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.

Just watched episode 4 and Lesley Manville is marvellous as Margaret. You can see the fury and heartbreak that she lived with. Timothy Dalton was great casting as Peter Townsend, he must be in his 70s now but he's still so handsome and distinguished-looking.

Agree. Much preferred her to HBC who was doing a version of HBC.

On episode 2 and I'm kind of not feeling it?
I think the issue is too many of us remember these events and know what actually happened.
John Major has come out & categorically denied that the abdication conversation with Charles ever happened. I just couldn't watch that comfortably knowing that.
Diana is too tall and skinny and just seems a bit moany & whiny all the time. It makes me feel a bit sad that she was so self-centred - the scene of her visiting the hospital and just moaning to her friend about how miserable she was - not very flattering. I agree, ED is great normally but this is caricature.

She always does. Really overrated actress.

Olivia Colman is the same. No matter what character she plays, you're always watching Olivia Colman.

I really do think it's much better to hire less well known actors to play extremely famous people. But I guess 'The Crown' is Netflix's prestige project and they feel they need big names to match.

It has reminded me how excruciating Camillagate was. I could nearly watch

Also, it's making me feel kind of sad.

Maybe it's the recent loss of the Queen. I ended up feeling quite raw after episode 6. God bless her.

Charles dance would have been better to play Phillip. I'm not a royalist at all but it all seems a bit uncomfortable now compared to the earlier series. This all feels a bit soap operary , many are still alive in the new series and it seems more serious. It must be very painful for William. They are real people they should stop making it now. When everyone is long dead they should do it.

Charles Dance played Earl Mountbatten in the 3rd series, so obviously he wasn't an option for Philip.

I don't think he'd have been a good choice in any case. Like other actors mentioned above, he's always 'himself' in every role he plays. Tobias Menzies was the best Philip in 'The Crown'. Although he's quite well known, he's not a big 'star' and we know very little about him off screen. I think that's best when playing people who have been extremely famous for decades. Your impression of the actor sort of 'clashes' with your impression of the character. That's why the macho Dominic West is a bad choice for Charles. His 'energy' is all wrong.

Finished.

It was kind of boring. I was buzzing for this series but it was pretty dull.

Feels like a filler series to lead up to the next (and I assume final) series.

I will watch but.. first episode so badly cast. We all saw the footage of the Queen and recollections of her this year. Imelda Staunton should feel ashamed

I agree. It is outrageous to dramatise living people who can be slandered, villanised
made to look ridiculous etc
And make no mistake about it - plenty of people will believe that it is real.

The only scene so far (I’m two episodes in) where Imelda Staunton’s Queen isn’t a misery is her scenes with Anne. Not Staunton’s fault, I assume it’s the script and director. But certainly the Queen in public was known to smile and laugh on occasion, and presumably in private too, even during the annus horribilis.

I can’t imagine what they were thinking casting Dominic West: he’s not got the voice right, the hesitant mannerisms, even his skin tone is nothing like Charles. They should have used Harry Enfield 😬 he captured an aspect of Charles that we recognize at least.

When did John Major turn into a short man? And an anti monarchist?

How much weight is there to the portrayal of William being incredibly uncomfortable about his mothers antics? If true (which I can believe) it's awful dereliction of duty as a parent. But if false, it's also a horrible way to portray both Diana who is dead and cannot defend herself and William who may very well have felt inklings of it, but also cannot outrightly defend against it.

Tasteless tabloid rubbish. Total nonsense!

I think the actress who plays Anne would have been better as Margaret. Lesley Manville is great at the character but the look is all wrong. None of them hold a candle to Vanessa Kirby, who was magnificent. She and the actor who played Peter Townsend had real chemistry.
I like Imelda Staunton as the Queen - I think she captures in her facial expressions and manner some of the nuance of what it must be like to have conflicting priorities and I could see her as an aged Claire Foy. Olivia Coleman's Queen was cold and one dimensional and like a bull in a china shop!
Dominic West is doing an okay job but again the look is all wrong. I'm on the Camillagate episode and it's absolutely excruciating. I think Netflix were wrong to go into so much detail - it was a private conversation and everyone is entitled to a private love life. It's awful that this was allowed to be published in the first place. Poor King Charles and Queen Camilla in real life to have this brought up in so much detail again. And it can't be nice for Andrew Parker Bowles or any of their children either!

I am loving it, I am learning a lot about the Royal family and then I fact check several reputable sources on the internet to ensure I understand the correct version of events.

To the people who don’t enjoy it, every thing on TV/Cinema is dramatised events of some sort that can trigger emotions, rape scenes, murders, abuse, films about the holocaust, war, partician in India, Afghanistan etc… Just don’t watch Drama… why single the Royal Family out as the only ones with feelings?

I felt it was a total soap opera whereas I didn't get that feeling from the other series. The casting is poor. I actually thought the actress playing Princess Anne was Princess Margaret initially. The QM is very badly cast and I feel like there is definitely an "agenda" with this series. I'm also not impressed with Imelda Staunton. I think Claire Foy has definitely been my favourite Queen.

I am also a bit uncomfortable about the fact that totally fictitious events are being attributed to actual living people. I know that has been the case with all the series but it just seems a bit more blatant in this one. Maybe it's just because comments have been made by those actually involved denying that the events happened and more of them are still alive.

I am also being hypocritical because I will watch the whole series. I have only watched the first episode so far but if I was Prince William I would be extremely pissed off.

You won't learn anything from this series.

I've finished it and while the ending was a bit weak, I really enjoyed it.

I don't think any of the RF was portrayed particularly negatively or positively, just human. Many of the events portrayed are true historical documented facts that would be addressed in any royal documentary (which are all made for entertainment purposes) yet people seem upset with this because it's a Netflix drama.

Of course most of the conversations are largely fictional, but enough was out there in the public eye that really, the truth is so outrageous that it doesn't need embellishment.

What is it that people are so upset about - if it's that the true events are repeated, then there is nothing to be upset about. A quick Google search will tell you everything you need to know about Charles and Diana, Camilla, the panorama interview, the annus horribilus etc etc. The facts and past can't be denied, especially in this day and age.

So far I’ve learnt about…

1. Sydney Johnson - a black man from the Bahamas and his influence on Al Fayad
2. Al Fayad and how he came about owning Harrods
3. King George v’s Russian cousin and what happened to the family

You are obviously some history expert, but I didn’t know this.

I've just seen the first one but enjoyed it, I wasn't a fan of Olivia Coleman as others have said shes always OV no matter who she's playing.
Interested to see the Al Fayed episodes, my Dad worked for him and was the security out at the villa in Paris, I stayed there loads of times.

OC not OV obviously 🤔

Why don’t they all enunciate in a fancier manner?!