News Digest

Queen Elizabeth Hurley gets set to take the U.S. by storm in The Royals

U.S. television audiences will get their first look at a raunchy new drama tonight featuring a fictional British royal family with Elizabeth Hurley as the Queen. A second series of The Royals has already been commissioned by the E! Entertainment network even before the first episode is broadcast. And it premieres just 48 hours before the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall arrive for a four-day tour of the States. The show has been heavily publicised with billboards, racy TV commercials and even a double-decker bus touring Los Angeles bearing its slogan “Anarchy in the Monarchy”.

I hope they’re going to watch it. I hope they’re going to love it.

'Queen' Elizabeth Hurley

But not everyone is thrilled in a country mildly obsessed with the Britain of Downton Abbey, Dr Who and the real Royal Family. Marlise Boland, executive producer and host of the Anglophile Channel, described the show as being where “the Kardashians meet their version of Downton Abbey”. She said: “It is not the way we want to see the royals portrayed.” But with Charles and Camilla due to arrive in the U.S. for events including a meeting with President Barack Obama, the fictional Queen - Elizabeth Hurley - is hoping they will tune in. She said: ”They’ll know it’s not about them within two seconds. So I hope they can watch it as a fun piece of fiction.”

There’s a reason why we romanticise England and the UK and why we look up to them, and this is not necessarily what we want to see Prince William doing.

Marlise Boland, executive producer and host of the Anglophile Channel