CROWNING GLORY
LOUISE FORD TELLS US WHY KATE IS EXPANDING HER HORIZONS AS THE SPOOF ROYAL SOAP RETURNS…
While everyone else was getting excited about The Crown last year, our favourite TV interpretation of the Royal Family was definitely The
Windsors. It placed the clan in the middle of a Dynastystyle glossy soap opera – and cast Camilla as the scheming matriarch, Pippa Middleton as a scenestealing vamp, and Wills and Kate as the wholesome new generation trying to honour their heritage while simultaneously bringing the family into the modern era.
We’re pleased to report that series two, which arrives this week, looks every bit as ludicrous as series one, in the best possible sense. We chatted with Louise Ford, who plays Kate, to find out what right-royal dramas lie ahead for the family this time…
Where do we find Wills and Kate at the start of this series?
Well, they’re very much enjoying domestic bliss. Wills has resolved to be a handson dad and prove himself to be a man of the people, which obviously has some great consequences – one of which was watching Hugh [Skinner, who plays him] being pelted by sausage rolls and sandwiches by children under the age of five! And this time Kate is more… well, the power has gone to her head slightly.
Oh no! So how does that manifest itself?
It’s such a funny idea of the Royal Family – if you take all of the honorary accolades and titles they give you and you don’t take them with a pinch of salt, what happens? What happens when someone tells Kate she could make a really great DJ? And they let her be president of Wimbledon and hand over the trophy, and Pippa’s completely seething at her about it and says, “Why should you be the president of Wimbledon?” – and Kate’s answer is, “Well, because I really like tennis”.
Kathryn Drysdale is joining the cast for this series as Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle – that must have been a fun development for you all…
The whole Meghan Markle thing is one of my favourite parts of series two. She relates everything to her character in Suits. Someone might be talking about the environment, and she’ll go, “That’s a bit like my character in Suits”, which really makes me laugh because the more it happens, the funnier it gets! It’s great to have new people on, and I think whenever you bring a ‘commoner’ into the Royal
Family, you’ve obviously got a great thing to spoof there. There’s another nice moment where she thinks Camilla is the Queen, and tells her she looks really good for 90…
The cast is full of really funny people – who’s most prone to laughing on set?
Oh, I corpsed so badly that I kind of had a hysterical crying fit. It was during the filming of the first episode with Harry [Enfield, who plays Charles], when he was talking to the Chinese ambassador, and I just couldn’t cope – I think I had to be cut out of the shot a bit as I couldn’t hide the fact that I was still laughing! It’s embarrassing, but that feeling of corpsing is one of my favourites – it’s actually really enjoyable!