Spoilt, anarachic, Catherine Tate is Queen Of Oz.

Upcoming UK / Australian comedy Queen Of Oz is about to have its British debut on BBC One.

The series stars Catherine Tate as Princess Georgiana, the spare to the British throne whose party girl lifestyle and constant public scandals threaten the monarchy’s future.

In an effort to get her as far away from London as possible, and at the same time, hoping to prevent Australia from leaving the Commonwealth, Georgie’s parents send her off to Australia to become their Queen, along with her new staff – Director of Communications Zoe, Private Secretary Bernard, Head of Security Officer Marc, Personal Assistant Matthew, Lady In Waiting Anabel, Master of the Household Weiwei.

“She’s a reluctant Queen as she really thought she was going to live out her life going to parties, not do much of anything or have any responsibility,” says Tate.

“So she gets a very rude awakening getting shipped off to Australia as their newly-crowned Queen. She’s very difficult, very hard to work for and doesn’t make it easy for anyone. She’s spoilt, entitled and deeply unpleasant which of course makes her a great character to play.  She does evolve somewhat over the series but at her core she’s fun and she’s anarchic. I think when you’re playing someone like that, you don’t need people to love her, you don’t really need anyone to like her even, you just need them to laugh at her.

“Georgie’s attitude to Australia was formed when she was sent to Canberra to go to boarding school when she was 13 and bullied relentlessly, so she doesn’t come here with a whole host of great memories. However as in all shows, of course she’s going to evolve and we wanted to make Australia itself a character. Her relationship to Australia really takes the place of the usual romcom, they start off hating each other and in the end, as it progresses, she has to come to love it because she’s its Queen.… She’s her Queen… Australia is a female.”

The historic Swifts mansion in Darling Point is used as the major filming location.

“Macquarie House as we call it in the show, that was a coup! Walking into that location for the first time we were open mouthed because we did actually feel like we were filming The Crown! Absolutely sumptuous and I think this historic gem in the middle of Sydney works fantastically on screen.’

The cast also includes Rob Collins, Anthony Brandon-Wong, Robert Coleby and Daniel Lapaine.

On filming in Australia, she added, “I always think it can look a bit odd when you are clearly not where you are supposed to be, so there was never a question that it wasn’t all going to be there.

“I loved being there for sure. We meet such a lot of great people and it’s always good to have new friends in faraway places. I also miss the acai bowls!”

The series written by Tate and Jeff Gutheim is produced by Lingo Pictures in association with The Development Partnership.

Updated: 9:35pm Wednesday June 21 on ABC.