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.

I am surprised that there wasn’t more done on Andrew and Fergie - they have just been airbrushed in history.

Loved the stern talking to that the Queen gave Diana. Would love to do the same to certain friends and family. It's not always about you.

I feel like they’re making the Queen to weepy and insecure and Phillip weak but mean

Too

I'm up to episode 6. I am liking it better now, but I found the first three episodes really uncomfortable - it really felt to me like the makers of The Crown really hated the RF. Really unsympathetic portrayals. It's settled a bit now, but I do think quite a few of these portrayals are right off the mark. There are elements of reality, but that's all.

I think the makers intended to make Diana sympathetic and Charles not so much, but I found myself feeling more sympathy for him ( though Camilla is better than the two of them) Honestly, the scene where Diana was making eyes at Hasnat Khan while her poor osteopath friend was waiting for her husband to survive! So moony and vacuous ( if true).

Watched Ep1 last night - the casting is largely terrible! Dominic West is basically playing himself, he looks and sounds nothing like Charles, so different from the last bloke who played him. Margaret and Anne pretty crap too.

Elizabeth Debicki as Diana is pretty good, although think she is overegging the eyes a bit. Imelda Staunton is OK, no one will beat Claire Foy though!

I don't know, they have absolutely nailed a lot of the characters in previous series, this one isn't as good. Havent seen Camilla yet.

Actually I didn’t like the Queen in that scene. No doubt the character Diana made many things about herself. It’s a sign of a neglected, unsure person to do that. But the queen having a go at her, & talking about how they all spent a lot of time thinking how to make Diana happy and how to help her didn’t jell for me. Thinking back over the series, that wasn’t what happened. And the queen character was effectively denying Diana character her reality. Philip had a similar talk with Diana in the end of the previous season.

plus, since season 1 episode 1, it has always been about the queen. That’s the basic premise of the series, imo. How the power and position of one person (the queen) has to be upheld by all around her (including her children) and how it twists everyone (including the queen) out of shape to the point of general unhappiness all around.

The thing that amazes me about real life is how strong and happy William and Kate’s marriage is (if appearances are to be believed). William has come from such a long line of incredibly dysfunctional relationships and people raising him who were so very damaged themselves. Whatever our thoughts of Diana, she came from such an unhappy childhood herself and Charles also seemed so troubled and distant. Zero role models in terms of how to have a happy normal marriage and yet they do seem very happy. I hope they are!

It’s not surprising at all that Harry is so messed up, it’s more or a miracle that they both aren’t.

i think they addressed that thoroughly in season 4. The queen character talking to Margaret and Margaret saying there where men going in and out of Diana’s place frequently, also Diana hiding a bloke in her car under a blanket. Can’t remember but it was probably supposed to be James Hewitt. I really think more about Diana’s affairs in season 5 would have been too much.

I absolutely agree with you about the Anne kidnap attempt. It should have been included in season 4 when she was married to the Mark Phillips (who was also not included)

A man shot a starters pistol, twice, at Charles. Obviously a very disturbed man at the time. I think I read recently the bloke went on to be a barrister?? So happy ending.

I think Bashir is very well-cast, seems to have nailed his characteristics. It's not so much about looks as mannerisms and I wish/think Dominic West could have observed Charles better in this way.

I've been looking at some of the reddits on The Crown and it's quite enlightening seeing the american take on it all. They don't seem to get the concept of royalty.

Was there much talk about Diana and Hasnat Khan while they were together? It seems they were in a relationship for about 2 years but I can't remember hearing about him until after she died. And he's certainly been the soul of discretion since.

I spotted that too! Could've done without seeing Hussey clad in nothing but his pants though 🙈

Ah see now I think the exact opposite. It seems as though Wills has already got himself a 'Camilla' in RC and Harry is the one that is in a devoted relationship and while he has a lot of issues going on it seems as though H&M are quite in love

I finished it last night and through the episodes I got more and more annoyed with DW as Charles. I just feel like he didn't put much effort into it at all, though I usually love his acting.

It seemed like this whole season portrayed Diana awfully and Charles and Camilla in a much more favourable light.

I was hoping they weren’t going to include tampongate as it’s so cringeworthy but those scenes were very well done. No way was that conversation picked up by an amateur though.

I think the actress who plays Diana is too thin.

Diana was very toned.

Tampongate was not nearly as shocking and cringe worthy in The Crown as I remember it being at the time. In the series, it just seemed silly and juvenile, but also playful. Perhaps we are used to much worse these days from all sources, which makes us view it with more tolerance in hindsight.

I think I remember reading the transcript & thinking it wasn't that bad, but the way it was taken out of context made it seem worse.

I read a Squidygate transcript yesterday.

Was hard to make sense of but fuck me it was boring!

I think the fact that Kate is from what seems to be a very close and stable family has probably helped with this a lot. You are right, William had zero role models of healthy, happy relationships really did he, apart from his grandparents I guess? He seems very well adjusted considering everything.

Bashir should be hung drawn and quartered for what he did to manipulate Diana.

Who is RC?

Yes, it seems like Dominic West hasn't studied Charles at all, and is just playing 'posh middle aged man', which is just himself. He hasn't changed his voice, hasn't got any of the mannerisms or anything. It's a shame because some of the other actors have obviously put a lot of effort into getting their characters right, and it's as if West just thinks he didn't have to do this?

DS pointed out that what Charles and Dominic have in common is that they are 'love rats' so there is that I suppose.

Ignore that poster, they're trying to muck rake old gossip about PW having an affair. For which there is zero proof, and only malicious gossip which has been confessed as such by the people spreading it.
Only people raking it up just now are M&H fans - which that poster obviously is.