The Windsors


The Windsors is a British sitcom and parody of the British royal family, the House of Windsor. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 in April 2016 and stars Harry Enfield, Haydn Gwynne, Hugh Skinner, Louise Ford, Richard Goulding, Morgana Robinson, Katy Wix, Ellie White, and Celeste Dring.
Written by the co-creators of Star Stories, Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffrie, The Windsors is a satirical portrayal of the British Royal Family. The series has been criticised for such storylines as Kate Middleton catching ebola and Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice getting radicalised. "The Windsors was rude, crude – and a real blast of punk comedy", said The Daily Telegraph after the first episode.

Series overview

The Windsors tells the story of the British Royal family but re-imagined as a soap opera. Although the stories are completely fictional, they are inspired by real events.
Taking their cue from tabloid tittle-tattle and caricature, Camilla becomes a cartoon villain who is hell-bent on becoming Queen, in order to redeem herself in the eyes of a public whom she believes – with some justification – to be hostile towards her for having usurped Diana, Princess of Wales. She believes that, after decades of a monarch perceived as unfashionable,
they had been looking forward to a glamorous, sexually provocative Queen with "the full, magnificent mammaries of a macromastic Milking Shorthorn". She believed the public rationalised to itself the shallowness of this desire by affecting to admire Diana for her charity work, but that this was belied by their relative antipathy toward Princess Anne, who "achieves more before breakfast on a wet Sunday morning than Little Miss Doe-eyes did in a lifetime of heroic hugging." She therefore hopes to improve her standing with the public by changing her appearance, rather than by making herself a more sympathetic person. She fixates on various ways in which she might achieve this, but never actually carries out any of the schemes she imagines. In scenes visually resonant of the "nose cards" scene
in the Steve Martin movie Roxanne, Camilla is shown looking at herself in profile in a Kensington Palace pier glass while holding analogous "breast cards" to her chest.
Pippa Middleton, played by Robinson, is catty and highly envious of her older sister. "I honed my Pippa skills through the medium of boarding school; I channelled all the girls I went to school with and basically put them all into one character," says Robinson. "There's only one interview I've seen and she's very nervous – so much lovelier and very sweet compared to my version of her." Prince Andrew is a failure; his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, are, according to Tyler Moore, "slightly dim girls", and the Queen and Prince Philip are physically absent but frequently mentioned by the other characters.
Kate Middleton is portrayed as a gypsy traveller who doesn't fit in, but wants to, whilst her sister Pippa is portrayed as a jealous attention seeker who has sex with Harry and tries to seduce William as well. Prince William is a well meaning character and probably the most normal. Prince Harry, who enjoys partying and is very naive and illiterate, loves Pippa Middleton's bum. Edward is an alcoholic. Prince Charles, a lover of his Duchy Originals biscuits. Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York are two useless, rich Sloanes, searching for purpose in life – until they seem, briefly, to become radicalised.
Channel 4 described the show, in a statement: “The series is a wry take on what the soap opera of their lives might just be like. Delving behind the headlines and gossip columns, The Windsors lets our imaginations run riot in this ludicrous parody. "Imagine, 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?" C4's head of comedy Phil Clarke added: “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."

Cast

Series overview

Series 1 (2016)

Christmas Special (2016)

Series 2 (2017)

Royal Wedding Special (2018)

Series 3 (2020)

Channel 4 stated that a third series of The Windsors would premiere early in 2020. The production aims to address recent topical stories about the Royal Family, including the apparent feud between Wills and Kate and Harry and Meghan. Tom Durant-Pritchard took over the role of Prince Harry from Richard Goulding. The six-episode series began broadcasting on 25 February 2020.
No.TitleOriginal air dateViewers

Reception

The Guardian was favourable when it said "High-brow humour this is not. But, despite a number of cast and crew comparing the show to Spitting Image, The Windsors doesn't feel like satire: more a comic drama that makes the odd comment about monarchy."
"The Windsors was low-budget, crude and rude. But it was all done with such cacophonous relish that resistance was useless. There's not much of this kind of punk comedy around on television at the moment, where deep, mordant, The Office-style irony has long been the dominant mode. But who doesn't like a little mischief? You can be a fan of Beethoven and the Buzzcocks too."
"A pitiful 'parody' of life down Buck House way!. If you were writing a sitcom about the Royal Family, would you have Harry coming over as a bit thick, Fergie being rather attention-seeking and Camilla as a cartoon villain? Of course you wouldn't, as that would be way too obvious; though maybe you could go down that road and put a spin on it somehow? Not Jeffrie and Tyler-Moore as they do the obvious and a whole lot less, such as making Edward out to be a lost soul with an empty diary, having William as a square-jawed helicopter hero and Pippa enjoying people constantly gazing at her 'fantastic arse'. And most incredibly of all, the Duke of Edinburgh is, wait for it, a little bit racist. It's certainly gratifying to see some upcoming Fringe comedy acts landing parts, such as Ellie White and Celeste Dring as the all-too predictably shallow Beatrice and Eugenie while Katy Wix has a blast as their tragically pitiable mum. But, sadly, all the talent on show are let down by a woefully predictable and utterly laugh-free script. Off with their heads!"
Its content was criticised: "The new series, which stars Harry Enfield as Prince Charles, will air on Channel 4 in May and is already causing outrage among royalists over its explicit and 'offensive' comedy. Details about the show were revealed in The Sun today and storylines will include Kate Middleton catching Ebola, Prince Harry sleeping with Pippa Middleton, and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, falling pregnant, aged 68. Other 'jokes' in the series will include Kate Middleton being tricked into wearing a one-legged pirate costume to an amputee war veterans event and Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice planning to escape to Syria and wearing burkas. The controversial plots have been defended by the writers, who say the show's tone is "plainly silly" and "ridiculous". The Queen and Prince Philip will not appear in the series, except in explicit emails and letters to the rest of the family.
The Guardian has described The Windsors as 'riotous hilarity'. The Telegraph called it a "right royal romp". The Windsors has a rating of 6.8/10 on IMDB.
Sam Wollaston, writing for the Guardian, said of the Royal Wedding Special, "I worried an hour might be a stretch, but I needn’t have", and suggested that the characters of Beatrice and Eugenie should have their own spin-off series.