Catherine Tate is back with her brand new comedy (ahem) series Queen of Oz, but I’m sorry to break the news it’s just not funny – here’s my brutally honest review.
In fact, like the central character Princess Georgiana, the show is “a total embarrassment” and a “waste of space” in my opinion.
Granted, this might appeal to a certain audience, but they wouldn’t be people I’d want to go down the pub with on a Saturday night… Or any night.
Here’s why viewers should give Queen of Oz on BBC One a big swerve.
Queen of Oz review: What does it get so wrong?
New BBC One series Queen of Oz is billed as a comedy, but I didn’t laugh once. It stars Catherine Tate as a disgraced princess who is dispatched to Australia before she “singlehandedly brings down the British Monarchy”.
So, hang on, a red-haired royal flees the country under a cloud, who “lurches from one scandal to the next”… Just me, or does that sound familiar?
Sadly, the real royal family provides more shits and giggles than this new six-parter. If it wasn’t for the fact I was reviewing this, I would have switched off after two minutes.
The opening scenes show HRH Princess Georgiana arrive at a school to meet some inspiring schoolchildren. But hungover from her usual debauchery the night before, she vomits all over a young schoolgirl. It’s a scene straight out of Little Britain. And it should have stayed in 2003.
After the unfortunate situation is “splattered over the front pages”, PR disaster Princess Georgiana is declared “beyond embarrassing” and made Queen of Australia (insulting much?).
And there begins a whole episode of bad jokes about Australian. Queen of Oz is not funny, it’s not clever, and should never have been commissioned.
What year are we in?
This might have been funny decades ago, but in 2023 I’ll give it a hard pass. The humour hasn’t moved on since Catherine Tate first found fame with The Catherine Tate Show. Worth mentioning, that was in 2004. And comedy has changed so much since then.
Look at what Daisy May Cooper has achieved with This Country, and Am I Being Unreasonable? Then there’s Fleabag, Motherland, and Here We Go – need I go on? I object to being insulted with the lazy gags in Queen of Oz.
Queen of Oz is borderline racist, with stupid jokes about an Asian name. Anthony Brandon Wong plays
Princess Georgiana could easily have been a character in Catherine Tate’s eponymous BBC Two sketch show. Perhaps a few minutes sketch at best. However the joke wears very, very thin over a half-hour episode.
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Catherine Tate’s comedy. It’s a one trick pony, and I don’t enjoy the ride. Queen of Oz has not convinced me otherwise.
Queen of Oz review: What does Queen of Oz get right?
Although I struggled to endure the first episode, there were a few – not so much highlights, but – doses of medicine throughout the pain.
Assistant Annabel (Niky Wardley) delivers the best one-liners of the show (not saying much admittedly) when she offers to floss Georgie’s teeth, and pushes in her “back fat”.
Meanwhile, actor Robert Coleby is fantastically dry as long-suffering Bernard, probably the only person who can be honest with the new Queen. He looks the same way we feel while watching, only he’s getting paid.
Viewers of Ten Pound Poms will recognise Rob Collins, who plays Georgiana’s security guard Marc (with a c). So if all else fails, there’s eye candy. But even Rob isn’t enough to make me tune in for episode 2.
Read more: OPINION: I’ve binged Ten Pound Poms, and this is why there needs to be a series 2
Queen of Oz continues on Fridays at 9.30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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