After a year that’s seen TV dominated by royals, from the inescapable coverage of the Queen’s death to the much-debated fifth season of The Crown and Harry and Meghan’s tell-all Netflix documentary, Prince Andrew: The Musical feels like a darkly fitting conclusion. Naturally, there will be people who slam this Christmas special, written by and starring impressionist Kieran Hodgson, for the title alone. Should you make comedy about these serious allegations – sexual abuse, sex trafficking and paedophilia – at all?
In the end, PATM doesn’t actually try to. This is not a South Park-esque edgelord musical retelling, with jokes making light of Andrew’s behaviour. In fact, the allegations are largely tap-danced around, while the royal is painted as a general wrong ‘un. Instead, we go on a journey through Andrew’s life, with lengthy compilations of archive footage overlaid with a voiceover from Hodgson as Andrew, as he bigs up his own achievements and har-hars at his own jokes.
