Every Britcom has a royal visit episode. Maybe the BBC requires it? But you never do actually see the Queen. She is alluded to. An offscreen presence, like Sheridan.
Because she has been queen for a long time, since the dawn of sitcoms, the weird thing is that however old the show, the royal everyone’s talking about is the same one as is still (why does this sound wrong) on the throne. Queen Elizabeth. Not the first, the one with the plucked hairline from Blackadder. The second, presumably. Unless it’s like with Napoleons where they effectively jumped from the first to the third.
Every Britcom character has an attitude towards the royals. That stance—obsequious, smitten, revolted, bored—tells you everything you need to know about who they are in the world of their show. Diana Trent?
I hear the Queen is not doing well. This feels very end-of-history. But if your viewing history stops well before 2022, you’d never know.