The Mail's Royal experts react to MORE fictional portrayals of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle across TV and film on ACTING ROYAL
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are no strangers to cameras.
The Duke of Sussex, 40, was brought out of the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital to hordes of paparazzi just hours after he was born in 1984, while the Duchess, 43, opted for a glittering career in television and spent seven years starring in the legal drama Suits.
But not all of their appearances on the silver screen have been particularly welcomed by the couple, who stepped down from frontline royal duties in 2020.
From The Windsors to Spitting Image and South Park, the Mail's Royal experts sat down to react to fictional representations of Harry and Meghan across TV and film on the new series Acting Royal.
Rebecca English, the Daily Mail's Royal Editor, was joined by Richard Eden, the Daily Mail's Diary Editor, and Charlotte Griffiths, the Editor at Large of the Mail on Sunday, for the second episode of the hit show, which is available on the Daily Mail Royal YouTube channel.
Spitting Image (2021)
First broadcast in 1984, Spitting Image was a British satirical television puppet show which often featured (and made fun of) the Royal Family.
In an episode from 2021, an overjoyed Meghan shows her husband Harry an invite to the 'Obama Foundation Awards Gala'.
The Duchess explains that the event may be her 'chance to convince' Michelle Obama that she can 'play the lead' in the blockbuster movie based on the former First Lady's biography Becoming.
'This really did happen,' Charlotte said. 'They really did try and go to events in Hollywood to try and get Meghan a job in the industry.'
Later in the episode, the puppet-version of Harry attends the glitzy event, suggesting to Disney CEO Bob Iger that Meghan would be 'great' in the role of Michelle. 'I do love resuscitating has-been's careers but I'm not a f***ing magician,' Bob replies.
'That's exactly what happened,' Charlotte said. 'Harry went up to Bob Iger and said, "Meghan would be great in your next film." I actually can't believe it happened now.
'God bless Spitting Image. They just get these things so right,' she added.
Prince William (2002)
Set at Balmoral Castle in 1997, the film opens with a young Prince William and Prince Harry finding out their mother Princess Diana has passed away in a car crash.
The boys are seen scrambling around the royal residence looking for someone to explain what's going on.
'Has something bad happened?' a young Harry, played by Eddie Cooper, asks a staff member.
The princes are eventually told by their father Prince Charles that Diana 'is gone' and they collapse into his arms crying.
'This clearly didn't happen,' Rebecca said. 'As we know from Harry himself, both he and William were asleep and their father woke them up.
'In Spare, Harry talked about how his father did impart the news to them personally but they didn't get any hugs and that's what they needed as children.'
She added: 'There are things that are very basically wrong such as the idea that William and Harry were woken up by noise in Balmoral Castle and staff had warned them that something was going on.
'My understanding certainly from Harry's own account is that's not what happened,' she added. 'They were woken up personally by their father.'
Harry In Court (2024)
While watching the court reenactment clip from Sky News, Rebecca described it as 'one of my favourite depictions of Harry on film ever.'
'The trouble is in the UK we don't actually allow cameras in our courtrooms apart from very rare circumstances which is a judge, for example, delivering a sentencing in a particularly unique case.'
'This is one of Harry's many court cases,' Richard explained to the cameras. 'I think this was one of his cases against the Daily Mirror newspaper where he had been pursuing them over illegal methods used in the past. It was a case which he largely won.
'So this is an actor repeating Harry's words to give a sense of what it is was like when he was giving testimony in court.
'I think this actor frankly was more impressive than Harry himself,' Richard added. 'I think the way he speaks and carries himself.
'I'm sure his testimony is much more convincing than Harry's actually was in court.'
Saturday Night Live (2018)
Just hours after Harry married Meghan at St George's Chapel on May 19, 2018, Saturday Night Live put their own spin on the royal wedding in their season finale.
