PRINCE OF fools
DANIEL RADCLIFFE stars as a royal buffoon in a medieval comedy described as Blackadder meets Monty Python
Miracle Workers: Dark Ages
Monday, Sky Comedy HD, 9pm
THE LAST TIME we saw Daniel Radcliffe on our screens, he was playing an English prince in the interactive finale of Unbreakable
Kimmy Schmidt. This week, he returns in another royal role – but it couldn’t be more different.
The Harry Potter actor is back in Sky Comedy’s Miracle Workers, which returns for a second season with the same cast, but an entirely new setting and storyline.
In the first season, Radcliffe played angel Craig, working in the afterlife for a disillusioned God (Steve Buscemi). The new season focuses on a group of villagers during the Middle Ages who are trying to stay positive in a time of inequality, pestilence and violence.
Show creator Simon Rich says the series has been inspired by some classic British comedy.
‘Obviously, everybody will bring up Blackadder and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and they should,’ he explains. ‘Those are direct influences – you’ll find references and homages throughout.
‘It’s about a group of characters who are as screwed as they could ever be, and as trapped and as doomed as possible. But we want the story to take them on a path to hope and redemption.’
LEARNING CURVE
Radcliffe plays Prince Chauncley, a pampered royal who prefers playing with his pet ducks to being a murderous tyrant like his warlord father, King Cragnoor the Heartless (Peter Serafinowicz).
‘At the beginning, Chauncley is psychotically stupid. He has no empathy or self-awareness,’ says Radcliffe, 30.
‘It’s not that he’s a bad person – he has lived in such a bubble of privilege that he doesn’t even really know ordinary people’s lives are different from his. But we watch him become more human as the series goes on.’
Chauncley is helped on his journey of self-discovery by his whip-smart royal adviser Lord Vexler (Karan Soni) and forwardthinking peasant Alexandra (Geraldine Viswanathan).
‘Alexandra begins to open Chauncley up to a new world,’ says Radcliffe. ‘She helps him learn he does not have to follow in his tyrannical father’s footsteps.’
Joining the cast this time is
Stath Lets Flats’ Jamie Demetriou as the town crier, while Lolly Adefope is back to play Alexandra’s best friend Maggie, and Steve Buscemi is Alexandra’s father – the local excrement remover, who goes by the name of Eddie Sh**shoveler.
Buscemi based the character on his father, John, who was a sanitation worker for 30 years and, like Eddie, took pride in his work and wanted his son to take up the family business.
‘When the writers told me about this character, the first thing I said was, “I know this guy – that’s my Dad,”’ says Buscemi, 62. ‘My father never complained about what he did, he just provided for us and he was pretty humble about it. ‘When I signed up for Miracle Workers, I never thought I would go from playing God to playing a peasant.’
The show was filmed before lockdown on set in
Prague, and Radcliffe was impressed by the sheer scale of the new series.
‘It’s the biggest set I’ve been on since Harry Potter,’ he says. ‘I’d walk through a door expecting it to end, but it was just another part of the castle. It went on and on and on.’
TRAINING DUCKS
For Radcliffe, the most challenging part of filming were the scenes when Chauncley is hanging out with his pet ducks.
‘Originally it was going to be geese, and they were like, “No, geese are a nightmare. That’s not going to happen,”’ he smiles.
‘But you can’t really train a duck either. You can train them to sort of stand still and eat food off a spoon, but that’s about it. They also smell worse than you’d expect. There was a lot of duck pooh going on, and I even ended up with some in my eye during one scene.’
‘I never thought I’d go from playing God to playing a peasant’
STEVE BUSCEMI