Republicans might like to look away from their television screens for the next six weeks. An avalanche of royal documentaries is set to flood schedules across the world in the run-up to the marriage of Britain’s Prince Harry and the American actress Meghan Markle next month.
“The world has gone crazy for the royal wedding,” said Nick Bullen, the king of British royal TV, who has nearly nine hours of programmes in the pipeline for National Geographic, America’s Fox network and Britain’s ITV.
Rival shows such as ‘Invitation to a Royal Wedding’, about the behind-the-scenes planning for the big day, are among a raft being snapped up by buyers at MIPTV, the world’s top TV market in Cannes, France.
“Kate and William was big,” said Bullen, referring to the 2011 wedding of the second in line to the throne to the Duchess of Cambridge. “But the Meghan factor has been huge. This is now an American story, one of their own, an American princess,” he added.
“The last American to marry into the royal family was Wallace Simpson and look what happened there. That was quite a big world story.”
“We now have a divorced mixed race actress. She is beautiful, clever and opinionated. She is bringing something to the House of Windsor that has been missing for an awful long time.”
African, black and ethnic minority audiences are now relating to the royals in a way they never did before, he said.
That comes on top of “the whole new generation who have been brought to the royals” through the runaway success of ‘The Crown’, Netflix’s number one series, Bullen insisted.
His company’s history of the family, ‘The Royal House of Windsor’ was also a big surprise hit on the online platform.
“The Queen’s Wikipedia page has reported record traffic after ‘The Crown’ as viewers check the plot with the facts,” he added.
Bullen said for royal programmes to work they had to have real insight. “In a world of fake news you need truth at the heart of it, and if you have that you have a hit show.”
Among the other new royal docs being previewed at Cannes is a touching portrait of the Queen.
‘The Queen’s Green Planet’ reveals her lifelong passion for trees, with the monarch taking the naturalist Sir David Attenborough on a tour of the gardens of Buckingham Palace.
The pair, both 91, have a wonderful screen chemistry, director Jane Treays said. — AFP
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