One minute she appears to be sharing a joke about Trump, the next she’s the most compelling character in The Crown. Is the Queen’s second child becoming the most acceptable face of the monarchy?

Hard work and horses: why Princess Anne is having a moment

Name: Princess Anne.

Age: 69.

Appearance: Tireless, stalwart, cross.

AKA: Anne, Princess Royal, KG, KT, GCVO, GCStJ, QSO, CD.

Is there a cat walking across your keyboard? That is just her full array of orders and decorations, abbreviated. She is the Queen’s second child and the 14th in line to the British throne.

But who is she, really? Besides the Queen, she is currently everyone’s favourite royal.

More popular than Prince Andrew? By an ever-widening gulf.

When did this happen? It is partly to do with actor Erin Doherty’s standout portrayal of the young Anne in series three of The Crown.

She comes across well, then? “The most thrifty, feet-on-the-ground, low-profile, unpretentious royal we’ve got,” says Prince Philip in episode four.

That really doesn’t sound like something he would say. Rest assured: he almost certainly never did.

Exactly. This is all fiction. But the real Princess Anne has also emerged as an unlikely hero during Donald Trump’s visit to Britain, thanks to a video clip.

Play Video Princess Anne, Johnson, Trudeau and Macron appear to joke about Trump at Nato summit – video

Video, you say? In it, she is part of a conversation in which several world leaders seem to be sharing a laugh at Trump’s boorish indiscipline.

At last, something that can unite a divided world: snobbery. Anne remains the hardest-working, most down-to-earth Windsor. Neither of her husbands accepted peerages and her children do not have titles. She consistently undertakes more royal engagements than the other royals.

Including the Queen? Yes. Anne is involved with more than 200 charities and organisations.

And she likes horses. She does indeed; to the extent that she made the British Olympic eventing team, competing in the Montreal games in 1976. She was definitely the first royal to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year, a feat repeated by her daughter Zara in 2006.

Actually, she does sound rather super. She also survived a harrowing kidnapping attempt in 1974, when an assailant shot four people and ordered her from her limousine.

What did she do? She said: “I haven’t got £2m” and got out of the other side.

I think I want to hang out with her. She’s so refreshingly blunt! She doesn’t suffer fools gladly, that’s for sure.

OK, forget it then. It’s probably for the best.

Do say: “It wasn’t her, Donald! Someone else shouted: ‘Moron!’”

Don’t say: “Careful, Ma’am: if the wind changes, your expression might stay that way.”