What does Princess Beatrice actually sound like? While talking to comedian Ellie White, who plays the doe-eyed royal in Channel 4’s The Windsors, I realise that I’ve never really heard Beatrice – or her sister Eugenie – speak. I ask my friends and colleagues: they don’t know either. “There’s a lot of footage of Harry and William and Charles and Camilla, but less of them,” says White, perched on a stool in the middle of a Soho bar. “I think they keep themselves quite private.” She pauses. “People liked their fascinators at the royal wedding, but that was about it.”
If anything, the voice most associated with Beatrice now is the one concocted by White, a “Made in Chelsea stupid drawl” thickly laden with vocal fry. On The Windsors, which has been skewering the firm since 2016, you’ll find comedy legend Harry Enfield doing a pretty spot-on take on King Charles, but the mystery surrounding Beatrice has provided White with creative freedom since she first joined the party. Sitting across from me in a pink fluffy jumper and black quilted jacket adorned with flower appliqués – something you might imagine Beatrice herself would wear when she’s off-duty – the 33-year-old is keen to stress that this is a show where there’s no such thing as too absurd. “I’ll often do a take and then the director will be like, ‘Can you make your voice 15 out of 10 in its ridiculousness?’” White says. “It’s sort of limitless.”
