On Thursday June 23 the Queen was spotted on Camber beach having a night-time assignation with the occupants of a small boat. The Queen? THE Queen?? well…er…no, not exactly. This was Queen Helena. Queen Who??
For those of you not addicted to truly awful American TV series, Queen Helena is a character, played by Elizabeth Hurley, in a show called The Royals. Apparently it is ‘loosely’ based on our own Royal Family although, from the clip that this writer forced himself to watch on You Tube, even the most ardent republican would have had a problem relating the story line to real life.
Wikipedia says this about the show:
Elizabeth Hurley stars as Queen Helena, a fictional contemporary queen consort of England, along with William Moseley and Alexandra Park as her twin children, Prince Liam and Princess Eleanor, Jake Maskall as Helena’s brother-in-law and nemesis, the new King Cyrus, Tom Austen as Eleanor’s bodyguard and blackmailer, Jasper, and Oliver Milburn as Ted, the Royal Family’s head of security. Season 1 also starred Vincent Regan as Helena’s husband, King Simon and Merritt Patterson as Liam’s love interest, Ophelia.
Prince Liam? King Cyrus? presumably, at some stage, viewers will be introduced to a Princess Britney. As for a villain named Jasper…….
But back to Camber Sands………Permission had been obtained for a night and day shoot and most of the action on this occasion was during the night with just a final scene during daylight hours the following day. For those who watched it, it certainly provided welcome light relief from the other event going on that day.
Living, as we do, in our ancient town with an amazing beach so close, it is not surprising that film production companies regularly beat a path to our door and although the results may not necessarily be future classics of the cinema, it is always entertaining to watch the film makers at work. Many will remember the transformation of Market Street for Mapp and Lucia or the French war-time fishing village created on the Strand and Strand Quay when George Clooney was here making the Monuments Men.
Photo: courtesy The Royals
Nothing Britney about King Cyrus! More a flashback to Cyrus the Great of the pre-Arabian Persian Empire. So very grand, even aspirational.
Yes, Andrew, except that he finally over-reached himself and ended up with his head chopped off. Not that I would expect the producers of American TV trash to know that – they would be likely to have problems with anything prior to the Founding Fathers let alone the 6th century BC. Of course I’ll take that back if a future story line comes up with a Princess Atusa.