THE CROWN. (2016-2023) AN HISTORICAL DRAMA CREATED BY PETER MORGAN.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
My kids and I have been glued to this Netflix show all December long. We were, quite simply, addicted to the drama and the brilliant, sparkly writing, not to mention the glorious period costumes and the gorgeous interiors and exteriors.
It tells the story of the second Queen Elizabethan era, from her coronation in 1952 to the marriage of Prince Charles and Queen Camilla in 2005. There are six seasons, containing ten hour-long episodes each. The main cast is changed every two seasons to allow for the natural ageing of the characters. This really pissed one off in the beginning, but one grew used to it…!
Claire Foy is phenomenal as the young Queen in seasons One and Two. She’s clearly madly in love with her husband, Prince Philip, who, at this stage in the show, is portrayed as being repeatedly unfaithful to his best gal.
She’s devastated by his lack of feeling, but the stiff upper lip endowed upon her by her grandmamma, Queen Mary, has already kicked in and she bears her disappointments stoically.
We see also the abdication of King Edward VIII, Elizabeth’s father’s brother, who gives up the throne in order to marry the love of his life, American socialite, Wallis Simpson. This is the shocking event that catapults Elizabeth onto the throne, as her father, now King George the Sixth, only lives for a few years after taking over from his brother.
I love John Lithgow as Winston Churchill, by the way, and also Pip Torrens as Tommy Lascelles, the Queen’s advisor and the Man who says No to Everything, lol. He’s such a stickler for tradition, Gawd bless ‘im.
Poor Princess Margaret, the party princess, marries sleazy photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones, after being denied the love of her life, as she sees it, by the Queen… Group Captain Anthony Jones… Margaret turns into Helena Bonham-Carter in seasons Three and Four, a hard-drinking, chain-smoking raconteur, the life and soul of every party, but at her core, an emptiness…
Olivia Colman is a dead ringer for the more middle-aged Queen as she strides spryly around the grounds and stables in all weathers with her beloved horses and dogs. She is obliged around this time to navigate the Thatcher era, and the first ever female Prime Minister, a novelty for all. She has many official chats with the Iron Lady herself.
Elizabeth may not particularly like Mrs. T., but there’s a mutual respect between the two women, who, after all, are the hardest-working gals in the United Kingdom. Gillian Anderson is sublime as the delightfully posh-voiced lady boss; though I may not agree with her politics, I cried when Gillian Anderson as Maggie got the push, lol. Don’t judge me; she’s a bloody good actress!
Elsewhere, Camilla Shand-Parker-Bowles makes her first appearance, even before the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana. I was kind of shocked by this. I never knew Camilla was a fixture as far back as that. I always just assumed she turned up later in the story.
But no, she was already in the picture as the real love of Charles’s life by the time of the royal wedding. I liked her, funnily enough, though I can’t even imagine how her husband felt, having to answer the phone every five minutes to Prince Charles asking to speak to his wife…!
Charles is appallingly-behaved towards Diana in seasons Three and Four, spending as much of his time as possible away from her in different palaces (it’s well for some!), and screaming at her that Camilla is the love of his life and he’d do anything to protect her.
He did very little, it seemed, to protect Diana, his wife, from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I felt disgusted with him and very much on Diana’s side, all the way through to the portrayal of her horrible death.
Charles as played by Dominic West in the last two seasons seems to be much more Diana-friendly, but it’s too late then. I absolutely loved the drama with the Al Fayeds, and was genuinely shocked at the sight of Dodi’s dad, Mohamed, so cruelly manipulating his eldest son into orchestrating a relationship with Diana, just to suit his own ends. The stuff I didn’t know about before watching this show…!
Imelda Staunton was surely born to play the Queen in old age. The Queen never puts a foot wrong, never uses the wrong fork or wears an inappropriate dress, never shows an emotion beyond mild pleasure or mild disapproval, never slobs around on the couch wearing sweatpants, never even raises her voice.
Just think of all the emotions she must have suppressed over the years, and yet she seemed to be as healthy as a horse, so fair play to her. She got up, got dressed and ‘Queened’ every day for seventy-odd years. She beat Queen Victoria, as she so obviously wanted to do.
I don’t believe in monarchies and royal families because I think everyone is born equal, and I certainly think that the world’s wealth should be more evenly distributed (so much money for one family is utterly, utterly obscene!), but, if you’re looking for a steady, reliable sovereign who shows up every day and ‘Queens’ with all the breath in her body, then I guess Lizzie’s your man. And it doesn’t seem like Philip was ever much of a support, even going so far as to say to her face that she was his intellectual inferior. Oh yeah, like he’s so smart…!
By the time the show ends, Charles and the endlessly patient Camilla have finally tied the knot. The Queen even relents enough to give them her blessing, though Charles is going out of his mind waiting for her to step down, something she’s clearly not going to do. Blame Claire Foy, folks, haha. It’s all her fault.
Princes Andrew and Edward barely get a look-in, and not much air-time for Anne either. William’s met Kate Middleton by now, whose mum is not dissimilar from Mohamed Al Fayed in terms of manipulation, and ‘bad boy’ royal Harry is already acting out, presumably in an effort to deal with his feelings surrounding his mother’s death.
Elizabeth Debicki makes an almost unbelievably believable Diana. Charles Dance was great as Lord Mountbatten, and Jane Lapotaire as Philip’s mother, Princess Alice. I bawled my eyes out at the death of Princess Margaret.
The entire show is moving, well-written and compelling. And so addictive, we were never able to watch just one episode. Two, three or even four was much more the norm. And we learned so much history! Best TV series since The Sopranos. Don’t go breaking my balls over it now. The critic is always right…
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