Despite The Windsors bearing her family name, the Queen never featured in Channel 4\u2019s uproariously soapy spoof \u2013 she simply wasn\u2019t silly enough. The same, it seems, cannot be said of her eldest son and heir.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple of people asked whether we were going to \u2018do\u2019 Charles now he\u2019s king,\u201d says Bert Tyler-Moore, co-creator of the series with his late writing partner George Jeffrie. \u201cOf course we are, because he hasn\u2019t changed! We didn\u2019t take the mickey out of the Queen, less because of her role as head of state than her as a person. King Charles is still all the things that we took the mickey out of before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rich meat indeed for a comic actor as gifted as Harry Enfield, who\u2019s clearly enjoying his newfound seniority on the set of the show\u2019s Coronation Special<\/a>, in Hertfordshire\u2019s Brocket Hall (the ancestral pile of convicted fraudster and former reality TV darling Lord Brocket). Solemnly entreating Radio Times magazine<\/strong> to \u201cbow\u201d, he ascends from the kitchens to a room whose walls are covered in portraits of predecessors including, ominously, Charles I.<\/p> In the scene, the faintly befuddled future king and Camilla (Haydn Gwynne) are debating the budget for the coronation with Wills (strait-laced, vowel-mangling Hugh Skinner) and Anne (Vicki Pepperdine, reprising her Mrs Danvers-style Princess Royal). Wills and Anne counsel thrift, restraint and, ideally, a Holiday Inn off the M4 as the venue, with the backing of PM Rishi Sunak (Amit Shah, Happy Valley\u2019s homicidal pharmacist). Charles and Camilla aren\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoy ceremony and ritual when it\u2019s done well,\u201d says Gwynne later. \u201cThe royals offer that symbolic connection to our pasts and ancestors that I find quite moving. But I\u2019m glad I\u2019m not the one deciding how much to spend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad for the pomp and parties, but you\u2019ve got to be mindful of what you\u2019re spending and when,\u201d adds Louise Ford, who plays newly minted Princess of Wales Kate Middleton. \u201cNo one wants to see something that seems grotesquely indulgent at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Written, shot and edited on a painfully tight schedule, The Windsors always walks a tightrope of real life and parallel universe, with newsy lines being crammed in at the very last minute. \u201cThe closer it gets to filming, the more fraught it becomes,\u201d says Tyler-Moore.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat have they done now<\/em>? Same for the politics \u2013 the only real trouble we got into a few years ago was with Theresa May, who we initially wrote as this all-powerful woman because she had this huge majority. We just about had time to fix it. Fortunately, I didn\u2019t even have time to start on Liz Truss.<\/p>\n \u201cAll that is both the beauty of it and what makes it harder work than a regular sitcom: the material is great, but it\u2019s constantly evolving so you have to reflect that.\u201d<\/p>\n The biggest royal ruction in recent times was, it seems, the easiest to resolve. Previously characterised in the show as a Terry-Thomas-style rogue, Prince Andrew is now entirely absent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a hard decision,\u201d explains Tyler-Moore. \u201cHe\u2019s not funny anymore. But his shadow looms over Beatrice (Ellie White) and Eugenie (Celeste Dring) in a way that gives you something different to play around with, that delusional denial. How do they walk into a room, knowing that everyone thinks their dad did that awful stuff?\u201d<\/p>\n And then there are Harry (Richard Goulding), Meghan (Kathryn Drysdale) and Spare, with its onslaught of revelations that prompted Tyler-Moore to consider anew how to satirise something apparently beyond parody.<\/p>\n \u201cOddly our Harry was always quite sweet, dim and lovable. After Spare came out, we saw a side that was more petulant and chippy, maybe not such a nice character. It\u2019s weird to think that we might have been a bit nicer to him than we should have been.\u201d<\/p>\n Certainly, the publication of Harry\u2019s memoir caused a stir on set: \u201cI was wondering whether Prince Harry had been watching too much of The Windsors,\u201d laughs Gwynne, while Skinner found it \u201cfascinating and gripping\u201d. But Prince Harry himself, AKA Richard Goulding, says he hasn\u2019t read it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need to research beneath the surface too much [for this series]. Also, I\u2019m quite busy. There\u2019s Tolstoy to read!\u201d<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2020\/01\/The-Windsors-Harry-and-Maghan-a1cdcf9.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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