, who will believe that what they watch here is historical fact when it damned well isn't. In that regard, possibly one of the most offensive scenes is the one between the then Prince of Wales and John Major, because it depicts the former especially as a scheming idiot. That scheming idiot is now our King and Head of State and, given the complete fiction of how he is seen to){kind=link}
The show’s producers should be ashamed of themselves – this is our King, our country and our constitution, for pity’s sake
The next series of The Crown is about to be streamed, and whatever else is wrong with this essentially parasitical confection, its manufacturers cannot be faulted for their advance publicity. The media have been saturated with pictures of the Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki looking even more like the late Diana, Princess of Wales than the late Diana, Princess of Wales did. And word has leaked out that an entirely fictional storyline – though aren’t they almost all? – about the then Prince of Wales having a conversation in 1991 with his mother’s prime minister, John Major, about nudging him to nudge her to abdicate – opens a series that quickly moves on to Her late Majesty’s Annus Horribilis, 1992.
Indeed, the fourth episode concludes with Imelda Staunton, playing the late Queen, making the speech in which, shortly after the marital breakdowns of three of her four children and the burning down of part of Windsor Castle, she allowed herself a rare and entirely justified moment of public lamentation.
Although the Annus Horribilis speech is based on fact, every private conversation in The Crown is a figment of the writer’s imagination. Dame Judi Dench, who knows a thing or two about drama, has recently said that each episode of the series should be prefaced by a statement that it is fictional, and just happens to use real people as its characters – without their consent, of course, at least until the Duchess of Sussex turns up in it.
In that sense, it is not only parasitical but exploitative, not just of its subjects, but also of some gullible members of its audience (especially outside Britain), who will believe that what they watch here is historical fact when it damned well isn’t. In that regard, possibly one of the most offensive scenes is the one between the then Prince of Wales and John Major, because it depicts the former especially as a scheming idiot. That scheming idiot is now our King and Head of State and, given the complete fiction of how he is seen to angle for his mother’s throne, he should sue for defamation of character, and put these weasels out of their tawdry business once and for all.