A royal commentator believes the latest announcement on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s TV endeavours exposes a “problem” linked to the Duke of Sussex.
The Sussexes’ productions company, Archewell Productions, announced last week the pair are working, in partnership with streaming giant Netflix, on two new TV programmes.
While one will be “curated” by Meghan and will “celebrate the joys of cooking & gardening, entertaining, and friendship”, the second series will focus on the world of polo, a sport adored by Harry as well as many other members of the Royal Family – including late Prince Philip, King Charles and Prince William.
Few details have been shared so far on which roles the Duke and Duchess will play in these programmes. Speaking about the one looking into polo, Archewell said it will provide “unprecedented access” to a sport unfamiliar to most.
The links between polo and royalty and how it remains a sport played mainly by the elite exposes a major difference between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and how Prince Harry remains part of a “very exclusive elite set”, according to royal broadcaster Rafe Heydel-Mankoo.
Appearing on GB News, he noted the programme being curated by the Duchess “fits hand in glove with Meghan’s wider rebrand of her lifestyle brand”.
He continued: “But actually, it shows the problem with Harry, because the fact that he is doing a show on polo, which is hardly a mass appeal thing, shows that there is not much of a commercial skill set he actually has.”
Referring to two previous programmes released by Archewell for Netflix – the Harry & Meghan docu-series and the Heart of Invictus programme – the expert added: “He knows how to be a prince, how to be a soldier and how to play polo. He has done the Prince Harry and Meghan documentary, he has done the soldier Invictus, this is the third thing he has got left.
“But the problem there, of course, is that polo isn’t like football, there is a reason why it is not played on television, is because they have a very small audience for these sorts of things.
“Now, they have got a very good team behind, the one that did the Wrexham football team documentary series, but again this all goes to show that Prince Harry is actually quite out of touch with the public, because of course polo is the sports of Kings, so as much as he tries to tell us that he is distanced from the monarchy and a man of the people, this does really goes to show that he is still part of that very exclusive elite set.”
Despite relocating to California with his family in 2020, after he stepped back from royal duties, the Duke remains a keen polo player.
The polo series’ showrunner is Miloš Balać who, as noted by the royal commentator, was behind the acclaimed Welcome to Wrexham docu-series released on Disney+ which detailed the work being carried out by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on the Welsh football team.
Both Meghan and Harry are listed as executive producers of the polo programme, while the Duke is not currently credited in this role for the announced lifestyle programme.
Archewell said in its press release that both shows were in the early stages of production. Titles and release dates, the organisation said, would be revealed “in the coming months”.
