The King is dead. Long live the King
(although getting to his coronation unscathed would be a start...)
Buckingham Palace. Today. King James III and Queen Charlotte reign with dignity, duty and decorum. Then a heart-attack at the opera throws the country into chaos. The King is dead. And so the crown passes to his hard drinking and womanising 24-year-old son Richard. The Playboy Prince is thrown into a role he thought he'd have twenty years to perfect, while the nation waits with bated breath for him to mend his ways and fill his father's shoes.
At least he has the support of the Royal Family and an entire army of staff. Whether they are loyal or have his best interests at heart is another story...
When King James takes his very public last breath, Princes Richard (Evans) and George (Armesto) are busy clubbing, having escaped the opera with the help of Richard's sassy secretary Abigail (Telford).
Watched through the bottom of a gin bottle by the reclusive Queen Charlotte (Asher), Richard stumbles into his new role with bewilderment. It doesn't help that he is caught in a compromising position with a mystery woman on the eve of his father's funeral either.
As Eleanor film star glamorous and with a charity profile to die for - plots against him and his siblings George and Isabelle (Lunghi) tick away like tabloid intriguing time bombs, Richard clings to Abigail's friendship. Yet she too is a traitor the book she is researching on the handsome young prince is now destined to become an even bigger bestseller. It's now a book about the King of England, a King she is beginning to regret deceiving.
The Palace is the story of the first year of King Richard's reign, as he deals with private insecurities and public expectations, with politicians, foreign dignitaries and religious leaders, with a secret mistress and a potential wife, with media intrusion and spin, with his somewhat traditionalist staff and with the turbulent family of which he is now, to his own amazement, the Head.
As this dysfunctional family struggles to show a united front to the world, The Palace will also follow the staff who tend to their every need from Chief of Staff Sir Iain (Marsden) and Princess Eleanor's scheming aide-de-camp Simon (Harewood) to the footmen and maids who eavesdrop on the Royal family's most private moments. Taking care of a Royal Family may be hard work but there are ancient traditions to uphold below stairs; decanters of spirits to be siphoned and royal toenails to be sold on Ebay.
