Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: bbc, catherine tate, doctor who, hard cell, Queen of Oz

Queen of Oz: Catherine Tate Sitcom Goes "The Thick of It" on Royalty

Catherine Tate's raucous, bridge-burning, anti-royal sitcom Queen of Oz brings the kind of fire that "The Thick of It" brought to politics.

Queen of Oz is a sitcom about a disaster princess who gets exiled to Australia to become queen there as her last chance to stay in the British Royal Family. Princess Georgiana is a drunken, sweary, drug-addicted embarrassment as only Catherine Tate can play her. It's the most bridge-burning anti-Royal show you could possibly get, just by Tate, who co-produced and co-wrote the series and plays Georgie as an utterly entitled, narcissistic sociopath out of water.

Tate sets up a classic sitcom scenario: Georgie has a supporting cast of screwups she treats badly: her brain-dead (almost certainly inbred) cousin who's the most inept lady-in-waiting ever; a cool, collected personal secretary who's the only one loyal enough to the Family to come out to Australia to serve her… also, he hates his wife; a totally inept manchild assistant she abuses; a social media-savvy Director of Communications who has to combat all the bad publicity Georgie generates by default; the sarcastic, fussy Master of the Household who clearly can't stand her; and her personal security officer who's the only sane person in the show with whom she shares an unexpected connection; and the progressive, republican Australian Prime Minister who has to put up with her because of protocol. It's not just Georgie who's horrible. Her brother, the prince, who's heir to the throne, is a stuck-up prig who hates her as much as she hates him. Throw in Australia being Australia, and nonstop, raucous, farcical, messy hilarity ensues.

"Queen of Oz" Is an Expression of These Times

Queen of Oz comes in a year of the whole Prince Harry and Meghan Markle debacle, so it's part of the zeitgeist. It's not surprising somehow that Queen of Oz got bad reviews in the UK media, and its ratings dropped. The Royals are still a sacred cow in the UK, an institution they're not ready to get rid of yet despite more and more young people not seeing the point of them. The show is no less sweary, nasty, or snarky than The Thick of It, but the target there are politicians, whom the public already believes are self-serving, lying scum. To attack the Royals is still kind of a no-no. If you're a fan of PBS British shows and like the Royal Family, Queen of Oz is probably not the show for you. It's unlikely to be renewed for a second series, but Tate has said her piece, and the damage is done. The hilarious, foul-mouthed damage. We have to admire Tate for her willingness to throw all dignity to the wind to play the most horrible person within a hundred miles without ever worrying about being likable, all to get a laugh and have fun.

Queen of Oz is Catherine Tate's third project in as many years. She's what show business calls a "triple threat," the ability to write, act and direct her own projects. Oh, and produce. She had a mockumentary prison sitcom on Netflix last year called Hard Cell, where she co-wrote, co-directed, and played six of the characters. She returns as Donna Noble later this year in the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials with David Tennant as The Doctor, but before that, Queen of Oz, which was shot after the specials, premiered this summer. But then whatever blowback she gets from this show will be forgiven and forgotten by the time Doctor Who comes back in November.

Queen of Oz is streaming only on the BBC iPlayer in the UK.

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