Beautiful The Crown, but have you seen The Windsors?

Beautiful The Crown

The arrival of The Crown on Netflix represented a real turning point for royal addicts. For the first time, in fact, a TV series showed the vices and virtues of the English royal family, without filters and without fear of breaking - with an accurate and often private story - the solemn image of the family. Sometimes, indeed, she managed to create a sort of empathy between spectators and characters, because even the seemingly toughest and most detached family members were shown on the screen with their frailties and in the midst of their imperfect normality.

The writers of the hit series, now in its fifth season, have always stressed that the facts reported on TV are fictional reconstructions and not what really happened in the secret rooms of Buckingham Palace (and Kensington or Clarence House). It is true, however, that in the series written and conceived by Peter Morgan there is a fund of historical reconstruction, albeit wisely fictionalized for the public. This does not happen in another series dedicated to the heirs of Queen Elizabeth currently visible in streaming.

Royal family fans should in fact know that in addition to the famous The Crown there is another show that can appease the their thirst for real gossip.

What is The Windsors and where to see it

A sit-com entitled The Windsors is available on Netflix which offers a different - and quite irreverent - point of sight on the kings of England and their offspring. The series is of British origin and was produced and distributed by the national channel Channel 4. Only later did it become part of the streaming giant's catalog, on which it is only visible in the original language (but with the possibility of subtitles in Italian).

watch The Windsors on Netflix Its UK release preceded The Crown by six months, but outside the UK, The Windsors was not particularly successful. Reason for which it appears to most as a "substitute" for its more serious twin and compliant with the rules. Composed of three seasons - six 25-minute episodes - and a special (dedicated to the royal wedding of the Dukes of Sussex), the sit-com aired for the first time between 2016 and 2020.

This is a production that reinterprets some events that have involved the Windsor house in recent decades in a hilarious and shrewd way. From the entry into the royal family of the bourgeois Kate, to the working misadventures of Count Edward of Wessex in the entertainment world, passing through the austere lifestyle maintained by Royal Princess Anna and obviously arriving at the arrival of the tornado Meghan Markle, the American who has been ready to upset all the balances at the palace.

The cast is made up entirely of British comedians, including Harry Enfield as Prince (currently King) Charles, Hugh Skinner as Prince William and Celeste Dring in those of Eugenia of York. Morgana Robinson - famous in the UK for her sketches of 'The Morgana Show' - instead gives the face to Pippa Middleton.

Characters-caricatures

Every member of the royal family - and even those who gravitate to Buckingham Palace in some way - is portrayed as a parody of himself. The most significant traits of the characters and personalities of the royals are reinterpreted in an exaggerated and exaggerated key, with an ironic and bizarre air.

The then Prince of Wales Charles (now sovereign) is portrayed as a middle man age who wants to ascend the throne at all costs and lives above all for his passion for ecology and green policies, which he would like to apply to every area of ​​life. The current queen consort Camilla - villain par excellence of the series - is an unscrupulous woman, willing to do anything to achieve power.

Prince William desperately tries to live like a normal person but never really succeeds to give up his privileges and his wife Kate is described as a former gypsy, who has retained traditional superstitions and questionable fashion tastes from her humble beginnings.

Harry's character retraces the raids that really involved the young prince (from the Nazi costume to the colossal booze) and entertains a liason with Pippa Middleton, another 'villain' in the series who tries to put discord among the young royals. The flirtation between the two, which during William and Kate's royal wedding was an unconfirmed rumor (and probably invented from scratch), therefore becomes a full-blown fact in the series. The love story between Harry and Pippa ends, however, with the arrival in the second season of Meghan Markle, who never misses an opportunity to remember how much she is an independent and resolute woman.

The Yorks are present in full: Andrea is always struggling with his business (but not very present in the third season, which came out shortly after the scandal that tied him to Jeffrey Epstein and forced him to abandon the duties of working royal) Sarah, on the other hand, does not resign herself to the lack of invitations in official events and continues to write scandalous autobiographies. The princesses Eugenia and Beatrice in the first season look for an occupation that can give them an income to be independent from the royal house, in the following ones they dedicate themselves instead to the search for husbands (and meet Jack Brooksbank and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi respectively).
The picture is closed by the Earl of Wessex Edoardo who tries to break into the world of entertainment but having no luck is satisfied with part-time jobs (at the time of distribution he was not yet a working royal) and Princess Anna, described as inflexible, anaffective and totally detached from her family for whom she does not even feel great sympathy.

Although both were alive during the airing, the caricatured versions of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her husband do not appear Philip. The Queen was probably left out of the British sitcom as a sign of respect. Instead, her spouse enters the scene only as a sort of narrator: her character is not seen, but sends some public letters to the kingdom's televisions or to family members, in which she covers everyone with sexist and vulgar insults. A parody that wants to remember the various gaffes made by the Duke of Edinburgh.

The reactions of the royals and the public

The series touches the grotesque on several occasions without ever becoming really offensive to the characters brought on stage, nor annoying for the spectators. On the contrary. Although it seems that Buckingham Palace did not particularly appreciate the television transposition staged by the British comedians, 'The Windsors' managed to create in the United Kingdom a sympathy effect towards the royal house.

The fictional Carlo, Camilla, William, Harry and co. they are in fact forced to face some hilarious but ordinary family quarrels during the sit-com. And although their adventures deviate from reality in an absurd and paradoxical way, they are extremely authentic and hilarious.

The self-irony, sometimes unconscious, of the characters is the winning weapon of this light and off-the-wall production from the municipality, which every lover of the most famous royal family in Europe should see at least once.