The royal household was additionally skeptical. “Why doesn’t Edward let the TV individuals get on with it and simply flip as much as settle for the cheques?” Prince Philip allegedly quipped. “He’s making us look silly.”
For a time, it appeared Prince Philip’s evaluation was appropriate. Ardent’s first credited manufacturing was 1995’s Actual Tennis, a TV documentary specializing in an obscure aristocratic racquet recreation, which garnered 8,000 British viewers. Subsequent was Annie’s Bar, a 1996 satire about backbenchers within the Home of Commons. Canceled after one season, it was savaged by British critics as “fifth price.”
Having misplaced cash yearly, Ardent Productions shortly modified their tune. “I by no means stated we wouldn’t make programmes in regards to the royal household,” Edward claimed in 1996. That yr he could be the host of Edward on Edward, a documentary about his notorious nice uncle Edward, the Duke of Windsor. This backflip was instantly seized on by the British media.
“He’s neither a historian nor a journalist; so far as one can inform, his solely qualification for the job is that he occurs to have the identical Christian identify as his topic,” Francis Wheen wrote in The Guardian. “It’s most beneficiant of ITV to supply work to members of the royal household…Maybe the entire grotesque clan ought to type a manufacturing firm—the Actually Ineffective Group—and begin getting ready a number of sequels: Andrew on Andrew, wherein the Duke of York chooses his favorite melodies from the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber…and Queen on Queen, a private tribute by the monarch to the late Freddie Mercury.”
Though The Guardian claimed Edward on Edward suffered from a “dearth of revelations and a leaden, cliched script,” it was surprisingly profitable. When requested if his household had seen it, Edward stated sure, however “I’m not going to inform you what they thought.”
Regardless of the royals actually thought of Edward’s profession, their tacit help sparked resentment within the British leisure business. In 1997, Ardent launched Windsor Restored, a documentary which chronicled the rebuilding of Windsor Fort after it was devastated by fireplace in 1992. Not solely did Prince Philip, the then Prince Charles, and Prince Andrew sit for interviews, the Royal Assortment additionally gave Ardent license to years of footage of the restoration mission freed from cost. “Coping with the Palace is not only irritating, it’s not like coping with anybody else: They communicate a special language,” a recent producer instructed The Unbiased. “Ardent, at the very least, has an interpreter on the staff.”
