Have the royals got their mojo back from US visit?

King Charles must be pinching himself at the moment. After months and months of terrible headlines, he's suddenly surrounded by applause.

Over the past couple of days, in his speeches on his US state visit, he's teased President Trump, stood up to him, charmed him and even though it was hidden in a velvet glove, landed a couple of decent digs.

And many commentators, even critics of the monarchy, seem delighted at the spectacle. It was the underdog winning the cup against all expectations.

Alastair Campbell, a longstanding republican, posted: "Excellent speech by King Charles... Loved the confidence in British and European values."

Sir Anthony Seldon, historian and biographer of prime ministers, praised the subtlety of what the King seemed to have pulled off.

"With a president known for his unpredictability and fresh out of an assassination attempt, the King managed to land subtle blow after blow on a smiling president, upholding Ukraine, Nato, climate change, the Royal Navy, and the limits to presidential authority," said Sir Anthony.

He described it as "a state visit for the ages, the most significant since his grandfather George VI's visit in 1939 on the eve of the Second World War".

Emily Maitlis, interviewer of Prince Andrew in the Newsnight interview, made bigger claims, hailing the speech for cheering up the nation.

"You send somebody out there and everyone applauds him and he carries it off. He did a sort of Love Actually speech, but written by Plato. That's what it felt like, someone who lifted us all up a bit," she said, in her Newsagents podcast.

For those inside the Capitol chamber, and I had the good fortune to be there watching, it was remarkable how quickly the mood became so noisily supportive. And it was certainly not what was expected.

Let's be honest, the multiple scandals about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor have really put the royals on the ropes.

King Charles sometimes has the melancholy look of someone who keeps getting disappointing phone calls.

And again, to be frank, the mission to the US to rebuild bridges did look fraught with danger.

The political spat between President Trump and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was showing no signs of settling.

The days running up to the state visit had been dogged by questions about meeting Epstein survivors. And when the King was about to travel, the shooting incident in Washington brought fresh calls for him to call off the trip.

A public opinion poll from Ipsos a few days before the trip suggested only a third of people expected the state visit to have a positive impact - and less than a quarter believed that a special relationship between the US and UK actually exists.

So when the King first cleared his throat, and looked down at the wide-spaced printed pages of his speech, looked around the crowded chamber, it was far from obvious that this was going to be such a barnstorming success.