On paper, it was never going to work. Yesterday, Channel 4 aired Prince Andrew: The Musical, an original 50-minute musical based on the life of Queen Elizabeth’s third child. Prince Andrew tunefully reenacts the highlights of the royal’s Wikipedia page – his military service, his youth as a media darling, his marriage to and divorce from Sarah Ferguson, and his cushy diplomatic role under Blair’s government. It also touches on the later scandals surrounding his relationship with convicted paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and a civil lawsuit alleging that he sexually assaulted a woman, Virginia Giuffre, when she was 17 years old. (Andrew has denied the claims; earlier this year, a settlement was reached out of court in which the duke made a multi-million-pound payout without admitting any liability.)
Written by and starring Kieran Hodgson, the programme has predictably kicked up a stink among viewers. Naturally, many royalists have taken issue with the tongue-in-cheek lampooning of the disgraced Duke of York. But even for those who detest Prince Andrew, there’s no getting around the fundamental tastelessness of its premise.
