Series 1 of The Windsors proves that Hugh Skinner can do no wrong, nor Haydn Gwynne for that matter
“We’ve outgrown our usefulness like nipples on men”
Despite starring several of my theatrical faves, I’d never quite got around to watching The Windsors. But given that I’m off to see the stage show The Windsors: Endgame tomorrow, I thought I’d give Series 1 a whirl since it is on Netflix. And I have to say I absolutely frigging loved it.
George Jeffrie and Bert Tyler-Moore’s parody of the House of Windsor takes the form of a fast-moving soap opera, which means that the joke rate is phenomenal and as in the fashion of many a comedy show, if you’re not enjoying a particular turn, you don’t have to wait more than a few minutes before the next one appears.
And there’s tons of them, Kate being a gypsy, the Archbishop of Canterbury being a tart, Pippa being a lascivious attention-seeker, Wills wanting to be a ‘normal’ air ambulance pilot, Camilla being vengeance possessed… And all delivered to perfection with some genius accents mangling the English language as if they had whole punnets of plums in their mouths.
Hugh Skinner’s Wills is fantastic in this respect especially when he escapes to Rickmansworth in a Volvo, as are Ellie White and Celeste Dring as a hilariously hapless Beatrice and Eugenie. And Louise Ford nails Kate’s clean-cut but ruthless ambition in the face of Haydn Gwynne’s vengeful wrath as Camilla. And truth be told, I could take or leave the portrayals of Charles, Andrew and Edward, they’re never quite as funny as the rest.
