1, Friday July 29, 9pm). The wedding was watched by a sixth of the world’s population, and the programme looks at that dress, and what it was like for members of the media who covered the event.

You might say that anyone who falls for an internet con deserves what they get. But despite many of us wondering how anyone could be so stupid, thousands are still falling for these scams. Perhaps it’s not surprising, though, when they mainly involve promises of money or love – the catalyst for many a downfall.

First Cut documentary 419: The Internet Romance Scam (Channel 4, 7.35pm) looks at Nigerian tricksters who snared their victims on internet dating websites, going on to defraud them of thousands of pounds.

The team also speak to a reformed scammer who explains what drives the crooks.

If you’re feeling bereft after the end of The Apprentice, worry ye not, as Dragons’ Den (BBC2, Sunday July 31, 9pm) is back.

This year there’s a new dragon in the den - haulage company boss Hilary Devey, whose firm has an annual turnover of £100 million.

Bright, or not so bright, business ideas in the first episode are being taken into the den by a solar power enthusiast, a lady who has a solution to a common birthday party problem, and even a circus act.

I’m not sure this next pick is going to live up to its name. Natural World Special: My Life as a Turkey (BBC2, Monday August 1, 9pm) is a drama-documentary recreating the 13 years that biologist Joe Hutton spent raising wild turkeys, looking after them as if they were his own children. But surely the title of the programme would mean he should have covered himself in feathers, draped some saggy skin around his head and gone around gobbling, before being eaten at Christmas? I think I’m just setting myself up for disappointment here.

Not that I read them, of course, but there seems to have been a recent glut in the real-life gossip mags of people refusing to give up boozing despite being a) pregnant, b) ill, c) not having any money,or d) all of the above.

Dying for a Drink – Panorama (BBC1, Monday August 1) looks at the new generation of alcoholics, including a 25-year-old critically ill after a decade of binge drinking, and a 32-year-old who ended up living in a cave on account of his alcohol problem.

Lastly, a repeat well worth catching. Hawking (BBC4, Monday August 1, 10pm) is a drama telling the story of Stephen Hawking’s life as a brilliant young Cambridge student in the 1960s. He’s making leaps and bounds with his research into the beginning of time itself, but is diagnosed with motor neurone disease and is given just two years to live. Stars Benedict Cumberbatch.