Could it be that Wolf Hall is actually the teeniest bit dull?

In January 1958, the British government began working on the significantly titled Operation Hope Not: its plans for what to do when Winston Churchill died. The plans, it turned out, wouldn’t be needed until January 1965 — but the intervening seven years were obviously well spent, because, as Churchill: A Nation’s Farewell (BBC1, Wednesday) made resoundingly clear, the farewell in question was a triumph. London came to a standstill and Big Ben fell silent as huge crowds watched the procession of the coffin from Westminster to the spectacular state funeral in St Paul’s — and its boat journey along the Thames afterwards.

For the 50th anniversary, Jeremy Paxman talked us through the day with the aid of some of those who took part. A member of the bearer party recalled how, going up the steps of St Paul’s, the coffin had begun to slide off the bearers’ shoulders — and how he’d said aloud, ‘Don’t worry, sir, we won’t let you down.’ Asked about the many tears he’d provoked, the cathedral trumpeter explained with some satisfaction that, ‘The “Last Post” always gets them.’ One of the bellringers remembered nipping out on to a gallery for a look at the service, and being confronted with the unexpected sight of a garden shed — inside which Richard Dimbleby was doing his TV commentary.

The programme also featured the memories of the Churchill family, and several contributions from Boris Johnson, who claimed that these days Churchill would be ‘a terrific blogger and a self-Googler of epic proportions’. Paxman himself supplied the somehow melancholy news that Churchill and Mrs Thatcher are now the only former prime ministers in Madame Tussauds.