I don't think anyone could take "The Palace" seriously either as an endorsement or repudiation of Britain's monarchical heritage,but it's certainly jolly good fun and gave everybody a nice break in Lithuania. These aren't the Windsors of course,there's not enough implacable undying animosity and power - crazed egomania on display to even approach our own dear Royal Family,but it's spiffing behind - the -doors stuff that might make one think that there was some inside knowledge obliquely revealed. There's something almost Shakespearian about the plot concerning the sudden death of a king and the manoeuvering of his successors and their various factions in the power vacuum that it causes. But nobody ends up mincemeat - as Cole Porter neatly put it,merely thwarted and retired snarling. None more so that the imperious Miss S.Winkelman,every inch the unregenerate aristo as the oldest child who has the misfortune to be of the wrong gender( a law since removed from the statute books in order to bring the monarchy more in line with the 19th century.) She has the intelligence and beauty to dominate every scene where she appears,and has quite rightly subsequently found her place in Society with a capital "S" by marrying an amiable and unambitious Royal of her own. The other outstanding performance is that of Miss Z.Telfer as the new King's P.A. over whom he exercises the droit de seigneur rather hastily and lives to regret it. "The Palace" isn't great drama but it is great entertainment particularly to those of us who have watched the lives of our Royals lived on the front pages for sixty - odd years with wry amusement and resignation. Life may not always imitate art - but it should perhaps in the case of "The Palace".

"The Palace" looks like one of those American post-adolescent dramas where beautiful young 20-somethings are scheming and screwing at every opportunity. Even the role of the queen, recently widowed, seems to have been written for Joan Collins.Cheap, tawdry, and ridiculous though it is it makes amusing fluff, a pleasant diversion. If you want to laugh at young actors struggling a little too hard to look like they're taking themselves seriously and roll your eyes at the absurdity this could be a lot of fun. In fact, one has to wonder how much the creative staff for this silliness just saw the whole thing as a spoof. If anyone meant this show to be taken seriously it's an epic fail, but as a take-off on American dramas, it's really quite funny.

I've read all of the other seven reviews of this series. Most of the reviewers stated that they were living in Britain and the ones that didn't all seemed to know something about the channel that aired the show. There is also several comparisons to a show from here called 'The West Wing'. Also, all of the reviews were written from January through March of 2008 which is, it seems, when the series was first aired on the ITV channel.I have never seen 'The West Wing' and I have no idea what ITV or channel 4 is all about and that's fine because none of that has any bearing on 'The Palace'. This show stands on its own as a good, high quality series centered around a fictional royal family and the internal strive and back-biting that begins to take place after the death of the king, which starts the series and everything gets rolling from there. This is a enjoyable little eight episode series and I wish it had gone on longer; I don't think that one can say anything better about serial entertainment; can you?

I don't know where to begin with how bad this show is, ITV has always struggled to compete in the drama stakes against the established quality of the BBC and the indie hipness of Channel 4, the unloved middle child with only the rare gem in the past decade. The palace however is a new low, From the poor acting and directing to the abysmal dialogue and plotting. ITV has never been well acquainted with reality in its Drama, (aside for when Paul Greengrass feels charitable towards the channel) the Bill is as about as far removed from actually policing in the UK as possible, But the Palace takes this to new depths, as it tries to depict the King actually having real power in what is largely a well paid ceremonial role. They have been many comparisons made to the West Wing, and while it is true they are both political dramas, its like Comparing Paul W.S Anderson to Steven Spielberg there both directors, And as with that comparison they really is nothing to compare one is superbly acted directed and brilliantly written by Aaron Sorkin.If i was forced to watch this again i would seriously consider chewing through my own wrists to escape into what ever life is after this. If your desperate for British Political Drama buy House of cards on DVD, and if you like good Drama avoid the Palace like the Plague.