Richard Goulding

Either you spent the run-up to the royal wedding pulsating with excitement, or, like me, trying to choke yourself with a commemorative tea towel to avoid having to watch any more coverage. In this sour, curmudgeonly spirit, I was grateful for playful, dissenting voices, and The Windsors duly obliged with their hour-long Royal Wedding Special, which included Harry (p]Richard Goulding]) letting down "top bird" Meghan (Kathryn Drysdale) by embarking on a stag night that resulted in him dressing up in an SS uniform (ahem, again), and Kate (Louise Ford) insisting that William (Hugh Skinner/p) get a vasectomy.

The Windsors Royal Wedding Special review

Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffrie's ruthless comedy is a reminder that you can get away with a lot as long as you are funny.

A wickedly witty send up but are the Windsors watching?

This Royal Wedding special was bursting with ideas like a box of exploding confetti.

The Windsors wedding special preview

I am on set at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire, which is being used as a stand-in for a number of regal residences. The crew are filming the wedding reception in the banqueting hall. The tables are buckling under the weight of gigantic chickens. There are enough bottles of champagne to satisfy Harry's thirstiest pals, while from the walls, stern, ermine-clad aristocrats look on disapprovingly.

The Windsors, series 2 episode 3 review

A breezy cross between a revenge tragedy, a Carry On film and an episode of Dynasty.

Preview - The Windsors

The comedy spoofing the lives of the Royal Family in the style of an American soap opera returns for a second series.

How long before The Windsors wears thin?

My only qualm is this: I'm not sure the premise is sustainable for an entire series. There's only so many times you can make jokes about Wills being dim, Kate being descended from gypsies, and Harry watching The Crown to educate himself about his ancestors. Sooner or later, I suspect, the gags will wear as thin as the hair on poor Wills' head.

There were more laughs in The Windsors than there were in the frankly bizarre Flowers. The Windsors comes from team behind the long-forgotten Star Stories and imagines the royal family as the stars of a Dallas-style soap opera. Obviously some of the jokes are quite obvious such as everybody fawning over Pippa Middleton's arse and Fergie (Katy Wix) being a complete embarrassment to the entire royal family. However there were some gems among the myriad of gags most notably the Middletons gypsy heritage which Kate (Louise Ford) is still proud of to this day. The bizarre soapy elements of The Windsors also lend a sense of ridiculousness to the show which is keen to demonstrate the fact it doesn't take itself too seriously. The main thrust of the plot is that Charles and Camilla (Harry Enfield and Haydn Gwynne) are worried that the line of succession is going to skip a generation as Wills and Kate are much more popular than they are. Camilla's plot to take down Kate by getting her to dress as a pirate during a military amputee ball was an inspired gag as is the central plot thread of the Duchess of Cornwall attempting to have another child. Other highlights included Harry (Richard Goulding) not being able to differentiate between the many blondes he's been linked to and Wills' (Hugh Skinner) need to become a helicopter pilot again. But my favourite characters was the frankly clueless sisters Beatrice and Eugenie (Ellie White and Celeste Dring) who attempted to start an online make-up tips business to make some much needed cash. Although The Windsors didn't always hang together it did a good job at both creating larger-than-life versions of our royal family and at the same time staying true to its soap opera spoof style. The majority of the cast looked like they were having a good time and I was particularly fond of W1A's Hugh Skinner's performance as the affable William who tried to balance his duty with his love of flying. In fact the only person who slightly spoiled the show for me was Morgana Robinson who, despite being a fine impressionist, was a bit out of place here in her role as Pippa Middleton. While nobody should go into The Windsors expecting the next big comedy hit it's good to have a bit of satirical fun on the box once in a while. Additionally I feel that Channel Four have definitely made the right decision by putting it on on a Friday