Prince Harry made waves earlier this year with his now infamous memoir Spare – and in a timely fashion, Catherine Tate has a new BBC sitcom, Queen of Oz. that’s all about a spare to the British throne who finds herself suddenly being asked to ascend to become Queen.

Here’s Everything We Know About Queen Of Oz

Tate, who’s set to reprise her role as the beloved “temp from Chiswick” Donna Noble in the upcoming Doctor Who specials, plays a rather different leading lady in Queen of Oz. Princess Georgina is the odd one out in the (fictional) British royal family: constantly getting into scandals with the press, leading a wild partying lifestyle, and generally showing little intention of settling down and performing her royal duties. Her parents- the King and Queen- are desperate to keep her out of the spotlight. In a last-ditch effort to get her away from London and possibly instill some sense of responsibility in her, the King sends her abroad to Australia, making her their new Queen and head of state.

Georgina is certainly a fish out of water: she’s mostly unaware of Australian norms and customs, doesn’t have much clue how to act as Queen, and is faced with a firmly republican Australian Prime Minister and disapproving press. She also has bad memories of briefly going to school in the country and accidentally offending people at the airport when she lands.

With these problems and more bugging her, Georgina is forced to see if she can find it within her to turn her life around. Despite the large amount of royal news in the past year, Tate has said that the series isn’t inspired by any recent events or specific people (it was planned in 2017 and delayed by Covid), and is meant to be a wholly original comic creation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTyNFW_BXUs

Originally to be set in Canada, Tate wanted a character that was truly anthesis to the idea of being a royal, but one that shows the pressures of the job: “She’s a reluctant Queen… …[and] she gets a very rude awakening getting shipped off to Australia as their newly-crowned Queen. She’s very difficult, very hard to work for and doesn’t make it easy for anyone.”

You can watch Queen of Oz’s first trailer above, ahead of its 16th June launch

Culture

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