The Crown - series 3

[southeastdweller]

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

David wrote letters complaining about how much he lated being King. He was sick of people shouting at him on walkabouts, being gawped at. He sounded like a very spoilt and immature man. I wonder if Wallis was a convenient 'out'. I think he wanted all the perks but none of the responsibility.

This is an interesting video

I can't help thinking that Wallis could have left if she'd wanted to.

There must have been plenty of opportunities before it got so far as the abdication being talked about, let alone happening!

I've mentioned this before on other threads but the Laurie Graham novel Gone With The Windsors is absolutely hilarious about this whole period. Not claiming it to be accurate, but if you like reading about this sort of thing it's great - it's a comic novel inspired by actual events, I suppose.

I've read that Wallis only ever intended to secure a better place for herself and Ernest in high society but when David abdicated she felt she had no choice but to marry him,

We're not supposed to feel sorry for her though are we?

I didn't feel sorry for her at all. I thought she was a calculated, quite dreadful woman and David was a spoiled brat.

They were both awful and didn't they plan alongside the Nazis that Edward/David would resume his throne if the Nazis won the war? Maybe Hilter said he didn't have to do walkabouts with the peasants

I've mentioned this before on other threads but the Laurie Graham novel Gone With The Windsors is absolutely hilarious about this whole period I've read it it's really funny.

I think David was pushed out by the Establishment because of his Nazi connections and the whole Wallis thing was a smokescreen.

@Goldenchildsmum

Just watched that video in full. Very interesting, and also sad.

Captain I thought that but what I can't understand is why the RF maintained any relationship with him after the 1950's when the files were released showing he was a Nazi. The RF could have cut them off and no-one would have thought badly of them for it.

I know what you mean, you'd think they would disassociate themselves completely.

No. One cannot have ex kings wandering about the world gathering supporters and bankrollers for possible overthrow of the State they have abdicated. Regard the relationship with Hitler which had the embryonic makings of this. They definitely had to be 'managed'. It's a shame Diana didn't realise this in her turn.

They had to be managed but once the Nazi story broke, they could have been managed rather more robustly.

definitely. However they were dispatched to the Bahamas, I think, and paid sufficiently well thereafter to keep them out of trouble. Look how Andrew and Fergie scrounge around the world begging for handouts from all manner of dubious folk. Unbecoming, certainly, actively dangerous when closer to power.

I think David was pushed out by the Establishment because of his Nazi connections and the whole Wallis thing was a smokescreen.

It's not quite so simple as that - after all, there were many members of the Establishment who in 1936 still had some admiration for Hitler's efforts to restore the German economy. There were many other reasons why members of the Establishment were uneasy, to say the least, about Edward as King - his efforts to reform Court traditions, his careless attitude to State papers (which apparently were left lying about at his country house Fort Belvedere and were sometimes returned with stains from drinks glasses on them), his outspokenness on matters which the Government thought he should keep quiet about (including foreign policy) and his lack of regard for constitutional precedent all made them fear he would prove a maverick. Basically, of course, he wasn't King George V.
His attitude to Germany compounded these fears, but it was not the only element. And a major element of their suspicion of Edwards's intentions towards Germany was Wallis's friendship (and even rumoured affair) with Von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador. The fear that if she married the King, that friendship would be used to influence the King was an important factor in the abdication crisis.

Just finished the moon landings one. That and the Welsh one have been fairly turgid - I found myself picking up my iPad to do Christmas shopping.

I didn’t mind the moon landings one but probably because I had it on as background while cooking.
I really like Tobias Menzies as Phillip

You see, I know most of this thread loves him in the role, but for me he is really missing Philip’s sparkiness, that Matt Smith captured and that the real thing clearly still has even knocking 100. He feels far more subdued/repressed.

I truly hope season 4 doesn't include the conversation about Charles and the elusive tampon 🤮🤮

David was a royal celebrity of Diana proportions but he was also a deeply damaged individual with mother issues who was allegedly abused by one of his nursemaids.

You see, I know most of this thread loves him in the role, but for me he is really missing Philip’s sparkiness, that Matt Smith captured and that the real thing clearly still has even knocking 100. He feels far more subdued/repressed.
Agree on that even though I like both actors. I do miss the raw sexual chemistry Claire and Matt had too. You always felt they were about to fall into bed at any moment, even in the middle of a blazing row. I know they are playing the characters older now, but the real Queen still looks at Phil, faithless randy old goat that he is quite adoringly at times evennin their 90's

I’ve finished it last night, have mixed feelings about it,
Olivia Colman wasn’t a very convincing Queen. She looked right but her whole demeanor was wrong.

I somehow thought they were going to mention the Bogside massacre but they jumped straight to the three day a week strike.

queen I think they must be planning to do an episode on Ireland later and show in flashback all the incidents they've missed . . .or just ignore chronology as they have done in some of this season's episodes and cram lots of incidents into one episode. I don't see how they can include Mountbatten's murder/assassination without any Irish context.

I do miss the raw sexual chemistry Claire and Matt had too. You always felt they were about to fall into bed at any moment, even in the middle of a blazing row I believe that's exactly what the DM are trying to insinuate with their latest article about CF and MS being such good friends...

I think TM was acting like how you'd expect Prince Phillip to be. But no, he and OC didnt have much chemistry.