Anyone watching The Crown and despising them for their behaviour to Diana?

[MyGazeboisLeaking]

Obviously it's not a documentary, but enough truth to reinforce what a poor, poor woman she was and how she never had a chance.

The Spencers prided themselves on being more English than the Royals. Diana used to refer to them as "the Germans" in a disparaging way.

So is the official line from The Crown, makers that its total fiction then? I have just started watching and am on episode 5 I think and was wondering how much was made up. Obviously loads of it is true, but that woman who got hit by a bus during the fog never existed and then I was wondering about whether Elizabeth was actually on safari and stuck out in the savannah when her dad died, and whether Edward/David was as much of an arse as he is depicted?

@Al1langdownthecleghole

Fiction it maybe, but it had me (briefly) feeling sorry for Margaret Thatcher. Which is quite an achievement.

I was 12 when Charles & Di married and remember my parents saying she was too young.

Omg I felt sorry for her too, was it when she left balmoral early, cos that didnt happen.

Margaret Thatcher was the only one with her head screwed on! That was true in real life. Gillian Anderson was too stiff and stilted in the way she portrayed her.

Elizabeth was at Treetops in Kenya when her father died. Philip broke the news. Yes, Edward/David was pretty much an arse.

I was thinking the same, catspyjamas. Gillian Anderson seems to be portraying the older Thatcher. In 1981 she was bustling and very energetic.

I despair that people are watching this and taking it for fact.

I’m a bit sad to see the show getting so much flack. I’m really enjoying this series. I loved the first 3 seasons. I spend half the time on my phone googling to see what is true and I’ve learnt so much modern history from doing this.

I found it hard when the cast changed but I think they are all excellent now - I love Tobias Menzies as Prince Phillip.

We happened to watch a documentary about Margaret Thatcher the day before we started watching the crown and I think Gillian Anderson is pretty good - maybe she is portraying an older Thatcher from the get go but a lot of the weird head tilting she does is spot on.

I was a teenager when Diana died. I had absolutely no respect for either her or Charles throughout my whole childhood (despite being given a free mug for being born the year of the royal wedding.) The Crown is actually causing my to have some sympathy for her - but like others have said it’s a dramatisation where the writers are shamelessly manipulating my emotions and they’re doing a great job of it! I think it probably highlights the fact that old fashioned dynastic marriages no longer work in modern society.

It’s fiction but some of it is based on fact - and some is just made up. Margaret Thatcher didn’t ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament when she was losing the leadership battle. Some well know parts of the Diana saga were left out. We didn’t see her throw herself down the stairs pregnant, there wasn’t the chat with her sisters before the wedding when they said “too late, your face is on the tea towels”.

I think the writers and director don't like any of the royal family, nor Margaret Thatcher, very much at all. I don't recall series 1 and 2 lampooning the cast of players to such a degree.

I've watched it all but I just think the whole royal family are weirdos and I'm including Diana in that but I'm also thinking ITS A DRAMA!

The irony about the episode showing Michael Fagan was the grotty council estate he lived on was inherited from the Labour government and although he was claiming the dole he actually had cash in hand work! Apparently he doesn’t like the way he was portrayed - not handsome enough.

not handsome enough! Brilliant!

I haven't watched it but picked up on the fact that she was presented as being mentally unwell. Which, especially everything that had happened in her life, she quite probably was.
She was hounded from a very young age. Her every action was scrutinised.
Does being mentally unwell somehow justify bad behaviour towards an individual by others?

The Royals think anyone who has emotions is mentally unwell. She struck me more as justifiably upset!

@catspyjamas123 But supposing she was mentally unwell? Does that give people the right to treat her badly?
I have MH issues due to significant trauma and my OH supports me through this; he doesn't "stick the knife" in as it were.

Another thing I'd add is that it is or at least was fairly common practice for the upper classes to get married as a business transaction - with common expectation that once heirs are produced they carry on with whomever they please. So marrying a Prince was the ultimate transaction not a fairly tale. It just seems like no one told Diana. It is also why they never really bothered to educate their daughters - Diana as noted above failed to get a single O level so that suited her pretty well. It would have been much tougher on a brighter kid. Luckily most of the RF are not blessed in the brains department - Harry has personally admitted this. He's not the brightest tool in the box. So joining the armed forces - a common alternate generation duty in aristo families - works too.

Its hardly surprising that children brought up by nanny's and governesses and presented to their parents for an hour before their bedtime and then packed away to boarding school are pretty cold and formal. So we can't really froth at the mouth at their indifference. I'm sure its accurate that Liz and Phil left their kids in Britain for 6 months when they went on tour in Australasia. Its one thing I would say in Diana's favour is that's not what she wanted for her kids which is presumably why they more resemble human beings than the older generations.

@catspyjamas123

The irony about the episode showing Michael Fagan was the grotty council estate he lived on was inherited from the Labour government and although he was claiming the dole he actually had cash in hand work! Apparently he doesn’t like the way he was portrayed - not handsome enough.

He was really living the dream.

What do I know but seems to me the royals were playing by the “old rules” you did your duty kings had mistresses queens put up and shut up and that just did not work at all in modern times.

Mental health issues would have been very differently treated back then dependent on milieu. Even in the 90s I remember self-harm and eating disorders being untreated, brushed under the carpet or something to be 'embarrassed' about.

@Nicknamegoeshere no of course she shouldn’t have been treated badly whatever the reason. Charles seemed cold and hard-hearted - not an ounce of sympathy for her. She struck me as very alone in an extremely difficult situation.

@Pegase Totally agree. It would have been so very hard for her as she wouldn't have felt able to ask for help. There was an expection of her to be a "Perfect Princess". To admit to MH issues would have been seen to have contradicted this back in the day.
No wonder her sons are so keen to challenge this notion and to bring MH out into the open (and complete respect to them for doing so). The fact that they can talk about their own MH struggles is a credit to them, and something that their mother was never afforded.

Its one thing I would say in Diana's favour is that's not what she wanted for her kids which is presumably why they more resemble human beings than the older generations.

Yes I think she does deserve credit for breaking the cycle of cold, formal, distant parenting.

but seems to me the royals were playing by the “old rules” you did your duty kings had mistresses queens put up and shut up and that just did not work at all in modern times.

I agree.

It’s just so shocking to see a 19 year old put in that position with literally no one (royals or her own family) giving a fuck about her mental well being.

@MsTSwift

What do I know but seems to me the royals were playing by the “old rules” you did your duty kings had mistresses queens put up and shut up and that just did not work at all in modern times.

Yes and in the old days a royal couple could live separate lives and only need to be seen together for the public/ceremonial bits and so it wasn’t deemed important for them to be compatible. But by the 80s the British public wanted their royals to be the same as everyone else in that respect.