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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Prince Charles in The Crown

119 replies

CardoMondo · 07/12/2020 22:34

Ok I know it’s fictional (supposedly) but my god why did they make Charles so dippy and gormless?! I’m on season 3 - Charles is a young man but acts like a bloody 3 year old, all the OTT excitement and hand flapping inbetween looking worried and confused all the time ... most of the characters seem pretty true to their “real like counterparts” but Charles? Surely he wasn’t like this in real life? I can’t stand him! He comes across as a total idiot! (In the drama that is)

AIBU to think the writers really did the dirty on Charles in this?

OP posts:
TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/12/2020 10:10

Does anyone know exactly how far they are going to take it?

DynamoKev · 10/12/2020 10:11

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

Does anyone know exactly how far they are going to take it?
Perhaps the writers and producers?
TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/12/2020 10:15

I thought they might have said at some point!

knittingaddict · 10/12/2020 10:19

@Dozer

Recommend the recent ‘You’re Wrong About’ podcast episodes on Charles and Di - US social history / journo types talking about it, using biographies etc.

Charles comes across pretty badly IMO!

Hey, I'm a You're Wrong About fan too. I love that podcast so much and the Diana one was excellent.
GetOffYourHighHorse · 10/12/2020 10:19

'If you go by the media, they won't have anything about Harry and meghan at all by the time they get there.'

Yes I read that. My point was imagine if they did. Misrepresented the fall out between Harry and William. It would be seen to be in very bad taste specially as Harry is raking in millions from Netflix. It just seems weird. Charles, Camilla, the Queen and possibly Diana's tragic death all fair game as it's 'entertainment', yet Peter Morgan seems to develop a conscience when it comes to other younger members of the RF.

knittingaddict · 10/12/2020 10:21

Although Diana didn't come across all that well either. Pushing her stepmother down the stairs was probably not her finest hour. I think both Charles and Diana were damaged by a dysfunctional and weird upbringing.

CakeRequired · 10/12/2020 10:29

Yes I read that. My point was imagine if they did. Misrepresented the fall out between Harry and William. It would be seen to be in very bad taste specially as Harry is raking in millions from Netflix. It just seems weird. Charles, Camilla, the Queen and possibly Diana's tragic death all fair game as it's 'entertainment', yet Peter Morgan seems to develop a conscience when it comes to other younger members of the RF.

Oh yeah if they were or are going to do that, it will be shouting matches galore between the both of them. And then the reports of meghan reducing kate to tears? They will not come out of this well if it goes ahead. I mean that will be in several years from now, the contract between Harry and Netflix might be over by then and they'll do it regardless. Or more likely, Netflix will have cancelled the crown as it's no longer new enough.

TheKeatingFive · 10/12/2020 10:36

They always said they wouldn’t go as far as the Wills/Harry generation. That Diana death would be a cut off.

I don’t think that’s changed? I know they’re talking about 2 rather than 1 more series, but I read somewhere that was to give the late 80s/90s more space.

Bluntness100 · 10/12/2020 10:40

Honestly I think they were both very very unhappy in the marriage, and it was a huge mistake. They both will have felt trapped. As said, i think they had three dates before they got engaged, they barely knew each other, it was more like an audition to fill a position than falling in love and getting married,

It’s weird in hindsight, we all watched that wedding, the sort of “fairytale” story line, and although it was acknowledged she was young, we really all should have been saying. “ fuck me, she’s a teenager he’s only met three times,what’s happening here then”. But most folks bought into the fairy tale and didn’t question it too hard. It also wasn’t really known they didn’t really know each other at all before they got engaged and had barely met.

He married as he needed to find a suitable virgin and have kids, the heir and spare. She married as she was a starry eyed teen excited over what was involved, future queen, living a life of huge privilege etc. Possibly even romanticised how he’d fall in love with her.

It could have worked, they could have had their kids and quietly had their discreet affairs, both living independent lives, co parenting and getting together for social events, but it got to the stage they couldn’t tolerate each other.

