Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
A King IN CRISIS
The new sitcom from the legends behind Porridge imagines Britain’s King Henry IX going through a midlife crisis after he bumps into an attractive florist
ation for the Queen. She’s done a fantastic job.’
Kara Tointon says working with Dick and Ian was a big attraction of the show. ‘There’s something really fresh about their writing. It’s also very warm. We still love watching the classic comedies they created. It’s a privilege to be involved in something they’ve written.’
What do the cast imagine the reaction from the real- life Royal Family would be if they happened to tune in? ‘I think they’d find it funny,’ says Sally. ‘They’d definitely say my etiquette is funny – “I can’t believe she’s got her hands on the table. Every body knows one must keep one’s hands under the table!”’
Splendiferous doesn’t even begin to descr ibe West Wycombe Park, a Palladian stately home set amid rolling Buckinghamshire countryside. Its magnificent rooms and setting inspire serious awe, and it exudes a majesty that would make any fan of Antiques Roadshow purr with delight.
The house is fit for a king, and yet, in Henry IX, UKTV Gold’s new sitcom created by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais – the legends behind The Likely Lads and Porridge – it’s home to a king who doesn’t want to reign any more. Henry IX, played by Charles Edwards, is a man oppressed by his suffocating daily routine and in the grip of a midlife crisis. Given to listening wistfully to moody jazz in his office and reading books with titles such as Buddhism For Dummies, Henry longs to get away from it all.
His yearning for a different life is only heightened when he bumps into Serena (Kara Tointon), an attractive young war widow who’s arranging the flowers for a state banquet. Could the king be about to utter the A word… abdication? As Henry thinks the unthinkable, he plans secret meetings with Serena, while his controlling Scandinavian wife Katerina (Sally Phillips) becomes ever more furious about the prospect of losing her status.
In between filming, the cast – which also includes Annette Crosbie as Henry’s mother Charlotte, Colin Salmon as the king’s equerry Major Francis Hornsby-Bray and Don Warrington, who plays Henry’s valet Gilbert – expand on this story of a man who embodies the phrase ‘uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’. ‘Henry could be anybody, but he’s essentially trapped,’ says Charles Edwards. ‘It’s not to do with the life you’re leading, it’s to do with how you’re feeling within yourself, how you feel about yourself at night, when everyone else is asleep.’
And what lengths did they go to to make the show look regal? ‘I didn’t do much research into royal etiquette,’ Sally Phillips admits. ‘I’m hoping it’s more important for other characters than for me because, as queen, I can do what I like and they have to deal with it! In real life, I’ve started saying, “Dismissed!”’
Viewers may try to make comparisons between the characters in Henry IX and the real Royal Family, but they’d struggle. For a start, the monarch is male and in his 40s; he’s also married to a Scandinavian woman. ‘People will try to make the link, but Dick and Ian have been quite clever in making that impossible,’ says Sally. ‘It’s a universal tale about someone having a midlife crisis.’ To back up the point, Dick insists he is not an anti-royalist. ‘I’m full of admir-