IAN HYLAND
on last night’s telly
The Windsors, Channel 4 ★★★★★
Far be it from me to suggest our esteemed royal commentators have got the wrong end of the stick about Harry and Meghan.
However, I don’t think they are moving to Canada to escape the Windsors at all. They’re doing it to get away from The Windsors. This
Channel 4 comedy ribs them so mercilessly, who could blame them for doing a runner?
I guess the only consolation is that their former bandmates are given almost as much stick in the funniest show on television.
As far as I can see the only royals to emerge with any kind of PR boost are Camilla (Haydn Gwynne), who is re-imagined here as a ruthless
Lady Macbethian kingmaker (I know, what wild imaginations some people have) and Anne (Vicki Pepperdine), who looks like a cross between Ken Dodd and Nanny McPhee and is given a succession of lines that more than match the comedy punch of her appearance.
Speaking of great lines, the writers are not afraid to take a stroll on risky royal ground.
Just last night Charles (Harry Enfield) referred to Jeffrey
Epstein as Andrew’s “nonce chum who hanged himself”.
Then this show’s standout creations, Beatrice (Ellie White) and Eugenie (Celeste Dring), shared the following exchange.
Eugenie: “I was going to ask dad for £200k.”
Beatrice: “Bad timing. He’s got a lot of legal bills.”
The best thing about this new series, though?
They’ve only gone and cast Miriam Margolyes as a talking portrait of Queen Victoria.
‘‘It ribs the royals so mercilessly, who can blame Harry and Meghan for doing a runner?