Those of us unlucky enough to have suffered through the six interminable hours of the Netflix Harry and Meghan series might now be regarding further updates from the less-than-dynamic duo with the same excitement that a dental patient looks forward to a round of root canal. But because the Sussexes have signed a multi-year deal with the streaming service in 2020, Netflix remains determined to get its money’s worth, and has decided what Harry and Meghan’s next venture with them should be: romantic comedies.
A source at the company has informed the Daily Telegraph that ‘There will be more of a heavy focus on fictional, scripted content. It will be rom coms, feel-good and light-hearted programmes.’ Given that Harry and Meghan was about as feel-good as a barium enema, this is a distinct change of pace, and potentially a welcome one, although Meghan herself is not expected to resume her previous thespian career: instead, the Sussexes’ artistic contributions will be limited to executive producer credits, the usual sinecure given to big-name contributors whose actual involvement in a project is limited to signing a few cheques and morale-boosting set visits.
Given that ‘Harry and Meghan’ was about as feel-good as a barium enema, this is a distinct change of pace
Needless to say, both Harry and Meghan have described themselves as keen admirers of the romantic comedy genre in the past; she is a particular aficionado of When Harry Met Sally and ‘the Julia Roberts films’. As for Harry, he’s outed himself a binge watcher of Friends, although the question remains as to whether he’s closer to Ross (neurotic, involved in unfortunate entanglements with the opposite sex) or Joey (good-natured, thespian ambitions, intellectually limited). Given the Duke’s more eyebrow-raising revelations of his sexual activities in Spare, it is tempting to imagine him being played by a hapless Hugh Grant-esque figure, constantly getting into embarrassing social scrapes with (hopefully) hilarious consequences.
It is uncertain whether the deal that Netflix has struck with Harry and Meghan is going to extend to a recreation of their meet-cute, marriage and subsequent flight to California. If it did, and their lives together were to be turned into a 90-minute film, it would be perhaps the strangest romantic comedy ever made: the usual staples of the genre (kooky best friends, dating disasters, a last reel get-together amidst cheering crowds) would have to alternate with rather less amusing scenes in which the hero fights his family (quite literally, in the case of his brother) and battles the media. It would make for a bracing combination, but also perhaps not the light escapism that audiences are begging for at the moment.
This year has already been dramatic for Brand Sussex, but as sales of Spare are tailing off, the pair have stepped away from the limelight. Apart from Harry’s Invictus documentary, which is due to air this summer, they have largely weaned themselves off the oxygen of publicity over the past few weeks. Even an appearance at Ellen DeGeneres’s renewal of her wedding vows to Portia de Rossi was relatively low-key, with their presence doing nothing to overshadow the happy couple. A neutral observer might even start to wonder if, after the hoo-ha of the previous few years, they are beginning to weary of the spotlight.
Yet there are no neutral observers when it comes to Harry and Meghan, and so we all await the news as to whether they will be attending the coronation in May or not. It remains unclear, with only three months to go, whether they have been formally invited, and whether they will attend if so. This continuing sense of ‘will they, won’t they’ has its own inbuilt drama: dare one suggest it, but the sword of Damocles that now hangs above the Royal Family thanks to its most notorious former members’ continued actions is a far more engaging spectacle than anything likely to emerge from the Netflix deal. With the Sussexes, fact remains much more watchable than fiction.
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