HBO’s The Prince should leave George alone

Last year Netflix refused to add a disclaimer to the beginning of every episode of The Crown, warning viewers that it is part fiction. HBO Max’s new cartoon The Prince, however, had no choice: the series has been sitting on the shelf so long that it was out of date before it was even broadcast, so every episode bears a warning that ‘this isn’t really the royal family. It’s like, a parody, or whatever. And certain recent events will not be reflected in this programme.’

The streaming service’s new cartoon comedy (if one can call it that) is based around an imagined child’s-eye-view of life in the palace. The protagonist is eight-year-old Prince George. He is depicted as a camp, vain, bitchy, social-media obsessed American adult who has somehow been transplanted into the body of a child-prince. It isn’t clear why. He is mean to his staff and to the other children in his school, and aspires to star in an American reality TV show.