The Windsors cast: Who plays Meghan Markle, Kate and the Royal Family on Channel 4?

Kathryn Drysdale – Meghan Markle

Kathryn is best-known for playing the vacuous Louise Brooks in the BBC comedy Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

Since being cast as Prince Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle, the British actress has been brushing up on her American accent by watching the actress’s hit series Suits.

Kathryn revealed that her version of Meghan constantly brags about her part in the legal drama.

“She’s most proud of having been in the show,” she said. “At any opportunity she’ll tell someone she was in Suits.” 

The Windsors’ Meghan is “a bit more LA” than the real version, Kathryn added.

“The real life Meghan is from LA and I think she’s toned down her Californian accent – especially now she’s dating Prince Harry,” she explained.

“Her clothes are muted down and her accent is soft. 

“She’s not into dressing like a royal quite yet, which is fun to play.” 

Louise Ford – Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge

The Duchess of Cambridge is Louise Ford’s biggest role to date.

The actress has previously starred in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Crashing and the children’s show Ludus, but is possibly best-known as the girlfriend of Mr Bean star Rowan Atkinson.

Louise is staunchly private about her relationship, preferring instead to focus on her work.

In The Windsors, she plays an irreverent gypsy version of the Duchess, who in one episode contracts Ebola.

The actress is keen to point out that the series is quite obviously a satire, telling London’s Evening Standard: “If you are not allowed to send up an institution in this day and age then comedy has lost its way. 

“If people find it offensive then maybe they are predisposed to finding anything offensive.”

Hugh Skinner – Prince William

Hugh Skinner says that his version of Prince William is “a sort of child’s view of what a prince should be – heroic and charming”.

The actor previously played another “posh Will” in the BBC comedy W1A, and also had plum roles in Fleabag and Les Miserables.

To prepare for The Windsors, Hugh said that he watched “quite a few interviews” with William.

“It’s hard, obviously, because in all the interviews, they’re public appearances,” he said. 

“A lot of the joke of The Windsors is this ridiculous idea of what might happen behind closed doors. But accent-wise, I worked on being as posh as I possibly could, and I guess listened to him a bit, but I went somewhere a lot more ridiculous. 

“I used him as a starting point, but then went somewhere else, really. I thought a lot about shows like Dynasty, with a bit of Made in Chelsea thrown in.”

WHAT TIME DOES THE WINDSORS SERIES 2 START?

Richard Goulding – Prince Harry

Richard Goulding has played Prince Harry so many times that he has been mistaken for the royal on more than one occasion.

He told London’s Evening Standard that was once forced to run away from a gang of drunks who chanted “Harry” at him.

“I was wearing a blue blazer and a shirt that might look like the sort of thing that Prince Harry might wear,” he said. “Everyone just turned to look and I ducked and ran.” 

Richard first played the spare-to-the-heir in the 2014 play Prince Charles III, and returned to the role in this year’s BBC adaptation.

In between he joined the cast of The Windsors, playing a very different version of the Royal.

In the Channel 4 comedy, Harry is a dimwitted lothario who struggles to read but knows how to party.

He was crushed when Pippa Middleton got engaged to another man, but finds love with Meghan Markle in series two.

Harry Enfield – Prince Charles

Comedy giant Harry Enfield is no stranger to royal impressions, having previously voiced Prince Edward and King Juan Carlo I of Spain in the satirical puppet show Spitting Image.

The series aired throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the turn of the decade, Enfield created his eponymous sketch show, Harry Enfield and Chums (originally titled Harry Enfield’s Television Programme), which spawned the hit film Kevin & Perry.

After the film’s release in 2000, Harry stepped out of the limelight for much of the noughties.

He returned to screens in 2007 with a new sketch show Harry & Paul, and has since appeared in series such as Skins and Bad Education.

Of playing Prince Charles, Harry said: “Waving’s very important – from cars or balconies as circumstances demand.”

Speaking in character, he added that “keeping alive traditional hedge laying methods and taking small talk to strange and exciting places” are also of great significance.

Haydn Gwynne – Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall

Haydn Gwynne is regarded as a character actress, with parts in popular dramas such as Peak Practice and Ripper Street.

The Windsors marks only her second-ever comedy role, following the classic Channel 4 sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey.

She now plays Camilla, portrayed in the series as a scheming arch-villainess, a “Camilla de Ville, if you like”.

“My model for Camilla, once I’d read the first scripts and seen the costumes, became much more as if she were played by Joan Collins in a soap opera called Balmoral,” Haydn explained. 

“She is the sort of arch-villainess of the American soap opera. That’s the model for me, in a way, which is fruitful and rather fun. You can indulge your arch-villainess.”

Of the real Duchess, Haydn said: “You know, I don’t know her. I once met her on a Royal film line-up at the cinema. I’d like to think she’d find it quite funny. But I have no idea, obviously, and it’s so far removed from her. It’s a fantasy, absurdist world.” 

Morgana Robinson – Pippa Middleton

Morgana rose to fame in her self-titled sketch show, The Morgana Show, in which she impersonated celebrities including Cheryl Cole and Boris Johnson.

The Australian-born comic said that she honed her version of Pippa Middleton by channeling “all the girls I went to school with and putting them all into one character”.

“There’s only one interview with Pippa I’ve seen and she’s very nervous and she’s so much lovelier and very sweet compared to my version of her,” Morgana said. 

“The only thing I made sure is that the makeup artist gave me a beauty spot. She’s not really true to self – it’s a character so I didn’t feel any pressure to push the impression out as it’s not an impression show.”

Who else is in the cast?

Katy Wix plays Sarah, Duchess of York, with Tim Wallers as her ex-husband Prince Andrew and Ellie White and Celeste Dring as their daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

Matthew Cottle plays Prince Edward, with Vicki Pepperdine returning as Princess Anne after her appearance in the Christmas special. 

Gillian Bevan joins the cast for series two as Prime Minister Theresa May, with Cory Johnson as US President Donald Trump.