Terry Prone: Christmas reveals a fascinating gap between Meghan Markle and reality

New Netflix special leaves you asking if Meghan Markle truly is Christmas crackers, writes Terry Prone

Meghan Markle in With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. Picture: Netflix

The dog is dead and its owner is barking. That’s the truth of it. Meghan Markle is starring on Netflix in a programme about preparing for Christmas alongside a dog that died last January. Not suggesting that this is a zombie dog. It’s a perfectly acceptable alive-onscreen dog, if you like dogs in your kitchen. Or in the kitchen that belongs to someone else while, for reasons never made clear, you pretend it’s your personal kitchen. The dog’s deadness came after the wrap party. We’re not proposing the two were connected in any causal way, although wrap parties can be consequential.

The canine death might establish the timing. If the dog died at the beginning of this year, which we’re told it did, then the programme must have been made at least twelve months ago. It may even have been made before Meghan’s previous programmes were broadcast, which might explain Naomi Osaka’s presence. She isn’t a Meghan pal, which is understandable, because Meghan’s pals tend to be unknown make-up artists, whereas Osaka is a famous star tennis player.