The Windsors, Channel 4, review

There's some mildly subversive satire in there if you look hard enough.

Super-silly sitcom about the royal family from the creators of Star Stories, Bert Tyler Moore and George Jeffrie. The gags bang and whoosh like a New Year's Eve fireworks display and W1A's Hugh Skinner is outstanding (and somehow even posher than before) as Prince William, backed up nicely by Harry Enfield as a mildly demented Prince Charles and Haydn Gwynne as a conniving Camilla. The result is quite joyfully daft throughout. Knighthoods all round.

Review: The Windsors

There are some neat, if not side-splitting, lines and enjoyably daft premises, but the show never really takes off. A lot of the scenes have a touch of the Spitting Image about them for sure - but what works as sketch doesn't necessarily sustain for a full narrative.

The Windsors - a real blast of punk comedy

I'm not bang up to date on treasonous acts and how to avoid them, but the writers and cast of The Windsors probably shouldn't expect an invitation to a Buckingham Palace garden party any time soon.

Preview: The Windsors

The Windsors isn't going to win any awards for subtlety and the writers certainly aren't going to win any knighthoods, but if you like seeing royal poshos royally sent up this should put a smile on your face.

Haydn Gwynne: It's fun to play Camilla as madly jealous

Haydn Gwynne tells Gabriel Tate about her starring role as the Duchess of Cornwall in a daft new Channel 4 comedy, The Windsors.

Radio Times review

Penned by seasoned playwright Shelagh Stephenson, this comedy series pits Anna (Haydn Gwynne) and Jim (Blackadder star Tim McInnerny) against a succession of wearisome and tactless guests as they take up the couple's offer, made to all and sundry, of a quiet weekend at their rural home.

Unfortunately, most of those who take them at their word are the ones they never in a million years dreamt would turn up. And guests, like fish, tend to stink after three days. This week it's the turn of uncompromising elderly couple Joan (Patricia Hodge) and Colin (Ron Cook), who love their bagpipe music, to go rancid on them.