{"id":355112,"date":"2025-08-18T21:21:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355112\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T21:21:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:21:26","slug":"5-things-the-spinoff-series-gets-hilariously-wrong-about-the-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355112\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things the spinoff series gets hilariously wrong about the capital"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember when I started at Time Out, I had to provide a \u2018fun fact\u2019 about myself, and I decided to share that the Real Housewives canon would be my Mastermind specialist subject. So, dear reader, you can only imagine the sheer glee I felt when I found out that us Londoners were getting our own offshoot of the Bravo juggernaut. Will it have the excess and broken-wine-glass wielding<\/a> drama of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? (Or ROBH, as us Bravoholics call it.) The false leg tossing<\/a> and outlandish fashion of The Real Housewives of New York? (aka RHONY) The endless family feuding and table flipping<\/a> of The Real Housewives of New Jersey? In short, no.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within the first five minutes of The Real Housewives of London, the ladies have claimed that London is \u2018paved with gold\u2019 rather than the ciggie butts, mystery green slime and stinkpipes<\/a> that we\u2019re more used to seeing on our jaunts around the city. There\u2019s an immediate air of opulence that\u2019s in line with what we\u2019re used to seeing from the franchise, along with an unwelcome sense of\u2026 snobbery? Set almost exclusively around SW1, the first episode lays the framework for glamorous getaways, larger-than-life characters and catfights over menial misunderstandings from its six cast members (Amanda Cronin, Juliet Angus, Karen Loderick-Peace, Juliet Mayhew, Panthea Parker and Nessie Welschinger).
But between all the air kisses and high society antics, this offshoot series seems to forget where it\u2019s actually set. Here are a few, ahem, plot holes RHOL has fallen into.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nPhotograph: HayuKaren Loderick-Peace in \u2018The Real Housewives of London\u2019 <\/p>\n

1. Chelsea is the epicentre of\u00a0London<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do we need another show that puts Kensington and Chelsea right in the centre of its story? Arguably not. Rather than covering the antics of overly confident semi-professional Instagram models wasting their trust funds, we\u2019re watching middle aged women with constructed frenemy-ships gallivanting across the UK\u2019s most exclusive postcodes. And yes, while some part of the Housewives charm is its finery, you can\u2019t help but wish they were a little cooler. More Broadway Market, less Belgravia please.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0London is a city of mad excess\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dogs getting facials, homes with private clinics in them, buckets of caviar at house parties. All the glitz and glam of what you want from a television show as excessive as Housewives. At one point one of the women exclaims, \u2018No cost of living crisis here!\u2019 And we can see that no, in their world there is not. But cross Hyde Park and you\u2019ll find a city that\u2019s very, very different. Most of us shop at Tesco, not Fortnums. Kids aren\u2019t all \u2018academics\u2019 that go to boarding school and are named after Shakespeare characters (Grange Hill was probably more accurate than this). And you can\u2019t really drive an open-roof car around central London unless you fancy inhaling bus fumes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nPhotograph: HayuPanthea Parker en route to the palace <\/p>\n

3. Everyone is descended from aristocracy\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the fun of Housewives has always been its subject’s delusions of grandeur. Let us not forget Sonja Morgan of RHONY, whose claim to fame is that she \u2018partied with John-John Kennedy and Madonna all the time<\/a>.\u2019 The cast of the London offshoot take it all a step further, claiming kinship with royals and husbands of aristocratic descent. Does it border on being uncomfortably hubristic? When the opening line is: \u2018London is a city of heritage and hierarchy,\u2019 well, yeah, it does feel a little icky.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

4. The houses are filled with staff\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is something hilariously ironic about hosting an International Women\u2019s Day party run by an army of female housekeepers all dressed in pink uniforms. And while previous Housewives franchises have a kind of hilarity to the concept of \u2018staff\u2019 (again, I\u2019m looking at Ms Morgan with her team of unpaid \u2018interns\u2019<\/a> or Lisa Vanderpump of ROBH whose restaurant staff make a couple of great crossover appearances from Vanderpump Rules)<\/a> there\u2019s, again, something a little unsettling about the whole setup.<\/p>\n

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\nPhotograph: HayuJuliet Angus <\/p>\n

5. The stiff upper lip still exists\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

One thing I\u2019ve always loved about Londoners is\u00a0the dark sense of humour. And you\u2019d expect some of that to come through as the Housewives franchise crosses the Atlantic. However, the women seem a little too prudish and uppity to be actually laughing at themselves in the same way that classic cast members are able to do. I\u2019ll never forget former RHONY cast member Dorinda Medley\u2019s iconic line: \u2018‘I’ll tell ya how I’m doin’, not well bitch!<\/a>\u2019 While the seeds of classic Housewives motifs are being sown; there\u2019s some sort of entanglement with Juliet Mayhew and rival Panthea Parker already, with Parker ferociously claiming Mayhew \u2018borrows her clothes\u2019<\/a>, I can\u2019t help but yearn for more fun. Yes, throw shade about someone endlessly renting looks if you must, but maybe keep it to a snarky confessional clip rather than a downright public shaming. It\u2019s really not that deep, is it?<\/p>\n

Is there a trailer for\u00a0The Real Housewives of London?<\/p>\n

Yes, and you can watch it below.<\/p>\n

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The Real Housewives of London is available to stream on Hayu now.<\/strong><\/p>\n