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.

So far I am enjoying it more than series 3 and 4, I did not like Olivia Coleman as the Queen, she seemed mean somehow, Imelda Staunton is how I think she is somehow. Agree Philip is wrong. Diana is fantastic! She really did act in that incredibly coy, eye-batting, flirtatious way, if you watch the 'there's three of us in our marriage' interview, it was bordering on caricature itself. Elizabeth Debicki has nailed it, but perhaps women just don't act like that anymore which is why it appears too much, I remember at the time thinking Diana looked like a Bambi caught in the headlines, a very manipulative one it has to be said (even though I did love the real Diana).

It feels like a soap opera.

I absolutely love Jonathan Pryce in this. His mannerisms are terrific. I love the scene where he’s warning Diana off her book

Agree for most of them the cut glass accents aren’t quite there

I thought Charles's voice and accent were great mutually but he lost it by the time he was speaking to Mummy in the stables. I have to say, it was the horse who stole that scene for me. I don't know how they kept straight faces over his intersections.

Interjections. Dammit, phone...

The Queen mother is so wrong. That actress has quite a distinctive Westcountry accent and it's still coming through!

I found the Al-Fayed episode with Sidney very interesting. Fabulous actors. I didn't realise Al-Fayex had such an obsession with the RF. Didn't know he'd bought Edward's french chateau or paid to restore it without actually owning it or that he'd employed his valet. All that was true it seems. Their relationship turned into a lovely friendship in this. Be nice to think that was true too.

Wonder if Charles did try to oust his Mum in the court of public opinion (the Times piece). Maybe that's why she never abdicated, to get him back!

West us too good looking for Charles

The boys are really sweet

Di is a bit too skinny. She was slim but stronger looking

This too

I think Dominic West captures Charles's facial expressions and voice really well, though I've only watched Ep 1 of the new season so far. But he's not a great physical likeness.

Agree about episode 6 needing more of a trigger warning. The start is really upsetting.

Joyless. If there’s any energy in this series, (there ain’t) it’s blunt spite.

The idea this is an inside story is a joke.

All main characters are horrible. It’s always raining. Everyone’s hysterical and gloomy. The Queen comes across as irritable and hard as nails.

Every cliche - inc the notoriously untrue rumours - is shoehorned in. They’ve left out most of Diana’s affairs though, which I was looking forward to rather cos at least she had fun. None of her fabulous wardrobe appears.

The stuff about PW cringeing at his mum’s publicity rings very true. Eton had to stop D turning up at random to have long talks about her love life with him. Allegedly.

No sign of Harry. You don’t say.

Harry seems to have sold his soul to Netflix as he can no longer criticise any portrayal of his mother on their platform.
That must be difficult for him.

Charles Dance would have been perfect for season 5-6 Philip imo. But instead he played Lord Mountbatten in season 3.

I’m only on episode 1, but Dominic West is very odd casting. Unlike Josh O’Connor, he doesn’t resemble Charles at all and unlike O’Connor he’s made no attempt to get Charles’ very distinctive cadence. I’m finding it quite distracting how very unlike Charles he sounds.

Leslie Manville is a wonderful actress (just watched Sherwood: she’s so good) but there’s no physical resemblance. The woman who’s playing the Queen Mum looks nothing like her. I’m hoping it gets better.

I’ve watched episode 1 and I’m struggling with the new actors, recognising who is who and thinking they’re not as good as the last season, but I think I felt that way in series 3 as well.

For anyone who is interested in separating the fact from the fiction in this series I’d recommend the companion books by Robert Lacey. He’s only covered up to the end of series 3 but they’re brilliant and I keep hoping he’ll continue for series 4 and 5.

Nah…not for me this time.

I truly loved all the previous seasons and all with the exception of Olivia Coleman I thought were marvellous.
I watched the first episode and struggled to match actor to character ( apart from Di she’s spot on) and just couldn’t give it my full attention.

it’s not for me this time so I won’t be watching more.

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I'm struggling with it. I remember S3 when the cast changed, El 1 wasn't sure, by ep2 I was sold, then binged. I'm part way through ep2 and have stopped.

I love Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, and Dominic West, but they just aren't inhabiting the characters the same way.

And as a PP said, why is it all so dreary? I'll probably watch it, just won't prioritise it over other things.

It does.

But quite a dull soap opera. Or maybe I should wait as I've only seen the first episode, which I found quite boring.