Overall it’s a very sad situation.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/12/2020 10:43

@TheKeatingFive

They always said they wouldn’t go as far as the Wills/Harry generation. That Diana death would be a cut off.

I don’t think that’s changed? I know they’re talking about 2 rather than 1 more series, but I read somewhere that was to give the late 80s/90s more space.

If it was me I would finish in 2002, with Margaret’s death and the Golden Jubilee.
Snog · 10/12/2020 11:00

I find the whole royal family to be a joke. Not so much the Queen I'd still prefer not to have a monarch at all.

CaptainMyCaptain · 10/12/2020 11:04

It also wasn’t really known they didn’t really know each other at all before they got engaged and had barely met.
I think the story was she was an old family friend so we assumed they'd known each other quite well since childhood. I remember being aware, though, that she was fulfilling the requirements for the 'post' of Queen - a virgin with no history. Fergie, when she came along was quite a contrast. I'm sure I remember a news report that Diana had had a medical check up after the engagement - I wonder what that was for.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/12/2020 11:08

I was studying at a language school in Germany when the Martin Bashir interview came out and I remember the utter disbelief of the rest of my class (who were from all over Europe and the Far East) when I explained the reason he had married someone so young was that she had to be a virgin...
I think they were all thinking that the UK was even more bonkers and stuck in the past than they had realised.

GetOffYourHighHorse · 10/12/2020 11:13

'find the whole royal family to be a joke. Not so much the Queen I'd still prefer not to have a monarch at all.'

Yes I do too. All the bowing and scraping from staff, the curtsying and long wined ceremonies. Just let them have their castles, do the charity work and be ambassadors without the constant ma'm and your highness/your majesty outdated crap.

DynamoKev · 10/12/2020 13:02

It’s weird in hindsight, we all watched that wedding, the sort of “fairytale” story line, and although it was acknowledged she was young, we really all should have been saying. “ fuck me, she’s a teenager he’s only met three times,what’s happening here then”.

I am about the same age as Diana (would have been). I knew it was bollocks at the time - I didn't bother to watch the ceremony - went for a walk in the countryside far away from it all.

I'm actually not strongly pro or anti monarchy although I do think it's an outdated setup that The Queen has theoretical power. With that said she does seem to have the potential to at least ask Prime Ministers not to destroy society the way Thatcher did.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/12/2020 13:13

@GetOffYourHighHorse

'find the whole royal family to be a joke. Not so much the Queen I'd still prefer not to have a monarch at all.'

Yes I do too. All the bowing and scraping from staff, the curtsying and long wined ceremonies. Just let them have their castles, do the charity work and be ambassadors without the constant ma'm and your highness/your majesty outdated crap.

Absolutely.

One of the bits of series 2 that underlined the stupidity was when Margaret can’t announce her engagement to Armstrong Jones till the queen has had her baby because protocol.
It made even less sense than the not being able to marry Peter because he was divorced thing. At least there was a trace of logic there even if it was unspeakably cruel, but the protocol thing was completely pointless.

Rae36 · 10/12/2020 13:15

Hey, I'm a You're Wrong About fan too. I love that podcast so much and the Diana one was excellent

Me three. The first episode in particular where the American hosts were just so surprised by the weirdness of British upper class dating rituals in the 70s and 80s, it was really funny.

IcedPurple · 10/12/2020 13:31

It made even less sense than the not being able to marry Peter because he was divorced thing. At least there was a trace of logic there even if it was unspeakably cruel, but the protocol thing was completely pointless

Margaret could have married Peter and retained almost all of her privileges other than her place in the line of succession - which was of little practical importance given that the queen already had 2 healthy children at this point. However, letters which recently came to light showed that Margaret's passion for Townsend cooled and she didn't really want to marry him after all.

The 'thwarted love' story makes for great TV, but it just that, a story. Same with the idea that Charles and Camilla would have married in the 70s had it not been for the palace forbidding him to do so. The idea of them getting married probably never occured to either of them, not least because she was besotted with Andrew Parker Bowles.

Dozer · 11/12/2020 15:35

Yay, other You’re Wrong About fans! I enjoy the cheery relationship / chemistry the hosts have!

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