Misbehaving monarch

Catherine Tate is a spoilt princess banished to rule in Australia

- ALISON SLADE, TESS LAMACRAFT

Brash, rude and constantly making tabloid headlines for one scandal after another, Princess Georgiana is a walking disaster zone – which, according to Catherine Tate, made the unruly character all the more fun to play.

The comedian and Doctor Who star portrays the heavy-drinking, chain-smoking, British party princess whose despairing father, the King of England, decides she can’t continue living in the UK.

Tate, who also wrote new six- part BBC1 comedy Queen of Oz, got the original idea from a Canadian producer who wanted to make a show about a minor member of a royal family who gets sent to Canada.

‘I loved the whole idea, and we pitched it to Canadian TV studios – but we’re still waiting to hear back. That was four years ago!’ laughs Tate. ‘We decided it might be better situated in Australia, so that’s how it came to be Queen of Oz and not Queen of Canada.’