We watched the royals, before the royals were cool.
Why are TV writers fawning over royalty?
A slew of upcoming dramas on monarchs past and present all steer clear of controversy and complexity
By tradition, the British royal family is guaranteed 15 minutes of TV exposure each year through the monarch’s Christmas Day address. However, the Windsors and their Germanic ancestors are currently establishing a much more impressive broadcasting empire.
ITV has just announced an eight-part drama series about Queen Victoria, while Netflix is making The Crown, which, if successful, may stretch to 70 hours of television, dedicating one season to each decade of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Though created separately, these series may be part of the same zeitgeist, as by the time they appear next year, the modern protagonist should have replaced the historical one as Britain’s longest-serving ruler.
Although seemingly intensifying, British TV’s fever for royal fiction is longstanding. The Crown comes only six years after Channel 4’s The Queen, in which five actresses played the current monarch at different ages. And, looking back into the TV archive, every UK head of state since Victoria has been the subject of at least one major TV drama. In the 70s, ITV peak time featured Edward VII, rapidly followed by the next brief bearer of that regal name in Edward & Mrs Simpson. More distant relatives, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, have had almost as many shows as Clare Balding. The serial-marrying Henry can expect to be a strong contender at next year’s Baftas for the BBC’s Wolf Hall, one of several recent series featuring the Tudors.
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