Crikey. The British Royal family is about the get the send-up treatment in The Windsors, the new comedy soap opera from Channel 4.
There have been plenty of TV series centered on British royalty, from The Hollow Crown and The White Queen (and the upcoming The White Princess), to The Tudors and The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
For more contemporary and fictional royals, we also have The Palace and The Royals.
And in the not too distant future, Channel 4 will be bringing viewers The Windsors, the new comedy soap opera that puts the current Royal family squarely in the satire spotlight.
Reigning as HRH Prince Charles is Harry Enfield (Bad Education, Skins), with Haydn Gwynne (Drop the Dead Donkey, Mersey Beat) playing his long-time love, Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall. In the roles of Prince “Wills” William, Duke of Cambridge, and his Queen consort-in-waiting, Catherine “Kate” Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, are Hugh Skinner (W1A, Our Zoo) and Louise Ford (Crashing, Chickens).
Also featuring in the series are Morgana Robinson (House of Fools) as Kate’s sister, Pippa Middleton; Richard Goulding (Fresh Meat) as Prince Harry; Ellie White (House of Fools) and Celeste Dring (Josh) as Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie; Katy Wix (Miranda) and Tim Wallers (You, Me & The Apocalypse) as Fergie and Prince Andrew; and Matthew Cottle (Unforgotten) as Prince Edward.
(What? No Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh?)
Written by longtime collaborators Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffrie (Psychobitches, The Kumars, My Family), The Windsors puts the stuff of headlines and gossip columns on screen and imagines what the soap opera of the British Royals’ lives might be like.
And burning questions, for which curious minds want to know the answers, get the royal parody treatment in this six-part, half-hour comedy, such as: Who really controls the sceptre in Charles and Camilla’s marriage? What do the Royals really think of Kate? Does Wills really want to be King? Will Harry ever take Pippa up the aisle or will they end on a bum note? And what do Beatrice and Eugenie actually do for a living?
Said Phil Clarke, Channel 4’s Head of Comedy:
“In The Windsors, our much-loved Royal family is re-imagined through the lens of a soap opera, and although the stories are completely fictional, some are inspired by real events. As a result, writers Bert and George have outdone even the funniest, most ludicrous issue of Hello! magazine ever.”
Added Robert Wulff-Cochrane, Executive Producer for Noho Film and TV (Tennison), which produces the series:
“Infused by our gossip-fueled sense of what we think we know about them, The Windsors is a joyous weekly peek behind the curtains of Britain’s most famous family.”
Filming has started on The Windsors, and the series will premiere on Channel 4 this spring. Stay tuned for details about its debut date.
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