Documentary branding Queen Camilla a ‘wicked stepmother’ panned as ‘needlessly tacky’ and a ‘ranty mess’ by critics
A new documentary which branded Queen Camilla as a ‘wicked stepmother’ has been slammed as ‘tedious’, ‘needlessly tacky’ and ‘dull’.
Critics have blasted the programme, which aired last night on Channel 4 and spoke to journalists and insiders about the royal’s past – as well as her reportedly fraught relationship with Prince Harry.
The Duke of Sussex, 40, last year seemed to surface familial tensions when he, speaking in an interview with Anderson Cooper to promote his memoir, described Camilla as ‘dangerous’ and a ‘villain’.
He said: ‘She was the villain, she was a third person in the marriage, she needed to rehabilitate her image.
‘That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British Press.
‘And there was open willingness on both sides to trade information and with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street because of that.’
However, hours later, Prince Harry told Good Morning America that he does not view Queen Camilla as an ‘evil stepmother’.
The documentary, titled Queen Camilla: The Wicked Stepmother?, in a synopsis questions: ‘How did Camilla Parker Bowles ascend from most hated woman in Britain to Queen Camilla, national treasure? And was her transformation at Prince Harry’s expense?’
A new documentary which branded Queen Camilla as a ‘wicked stepmother’ has been slammed as ‘tedious’, ‘needlessly tacky’ and ‘dull’
The documentary, titled Queen Camilla: The Wicked Stepmother?, in a synopsis questions: ‘How did Camilla Parker Bowles ascend from most hated woman in Britain to Queen Camilla, national treasure? And was her transformation at Prince Harry’s expense?’
However, with two-star ratings across the board from major critics, it was poorly received, largely for rehashing old material with little new insights, and doing so in a ‘tacky’ way.
The Guardian found the programme ‘tedious’ and ‘flimsy’, claiming that there was no real need for the documentary to air.
Elsewhere, The Times branded Channel 4’s offering as a ‘ranty mess’ that ‘doesn’t serve anyone’.
The Telegraph‘s Arts and Entertainment Editor meanwhile said that the movie was a ‘needlessly tacky deep-dive’ into Camilla’s past.
It was in September reported that Channel 4 was set to air a documentary about Camilla which paints the royal in a negative light.
According to the Sun, the film – said to be titled Camilla: Harry’s ‘Wicked’ Stepmother? – was to portray the 77-year-old as the ‘wicked mother’ of Prince Harry and posit that Camilla spent some three-decades creating a positive image, but that the late Queen Elizabeth II never wanted her to sit on the throne.
According to unnamed sources, the documentary’s broadcast was delayed after King Charles revealed his cancer diagnosis.
Because of his illness, it was feared the anti-Camilla documentary could have caused a backlash, the sources were reported as saying.
Charles and Camilla pictured on their wedding day, in 2005, in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle
Camilla pictured in 1997. Critics have blasted the documentary charting the royal’s life as ‘tacky’
They added that Channel 4 was aware that the documentary is ‘going to cause serious waves’, and that many people, particularly at Buckingham Palace, ‘aren’t going to like it’.
Reports claimed that documentary producers reached out to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to contribute.
MailOnline reached out to representatives of the couple for comment at the time.
A Channel 4 spokesperson in September told MailOnline that the documentary ‘will be looking at Camilla’s biography and background as she is now the queen’.
THE GUARDIAN
Lucy Mangan of the Guardian slammed Channel 4’s ‘tedious’ and ‘flimsy’ show, which simply treads over the same facts that even the most ‘uninterested of us have absorbed by osmosis over the years’.
The TV critic said she couldn’t place who the viewing was actually for, or ‘why anyone thought it was necessary’.
She posited that it’s likely just ‘cheap’ to ‘sweeping the cutting room floor and put scraps of things together to make a new programme that is as old as time’.
Lucy also explained that even though the last 20 minutes tackle ‘Harry’s animus towards his stepmother’, the focus does little to make the show feel relevant.
‘Does anyone really care about a documentary charting Camilla’s rise from jolly schoolgirl to Diana’s nemesis, then queen?’ she questioned.
THE TIMES
The Times has branded Channel 4’s offering as a ‘ranty mess’ that ‘doesn’t serve anyone’.
Deputy TV Editor Ben Dowell said that ‘it wanted to deflate the Queen’s balloon but rather fell flat on its own face’, rehashing old information viewers are all too used to seeing.
He added that while Prince Harry’s ‘apparent belief that Camilla drove Palace briefings’ seemed to be the driving force behind the later questions raised about her ‘wickedness’, even that struggled to be held up.
‘As most of the actual hacks told this programme, that reasoning demonstrated a slightly dim grasp of how news stories originate,’ he concluded.
‘While one can sympathise with Harry… this was a ranty mess that didn’t serve anyone.’
THE TELEGRAPH
The Telegraph‘s Arts and Entertainment Editor branded the programme a ‘needlessly tacky deep-dive’ into Camilla’s past.
And while, Anita Singh writes, most of the contributors were on the Queen’s ‘side’, they still spoke about her in ‘tacky’ terms.
Despite criticising the repetitive nature of the lore described in the documentary, the writer said there was some interesting information offered by journalists.
However, overall, Anita felt the show felt as if it was only commissioned ‘to fill space’.
