The Crown - series 3

[southeastdweller]

I'm so looking forward to seeing this when it returns next Sunday!

For the first time I've felt sorry for Charles and wondered whether he had as much to do with W&H's normal upbringing as Diana did.

Regardless of the problems with the marriage, it’s always been pretty apparent that he has a close relationship with his sons.

Michael Maloney is fab as Ted Heath - captures his voice (and persona) perfectly.

The Charles Camilla thing is pure fiction apparently:

‘We see the Queen Mother and Lord Mountbatten getting their heads together to kill the unsuitable romance between Prince Charles and Camilla Shand (unsuitable because Camilla has dated other men and therefore has “a past”). The Queen Mother calls in the Parker Bowles and Shand families, Mountbatten tackles Charles and there is even a royal family “council of war”.’

FALSE

‘Anyone with any understanding of relations between the Queen Mother and Mountbatten would realise that they could never get their heads together about anything: they were completely out of sympathy with each other. Nor was there any need to frustrate the romance. Prince Charles was always destined to serve overseas in the Royal Navy. Camilla was in love with Andrew Parker Bowles and in March 1973 the prince was depressed to find she was engaged to him. Jonathan Dimbleby, his biographer, hinted that Prince Charles might have proposed to Camilla around the end of 1972, but “was too young and too uncertain of his feelings to contemplate such a huge step”.’

This article is very good in itself at straightening stories out, & also has a link at the end to a detailed epi by epi analysis

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-crown-series-three-true-or-false-setting-the-record-straight-mvv6gmwj3?wgu=270525_54264_1574252554308_c9a1887e32&wgexpiry=1582028554&utm_source=planit&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_content=22278

Yes the historical jiggery pokery is quite extreme, the trouble is I watch it expecting it all to be to the letter true! Like I read that Princess Alice came to the palace before Prince Philip had even gone to America for that disastrous interview, and the wily journalist was invented, and there wasn't damming reviews of the Royal's television programme...

You then realise they've constructed a gripping narrative out of some things that did happen but quite a few that didn't!

Yes and that thing about the Queen vetoing any further showing of the footage after the first episode. That can't be right because i've seen clips on documentaries and they have prince charles in them - unlike the one shown in that episode.

OK @GiantKitten, I accept that, but there was obviously still a relationship between them because it went on throughout his marriage to Diana.

@JumpiestBatThere was criticism of the documentary at the time, I remember it. Opinion was divided but a lot of people thought it did them a disservice by destroying the mystery and they did present as being very stuffy. I don't remember knowing anything about Princess Alice at the time though.

I've finished my binge watch now. OC might not have been quite as good as CF but I was quite able to suspend my disbelief and go along with it. I'm looking forward to series 4.

I'm overjoyed to have just realised it's a box set so I can binge myself silly later!

I'm on e5. I've decided it's not that OC is bad as the Queen, it's that she's been given so little to get her teeth into in terms of dialogue and action.

I've found that over the series, despite the Queen being the main character, we spend more time exploring other characters, be in Philip, the Queen Mother or Charles and Anne.

Apparently (I've been told by reliable sources), The Crown is pretty accurate. It's certainly ten times better than other royal TV programmes. I love it and have watched all of series 3 which was greedy and has left me bereft, wish I had more to watch.

Agree with QueenOfTheAndals, the characters are very interesting indeed.

As a completely shallow aside, isn't Charles Dance just great? That voice, those eyes...

we must bear in mind artistic license and dramatisation, not documentary.

My mum's family were from North Wales but my Welsh grandfather was a coalminer. (and died of lung disease). I am not sure I dare watch the Aberfan episode, what with the little children, and the English nobs poncing about, and the prevarication about how to help the families, and the general Welshness. I would be weeping away like anything.

Many thanks for the heads up!

To respond to an earlier post

Unfortunately, Prince Phillip not being "good enough" despite being a descendant of Queen V in his own right probably has a lot to do with regressive attitudes about mental health and his mother.

Louis saw the potential as a power play, and was quick to step in, educate and anglicise him.

EoinMcLovesCakeJumperWed 20-Nov-19 18:16:25
As a completely shallow aside, isn't Charles Dance just great? That voice, those eyes...
.........
Quite agree.

Today is their 72nd wedding anniversary but they've actually known each other for 80 years. 80!

Charles Dance is great but he's 80% his standard villain character (see GoT) and 20% Mountbatten.

Too many extremely famous people in the Crown these days. It's distracting. Perhaps they'll go back to relative unknowns in S5.

QueenOfTheAndals
Today is their 72nd wedding anniversary but they've actually known each other for 80 years. 80!

We went on the guided tour of the naval college at Dartmouth last month & the tale of the 1939 Elizabeth-Philip encounter, playing croquet in the garden of the Captain’s house, was one of the highlights

I've started rewatching series 1 and on balance, I think the cast member I miss the most is Vanessa Kirby. She was just wonderful as Margaret.

It's certainly making me feel sorry for people I would never have expected to sympathise with. Philip's midlife crisis and the dressing down he gives to all those stuffy old priests could have come across as self-indulgent with a less nuanced portrayal. And poor Charles, too, never really getting to have anything that makes him happy and getting no acknowledgement or thanks from his mother. I have no idea how accurate any of it is, and I'm still a republican, but I probably wouldn't line them all up against a wall now

I miss Vanessa Kirby too. I’m a big HBC fan but she’s all wrong...

The bit that surprised me was when the Queen snapped and told someone to go away when she was with Porchy in America. And when she realised she'd been rude she said she was going to have to grovel now. Obviously that's just fiction, but it did raise the question over whether they're servants of the people, rather than seeing themselves as part of the aristocracy. They don't seem to have a lot of freedom to follow their own desires and made me realise that being a royal is more of a burden than a privilege.

I think the scenes with Porchy were to show that she was have been perfectly happy as a minor aristocrat breeding horses in obscurity. If Edward VIII hadn't abdicated this was what her life would have been.

There was speculation about the queen and porchies relationship

she was have been perfectly happy as a minor aristocrat breeding horses in obscurity. If Edward VIII hadn't abdicated this was what her life would have been

@captainmycaptain - not at all. David never had children so Elizabeth would have been his heir. She still would have become Wueen, just in her 40's instead of her 29's.