"I think he has a really interesting relationship with Richard in that he almost hero-worships him and he is desperate to maintain the closeness they had when they were growing up.
I think the most endearing sequences are those moments where Richard has to rush off to make an engagement and George is sitting there, saying, “It’s alright, I don’t mind.”
“George does get better at dealing with Richard having to do his job and, towards the end of the series, it looks like he is becoming quite a good crutch for Richard to lean on when it gets particularly difficult. But one of the problems George encounters sometimes is that his love for everyone else isn’t necessarily reciprocated, and that is tough on him. Over the course of the eight episodes, I don’t think George fully plays his cards, even though he grows up and changes. What I like about George, and why it has been a real treat to play, is that he is a man of extremes. You can pretty much make him say anything and it will be credible because he flips from extreme to extreme so quickly.
“George is a bit like those kids you knew when you were younger, whose mums had to check e-numbers to make sure they didn’t get overexcited. He was the one you would keep a can of cola away from because he would end up breaking his arm on the bouncy castle and vomiting. He is an excessive individual, who loves any sort of mental or physical stimulation. He’s a bit like a puppy. And, while puppies are endearing, they do still pee on the rug.
“The storyline with the hit-and-run accident is a moment where George realises his actions have real and serious consequences. If you are brought up in a rarefied environment, if you have been pampered and protected throughout your life, then that point when you realise there are serious consequences to what you do is a big moment. It is certainly the worst thing that has happened to George in his life to that point, and it is what brings the fractious side of his relationship with Richard to a head for the first time.
It is interesting to me that people like George can trace their ancestors back 500 years, literally, on the walls of their house. That weight of responsibility, of your ancestors and your past being that tangible and close-to-hand, makes a character like him an interesting person. I liked the idea of that, even without having read anything of the series.
“I have always had a deal of sympathy for the Royal Family because they are in a difficult job and they are never going to be able to do it perfectly. No-one can really do their job perfectly, and most people don’t. Whatever walk of life you are in – be it a president or a prime minister or someone in charge of a television corporation or a janitor or a waitress - everyone is compromised at some point. The series is more specific to families: to your responsibility towards your family, your relationship with your brother, recovering from the death of a father. The fact that it is Royal just provides a setting; it doesn’t provide the meaning. You could cut the Royal out of it and it would still be a great family saga. And ‘the Palace’ is not just the actual blood family; it is also the family of the people working in this institution: the collection of advisors and the household staff.
Filming in Lithuania was great. I went to a football match, and there were 35 people in a 15,000-seater stadium. The kick-off whistle went and then this small group of fans burned a flag and all got ejected from the ground. It was essentially just me and Metin, the first director, sat there watching a game, which included the second best club in the country, with a handful of Lithuanians.”
Image and text © ITV1