None of the characters actually seem 'royal'. Dominick West is way too 'alpha'. Elizabeth Debicki looks like a Diana impersonator. The queen and Philip just seem like a rather ordinary retired couple. Staunton is better than Colman but frankly that's not difficult. The only actress who 'got' the queen is Claire Foy, and probably that is at least in part due to the fact that she played her in an era most of us don't remember.

I do think that the closer to current times the series gets, the tawdrier it becomes. Simply inventing storylines and conversations from people who are still alive and in the public eye seems unethical. That said, I will watch it so perhaps I am being a tad hypocritical here!

It feels like Elizabeth Debicki is almost taking the piss with how OTT the coy glances through the eyelashes are.

I like Imelda Staunton better than Olivia Colman (whom I LOVE, but who is always underlyingly Olivia Colman - she doesn't become the person in the same way). Jonathan Pryce seems like a cuddly old grandad type - I wish they'd got Charles Dance, or even just aged Tobias Menzies a bit.

Dominic West is better than I'd expected but doesn't sound like Charles at all. Whoever's being Camilla is very good.

I love Lesley Manville and think she's a good Margaret. No idea who the QM is being played by, or if she's really meant to be the QM - it's hard to tell. Andrew isn't attractive enough - he was still quite handsome in the 90s.

Love the Al Fayeds. I loved that episode. The actor being Mohamed is adorable and Dodi is, too, in a very different way

OK ignore me on the Al Fayed episode, I really enjoyed it by the end with Sydney the valet.

The Peter Townsend story really broke my heart - I genuinely believe had Margaret married Peter her life would have been so much brighter and less fraught than it was.

I can't get on with Dominic West as Charles / Josh O Connor was so, so good and it just doesn't feel like the right fit.

I loved the first two series. I think Olivia Coleman and Tobias Menzies in Series 3 and 4 weren't good but were way better than Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Price. I have watched all of the episodes of Series 5 now and Imelda Staunton is awful. She does not improve- mean-faced, sour, little, misery throughout. Absolutely joyless portrayal with none of The Queen's positive characteristics. She shows no compassion at all. Everything about her is drab, grey/brown/wrinkled and small- physically, in spirit, mind and intellect

Jonathon Pryce is not Philip and captures little of him after episode 2.

The portrayal of the Queen Mother is dreadful- really dreadful. She has only been well-portrayed in Series 1 and 2. Marion Bailey was awful as well in Series 3 and 4 but this current actress, Marcia Warren, is the worst.

Elizabeth Debicki is great- best Diana I have seen in anything although the writing is focussed mainly on the marriage and many of her other behaviours are missed. She is too thin and tall though- Diana was much stronger physically by then. I think the portrayal of the marriage is not unsympathetic to her or Charles.

Dominic West gets Charles, on the whole,I think- especially his mannerisms. He's too hefty to be Charles though and not quite effete enough.

The stars are Olivia Williams who is excellent as Camilla, Natasha McElhone, Lesley Manville and Elizabeth Debicki. Also the actor who plays Mohammed Al-Fayed- although his seedier side does not emerge and he's been shown quite sweetly. Many of the smaller roles are well-done- Haznat Khan, Dodi, Martin Bashir, John Major, the valet to Al-Fayed, James Coltman (played by an actor from Motherland).

There are some awful performances: Imelda Staunton, Marcia Warren and whoever plays Marmaduke Hussey- who is truly awful.

I googled who people were too.

The Queen seems quite miserable and demanding re the yacht and the privileged excess is ramped up another notch.

We’re only on ep 1 though, will keep watching

I binged through all 10 episodes. I didn't think it was as good as previous years but I still had to keep going. 😂

I'm not wild about the casting either. I feel like they brought in a lot of well known actors for people we are very familiar with but don't closely resemble them, so it's hard to lose yourself in their performances. I think generally everyone comes off quite understandable and sympathetic (apart from Bashir who is almost the villain of it all). I just found Diana really irritating - did she really do that coy look all the time to everyone? It felt like every line she had was about how much of a victim she was.

The QM looked a particular way physically, they seemed to have ignored that totally with a very slight woman. So strange

They've glossed over Diana’s affairs haven’t they.

Prince Philip comes out well and the Queen is miserable. Although it was a miserable period for her.

I'm on episode 5 and I'm absolutely loving it. Much prefer it to seasons 3 and 4. I couldn't take to Olivia Coleman in the role, really liking Imelda Staunton.