The Duchess of Cambridge might be busy planning her wardrobe for the royal tour of Australia and New Zealand she’s got kicking off next week but Down Under, royal correspondent Robert Jobson was paving the way for the family’s imminent touchdown with some April Fool hijinks yesterday.

As part of an elaborate joke with the team at Channel 7’s Sunrise, Jobson announced that, in honour of the Duke and Duchess’ visit, the upcoming Commonwealth Games – due to be hosted on the Gold Coast in 2018 – would be renamed the British Empire Games.

Even his ridiculous suggestion that they should feature traditional English sports such as croquet so that the Aussies ‘wouldn’t win all the medals’ didn’t make the penny drop – cue a live-on-air spat with former Olympic swimming coach Laurie Lawrence and a flood of complaints from viewers.

The feature was one of a number of hoaxes pulled by the media in celebration of 1 April.

Did you spot the two that snuck onto ELLEUK.COM?

We confess, there are no scientifically spurious developments in the make-up of diamonds, and – sadly – none of us will be smelling of Eau de Feather Boa anytime soon.