This BBC comedy series was set in 1782, in the court of Louis XVI at the Palace of Versailles in France.
Outside the gates, the starving, disease-ridden peasants are on the verge of revolting while inside lives one of the most hated, despised and loathed women in all of France – not Marie Antoinette – but Colombine, the Comtesse de Vache (Jennifer Saunders).
Aided by her faithful, busty maid Lisette (Dawn French), Colombine skulks around the palace, uncovering the dark secrets of her fellow nobles, always leaving her well prepared to outdo her jealous rival Madame de Plonge (Alison Steadman) and her innocent yet sharp-witted daughter Eveline (Lucy Punch).
Colombine’s acid-tongued courtier, Bouffant (Adrian Scarborough), has the difficult task of keeping her at the forefront of French fashion to aid in her upstaging efforts – whether it be a wig in the style of a “glorious man of war, abreast in huge waves of hair” or a splendid dress to wear to a royal copulation.
Over six episodes, Colombine is challenged to seduce the Marquis de Bonvie (Adam James); accused of the brutal dismemberment of her bitter rival, the Marquise de Foufou and imprisoned in the palace dungeons (“I demand to be chained to a nicer wall” she complains, to no avail); “grossly debauched” by the Marquis de Sade (Richard E Grant), who has escaped from the Bastille (again); and invited to a unique social event at the palace – a public demonstration of the affection Marie Antoinette (Elizabeth Berrington) has for the King.
Kathy Burke guested as Colombine’s penniless, hated little sister, Cecile, whom Colombine tries to marry off to gay nobleman Duc D’Onan, who is offering a huge commission to anyone who can find him a suitable wife to restore his macho image after being caught in a compromising position with a blacksmith.
Episodes
The Pox | Murder | The Portrait | Making Voopee | A Marriage of Convenience | The Royal Command Performance
Lisette
Dawn French Colombine, Comtesse de Vache
Jennifer Saunders Bouffant
Adrian Scarborough Eveline
Lucy Punch Madame de Plonge
Alison Steadman
Video
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Colombine’s acid-tongued courtier, Bouffant (Adrian Scarborough), has the difficult task of keeping her at the forefront of French fashion to aid in her upstaging efforts – whether it be a wig in the style of a “glorious man of war, abreast in huge waves of hair” or a splendid dress to wear to a royal copulation.