'What's up? It's your boy Harry Windsor aka Ron Sleaz-ley,' comedian Mikey Day says as he stands in a ballroom in military uniform.
'When I knew Harry very briefly, he was actually like this,' Charlotte revealed. 'He was really fun and really silly and he would be like, "what's up?"
'So spot on, I would say.'
Adding her own opinion, Rebecca said: '[Day] almost had an Australian twang to the way he spoke I thought in that.
'This clip depicts what we all would have loved to have seen in person and no one had a chance to which is what it was like inside the wedding of Harry and Meghan.
'The one thing that did ring true is the Harry character,' she added, 'wearing a very lifelike uniform, I have to say.'
Spitting Image (1993)
At the 'height of the breakdown of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's relationship', Spitting Image released a skit featuring puppet versions of Harry and William 'joyriding' with their aide.
After crashing into the gates of Buckingham Palace, puppet William tells the police officer: 'It's not our fault.'
To which Harry adds: 'We come from a broken home.'
Richard found the crash to be 'a bit tasteless' given what we know happened to the boys' mother Princess Diana four years later in 1997.
But drawing on her 20 years of experience reporting on the royals, Rebecca said: 'An actual fact, they had ordered a member of staff to take them out joyriding.
'This does tie in with what some of the police protection officers said from the time is that when they got caught out after crashing into the gates at Buckingham Palace, they were like, "oh no, you can't blame us. We're just poor little princes from a broken home."
'Very funny, very smart, pretty cruel, but according to people at the time, pretty spot on too.'
The Windsors (2020)
Introducing The Windsors as the 'greatest royal spoof programme', Charlotte said she has 'been addicted to it for years.
First broadcast on Channel 4 in 2016, it is a parody of the British Royal Family and the House of Windsor.
In the episode watched by the Mail's Royal experts, Prince Harry, played by Richard Goulding, is gifted a colouring book to which he exclaims: 'I love this series and I am getting really good at staying inside the lines.'
'I love The Windsors' Rebecca said. 'Don't just take my word for it, this has royal approval.
'The programme is adored by the staff within Buckingham Palace, I can promise you that.
'I know it has even been watched by more than one member of the Royal Family as well.'
She added: 'It is cult viewing within both the Royal Family and Buckingham Palace because they can see how genuinely funny it is.'
South Park (2023)
Broadcast in February 2023, The Worldwide Privacy Tour episode of depicts a visit to the town of South Park by the 'Prince of Canada' and his wife, who say they are seeking privacy and seclusion.
Arriving on the set of Good Morning Canada with a book to promote, the prince holds aloft a placard reading 'We want privacy', while the princess's banner reads: 'Stop looking at us.'
'I remember when this came out,' Charlotte said, 'it really summed up what everyone was thinking about Meghan and Harry but weren't yet particularly saying so much which is the hypocrisy of Megxit and leaving the Royal Family.
Agreeing with Charlotte, Rebecca said: 'The South Park Worldwide Privacy Tour episode was actually a seminal piece of royal reporting.
'It summed up in one kind of devastatingly brilliant episode how much their lives had changed, how much Harry and Meghan had fallen in public opinion.
'I would argue that it did more to seal their reputation with the general public than any piece of journalism that we have seen in the last few years.
'At the time Harry and Meghan tried to put a brave face on it and suggest that they understood as public figures they found it funny and they should take it in their stride.
'But from everything we heard, they were absolutely devastated by it because it had cut through with the public in a way that we had not seen anything else have.
'The makers of the cartoon really got to the crux of what people were feeling that this couple were storming out of the Royal Family because they said they couldn't handle the public attention and needed more privacy at the same time as effectively selling themselves on a global stage to the highest bidder.
'It captured that hypocrisy brilliantly,' she added.
Richard said: 'Even in America, his adopted home, he has been someone who is, let's be frank about this, being laughed at on television programmes.
'I'm not sure that's what Harry and Meghan envisioned at all when they moved to the USA.'
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