Catherine Tate's Queen Of Oz axed

Comedy reportedly dropped after just one series

The BBC has reportedly axed Catherine Tate sitcom The Queen Of Oz.

The comedy was critically panned when it aired this summer, and lost more than a third of its viewers between its first two episodes.

In the six episodes, Tate played Queen Georgiana, the 'black sheep’ of the Royal Family dispatched to reign in Australia where she would be out of the way.

The opening episode attracted 1.4million viewers on live viewing, with the ratings for episode two plummeting 38 per cent to just 857,000.

Nor was the show a hit with critics

It received a one-star review from the Daily Telegraph’s Anita Singh calling it ‘desperate and lazy,’ while Chortle dismissed the concept as ‘a rude woman shouting’.

In a two-star review the i said ‘it can be difficult to muster enthusiasm for Georgie’s plight’ as Tate’s alter-ego is ‘ quite awful, but in a relentless way that’s seemingly detached from any sympathetic motive’.

And the Mirror’s Ian Hyland ruled: ‘Thanks to David Jason’s The Royal Bodyguard, Queen Of Oz cannot be labelled the worst regal BBC sitcom ever made. It’s a strong second though.’

The Guardian was among the kindest with Lucy Mangan awarding three stars and calling it ‘extraordinary watchable’ if not ‘spectacularly funny’, while the Daily Mail’s Sarah Vine said ‘there is some good stuff here, not least the supporting cast of characters, which are funny and well-written’.

News that the show is not returning was first reported by TV Zone, although the BBC has not commented either way.

It comes six months after her Netflix prison comedy Hard Cell was also axed after one series, with Tate branding the streaming service ‘rude’ for not telling her directly. Instead she found out about the cancellation through someone else’s agent.

And last year her Nan Movie was so critically slated that on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 0 per cent.

However she has just returned to her Doctor Who role of Donna Noble to much greater acclaim.

» Chortle’s Queen Of Oz review.

Thanks for reading. If you find Chortle’s coverage of the comedy scene useful or interesting, please consider supporting us with a monthly or one-off ko-fi donation.

Any money you contribute will directly fund more reviews, interviews and features – the sort of in-depth coverage that is increasingly difficult to fund from ever-squeezed advertising income, but which we think the UK’s vibrant comedy scene deserves.

Subscribe or donate here

Published: 13 Dec 2023