The Crown: season 5

[KillingMeDeftly]

Anyone seen this yet? I'm not quite as convinced by the casting for this season as I was for previous ones but will withhold judgement until I've watched the whole series.

Elizabeth Debicki looks the part as Diana, although I thought Emma Corrin captured her voice better. Dominic West is very flattering casting for Charles but Olivia Williams as Camilla is uncanny. I never thought she looked anything like her but they've made her a dead ringer! Same goes for Jonny Lee Miller as John Major.

It looks like this season will cover events up to and including Diana's Panorama interview.

Anne is great in that interview. I think they’re all probably not as dreary as made out to be in this series.

With all the deceit to get the Martin bash or interview filmed at Kensington, why didn't they just do it at her brothers house?

I may be wrong but I think she went behind her brother’s back as he didn’t trust Bashir.

Syesked her brother to give/lend her a cottage on the Althorp estate. He refused citing the tabloid circus that followed her as a reason. I think they weren't speaking because of this when she died.

She asked

@KillingMeDeftly what a great interview. I can’t believe they didn’t use that in series. Did they feature the Queen being shot at
(blanks) during ToC. She was so calm and collected. I was watching it with my aunt, who had served as a firearms police officer, and I’ll never forget her face, watching the screen to see what would happen next.

@KillingMeDeftly that interview is magic! Unfortunately, she would have known that a successful kidnapping would not end well for a royal - it doesn't bear thinking about really. Thank heavens she had balls of steel.
I think Diana's brother did refuse her a cottage at Althorp.

Just finished watching Season 5
Brilliant
Possible spoilers
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The final episode takes us right up to peters morgen's film - The Queen - with Helen Mirren - which I'm now watching.

Odd seeing the actor playing Charles was the same one who was Edward VIII the Crown.

I remember Charles Spencer's being very pointed with the RF at Diana's funeral, but he didn't help her either.
I can't imaging inheriting a huge estate by no other virtue than having been born first and male and then refusing my own sister a cottage on that estate!

The Crown has featured a variety of actors who've played different royals over the years. I think Alex Jennings was also a villainous uncle of Queen Victoria's in ITV's Victoria? Or did he play King Leopold of the Belgians?

Yes, quite, @ImAvingOops - he hardly helped her himself.
I appreciate his point about the media circus, but it was his sister and the Althorp estate was her home too in theory at least.
I thought it was usual in aristocratic inheritance that the eldest son inherits the main bulk of estate and any other children get money/heirlooms/lifetime right to live in an estate property.
We're starting episode 6 now, really into it!

I've just finished it as well, overall I enjoyed it.

Agree that the portrayal of Diana was a bit off, I think she had lots of boyfriends and liked a party/night out?! Wasn't she good friends with loads of celebrities? Elton John, George Michael etc. Her moping around her flat on her own didn't ring true.

Do feel sorry for the kids though, I had thought Diana and Charles were a bit more hands on parents but in this series they hardly saw them.

I hope that's changed a bit now with William and Catherine being more involved generally.

Got a bit fed up with all the love for the boat by the end 😂

Has anyone else noticed that the actress who plays Marmaduke Hussey's wife in the Crown (QE2's lady-in-waiting) is the same actress who played Camilla PB in The Windsors?

Disclaimer:
*I think
😁

As a child I was always fascinated by the story of Anna Anderson and the prospect that perhaps one or more of the Romanovs had managed to escape

Me too. I still half hope her story will turn out to be true, even though I know it's not.

Do you think Yeltsin was really saying all those things in Russian during the photocall on the stairs?

I also though the content of the ³Charles and Camilla tape was much less scandalous than I remembered. Although I suppose the fact that they were talking at all was scandalous enough. Her husband answered the phone then passed it on to his wife knowing what was going on between the two of them.

@Rae36 DNA analysis on Anna Anderson's remains proved she was no Romanov but her origins are still shrouded in mystery and convincing so many people that she was Anastasia was an incredible feat.

I read somewhere that Josh O'Connor flatly refused to do the Tampongate scene, but Dominic West stepped up to do his duty:)

I’ve read recently that she was not offered a cottage on her brother’s estate because security forces said they weren’t able to be made secure enough. The Diana character notes during this season that she had given up having security. Although, from mumsnetters I’ve learned that the boys always had their own security with them.

one thing that is pushed on this series is how little conscience the Martin Bashir character had. If portrayal of Bashir is true, he had no journalistic integrity and he manipulated a woman who was portrayed as being very lonely, and untrusting of people (with good reason).

We've got to that bit on the stairs with Yeltsin and HMQ. Yes, surely he didn't actually say that stuff within earshot?! Must have had some artistic licence there!🤭

Hasn't there recently been a big scandal about Bashir and the Princess Di interview? He behaved terribly and did feel zero remorse. I think the accusations against him were actually worse than what was portrayed.

I do recall an interview with Charles Spencer when he said Diana had asked for a cottage on the estate, but the security implications meant it simply wasn't possible. (A sort of "computer says NO, sorry about that" 🤷‍♀️ answer)
He managed to give the impression that it was Diana who was unrealistic and unreasonable and obv it was impossible....but I think the reality was that she had given up her security and so he would be left footing a hefty bill....

I guess Althorp has many more visitors than it would have done without Diana.

And the irony is he had to beef up security substantially to protect her burial place, I know he has mentioned break ins.

As we all know, the series is not a documentary. But I did think it in the realms of possibility that Yeltsin could have said those things on the stairs. He was a complete pisspot as they reminded us earlier in the season. And from a Russian point of view he wasn’t wrong - they apparently did have an opportunity to save their Russian relatives.

If anyone is interested I just finished an article in The Cut magazine (they did the Meghan of Montecito interview) about this season of the Crown. As well as other things, they look at the Queen character’s responses to the sad saga of years gone by.

Just binged the lot in two or three days.

Did Mohammed Al Fayed really invite Diana to holiday on the yacht, I can see he’s got her in his sights as a better partner for Dodi. That’s my next rabbit hole!

Overall the sets and costumes are great as usual but the whole series had a dull overtone to it, maybe to match the mood within the family?

I read an article that opined that even the jewellery didn’t sparkle as much because intention was to convey glum times for the family. Certainly, everyone is bitching at everyone else. This season’s royals are all a pretty dreary, unhappy lot.

I thought episode 9 with the final demise of the marriage was done very well. It was very sad. I did a paper round in the early to mid 90s and I remember every now and then a tabloid would run a headline that said Diana hoped for a reconciliation and even another child…I am sure she leaked those headlines. I think it came across at the end that she was mean to him but that she did it because she was so hurt.

tina brown wrote that after the divorce, Charles visited Diana at KP and they had a nice (ish) visit and they laughed. A lot of the bitterness had gone. I thought that penultimate scene was trying to evoke that but then it got nasty.

Overall, I think DW is playing Charles well and not without compassion. Think it has been well cast and think ED is good as Diana.