Simon Day and Julia Deakin also join cast

Miriam Margolyes, Simon Day and Julia Deakin are to appear in the new series of The Windsors.

Margolyes will play Queen Victoria in the spoof royal soap opera, and said: ‘Queen Victoria has always been one of my heroes. I hope she’ll forgive my irreverent portrayal.’

Meanwhile, Deakin and Day will play Carole and Mike Middleton.

Deakin, probably best known as landlady Martha in Spaced,  said: ‘I am shocked they let me have a go at this. I love the show and everyone wonders how they get away with it, the answer is… because it’s funny!  

‘Carole is a gift, an enigma wrapped in a riddle.  So little footage of her actually speaking exists.’

In the new series, which launches next week, the older Royals, led by Charles and Camilla (Harry Enfield and Haydn Gwynne) go on strike and try to persuade Wills (Hugh Skinner) to join them. And when trying to make his decision, Wills is given advice by a portrait of Queen Victoria.

In a separate storyline, Beatrice (Ellie White) sets up a new drinks brand called ‘GinVoddieRum’ and wants Eugenie (Celeste Dring) to be her business partner.

And mirroring real life, there's a split between Wills and Kate and Harry and Meghan.

Tom Durant-Pritchard, who plays  Harry said: 'We’ve got a feud between Harry, Meghan, Wills and Kate and we’ve got the whole storyline between them, the Fab Four. There’s more of Harry and Meghan’s life together.

'We left Harry as a sort of ruggerbugger newlywed at the end of the wedding special, and we’ve now got a new, sort of domesticated, returning-from-a-health-spa, barefoot Harry. It’s been really enjoyable to see if he manages to adapt to his new life as a yogi.'

The Windsors series three, written by Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffri,  will air from Tuesday at 10pm Channel 4 and all episodes will be available to stream on All4.

Published: 18 Feb 2020