The Crown Aberfan episode

[ElizabethVonArnim]

Bloody hell.

I know I’m late to the party, but I’ve just watched it. Never seen anything like it. So, so awful.

It hits hard, doesn't it?

I think it might be the most powerful bit of telly I’ve ever seen.

It's very well done.

I know there is some artistic license, but I think watching The Crown is a great way to learn about the history of Great Britain (and the wider world) over the past century or so. I have googled practically every episode's storyline to find out more.

It's fascinating really.

It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. I’d never heard about it before either.

I remember it happening. I was at primary school and we had a special assembly. It was awful.

I was in my own South Wales primary school on that day.

You’ve just got to remember with The Crown it’s not a documentary. There was a documentary (I think it was about Charles when he was Prince of Wales) where they showed mothers of the children who died still meet up.

The funeral scene is very moving. I thought it was a brilliant episode.

Not a massive fan of the Crown but that one was incredible. I don’t think I could watch it again though.

I couldn't watch it. I got half way through and turned it off and never watched another episode of The Crown. I had enjoyed the series until that point but there was something about watching a fictionalised representation of an event that I remember that was intolerable to me.
I only say this to offer a different perspective and I do understand that others will have found it moving. I'm from South Wales so it felt very personal and I just couldn't handle it at all.

Do you mean the events at Aberfan ?

Is this the first time you have heard about that terrible, terrible day ?

Or are you commenting on the way the Queen responded ?

Horrific. I hadn't heard of it before so it came out of nowhere for me - Irish and born in the '80's. I was hysterical watching it, also very pregnant. I thought HBC, Jonathon Pryce and whoever was Armstrong were incredible. The way they described it and emoted it was phenomenal. I was as emotional listening to them as I was watching the scenes in Aberfan.

I felt this too.

I think the OP is referring specifically to the Crown TV show episode which depicts the events at Aberfan, rather than the historical event itself.

Having said that, watching the episode was the first time I heard of it - it happened 30 years before I was born and I wasn't aware of it previously. It was absolutely heartbreaking and I watched a good documentary after watching the crown episode to get some more information about it. I think it was an ITV one. Such a horrific thing to happen.

It happened in 1966. My own mother was only 8 and I am now only 40 so had heard of it but not too much information. The minute I saw the episode I looked it up etc. Horrific and I did cry at the episode.

some of the episodes of the Crown were indeed excellent, and so much googling was done when i watched it

Found it very powerful.

I wasn’t born but had heard about it. I was still a child but I think the context was another disaster where authorities had not listened about the dangers. It might have been flood defences that caused an issue snd someone saying if the government did not act then it could repeat. The story did not stay with me but Aberfan did and I have seen documentaries since then.

I'm in South Wales and the Aberfan disaster is remembered each year with great sadness.
My nan was a nurse at the time in a hospital not too far away from there. They were asked to get beds ready for the injured children coming in. Of course they never came. Mum said nan got home from work and just cried. So terribly sad.

Also the book A Terrible Kindness surrounding Aberfan is beautiful, harrowing and a bloody good read!! Was a book club pick and I wasn’t sure but one of the best things I read last year!!

Completely agree with this. One of the best books I think I've ever read.

There's also an excellent documentary series on BBC Sounds about Aberfan https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p09z3n7y?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

I'm Australian and it happened 12 years before I was born. I had never heard of Aberfan and The Crown episode horrified me and meant that I then researched as much as i could find about it. I recommend this BBC report also. Very powerful and distressing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-150d11df-c541-44a9-9332-560a19828c47

Aberfan was mentioned in a thread about disasters.
i watched The Crown episode after that thread.
it was horrific.
i think it influenced the late queen hugely … when Grenfell occurred she arrived at the scene soon after… determined not to stay away this time.

One of the saddest episodes of TV I have ever watched, cried my eyes out for ages afterwards, at the time I watched it my daughter was about the same age as the children that died, it was just horrifying what happened

Cried my eyes out watching that episode.

I knew about the events at Aberfan, and that’s what I meant by ‘so awful’, which is a pretty inadequate way to describe them, because there aren’t really the words for it. I was very moved by the powerful portrayal in the programme and thought it was an exceptional piece of television.