When we first heard that a new series titled The Duchess was coming to Netflix, we wondered how we could have let the news of a Kate Middleton or Meghan Markle documentary slip by us.
It turns out the upcoming series has nothing to do with the members of the royal family at all. In fact, it’s a scripted dramedy from comedian Katherine Ryan. Naturally, we were still curious and did a deep dive to find out all that we could about the British show. Read on for everything we know about The Duchess.
According to Netflix’s official synopsis, the six-episode series follows the “powerful and problematic choices of a fashionably disruptive single mom living in London. Her daughter, Olive, is her greatest love so she debates a second child with her greatest enemy—Olive’s dad. Can two wrongs make another right?”
Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan didn't just create and write the series—she produces and stars in it too. She has previously released two stand-up specials on the platform, Katherine Ryan: In Trouble and Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room.
In an interview with the Radio Times, she opened up about the experience of doing a scripted show.
“I’ve never written a sitcom so that makes it very different [from my previous Netflix specials], and it was a challenge because I’m not a screenwriter who’s experienced, I don’t know the rules, I’m learning the rules. I’m also learning that Netflix allows you to break a lot of those rules, and they just want authentic voices from all over the world,” she told the outlet. “The Duchess is super authentic, I think, to my personality, to my stage persona, because it’s a disruptive mum who’s a bad person but a good mum. She’s fashionable, she loves being a mother, she’s not sad about it—it’s me, yes.”
Aside from Ryan, The Duchess also stars Steen Raskopoulos, Rory Keenan, Michelle De Swarte and Kate Bryne.
According to the streaming service, all six episodes of season one are coming to Netflix on September 11. Yup, that’s just a few short weeks away.
Thankfully, yes!
Netflix recently dropped the first trailer for the show, which introduces us to Katherine and her family and friends. Watch the entire two-minute clip above.