When a drag queen called Baga Chipz is selected to play Margaret Thatcher in a TV show, and that’s not even the most delicious bit of casting, you know you’re onto a winner. In Channel 4’s Prince Andrew: The Musical, Prince Charles (yes, that guy, our new King), will be played by none other than Munya Chawawa – the British-Zimbabwean comedian who has made a career, in part, out of mocking the royal family’s colonial connections.
Earlier this year, the comic shared a skit on Instagram in which he plays the gilded trio of Prince William, Prince Andrew and Prince Charles, all reminiscing fondly on colonial times. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because we colonised it,” his Prince Charles says at one point, giving a spot of fatherly advice to his son.
In another video, he skewers Prince William and Kate Middleton over their controversial trip to Jamaica in March. The sketch begins with someone asking “Willy” how Jamaica was. Willy then whines about the protests they were met with in the country, and says: “The most exciting thing we did was hold hands with some poor children.” “That sounds nice,” another character says, before Willy bats him away by saying: “Oh shut up, Andrew.”
The news, then, that Chawawa is playing the former Prince Charles in Channel 4’s new satirical send-up of the life and times of Prince Andrew is just irresistible.
Chawawa and Baga Chipz are joined in the cast by Kieran Hodgson (who also wrote the show and co-wrote the score with Freddie Tapner) as Prince Andrew, Starstruck’s Emma Sidi as Emily Maitlis, Jenny Bede as Sarah Ferguson, Joe Wilkinson as a newspaper vendor and Harry Enfield as former prime minister Tony Blair.
The hour-long extravaganza will feature seven original musical numbers, including “I Nailed It”, a duet set in the aftermath of the Duke’s Newsnight interview; “Will You Be My Ex-Wife”, a romantic ballad sung between Andrew and Sarah Ferguson; “Obey”, a solo number in which Prince Charles reflects on royal scandals past and present; and Andrew’s grand finale “You’re Always Gonna Need an Andrew”.
This will certainly soothe the Christmas hangovers.
