The Crown - Next Series

[antelopevalley]

The next series will be starting on the 9th of November. Imelda Staunton will be playing the Queen. Tobias Menzies is playing Philip.

Historical events we’re likely to see in season 5 of The Crown:
Prince Andrew’s divorce
Princess Anne’s divorce
Windsor Castle fire
The separation/divorce of Prince Charles and Lady Diana
The Queen sues The Sun newspaper
The death of Princess Diana
Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister
www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/the-crown-season-5-on-netflix-everything-we-know-so-far-09-2022/

Who will be watching it?

Matt Smith was a fantastic Phillip. I think oc playing a dowdy queen was the point. She was middle-aged, not a young princess or newly-coroncted monarch any more. She also did well playing a early-stage-long-suffering mother whose children were starting to cause trouble.

Coronated...

@2manycats

she seemed far more fun in reality from you tube clips and peoples recollections than the character played by Olivia Coleman. She was written as a boring old fart, old before her time by the writer.

I agree the Prince Philip actor changed worked well but Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies only have 8 years age difference. I’m not sure of the age difference with Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman. Not sure who suggested Keeley Hawes as older Queen, this would have been great I think but Keeley would have needed padding out a bit as the Queen was never that svelte ! (I’m sure I read that they did this with Claire Foy )
Also the other suggestion Jennifer Ehle as older Queen is a good one too, as her posh English accent is so perfect as in Pride and Predjudice.

Jennifer Ehle sounds totally American now! I'm sure she can still put on an English accent if needed though. Maybe it should've been her and Colin Firth as the older Queen and Prince Philip

Keeley Hawes is great but very tall, which the Queen was not! The rest of the cast would have to stand in a trough.

Agree that Olivia Coleman was far too grumpy and matronly. All wrong.

The Prince Andrew actor was brilliant - absolutely nailed the sense of arrogant entitlement!
And the little details, like Turing up for lunch in a rescue helicopter with no consideration for how this might have been needed elsewhere. I know it's 'fiction' but that does have 'entitled' written all over it!

I enjoyed the Thatcher episodes but I struggled to see Gillian Anderson as MT.

Turing? Turning!

'We know it’s TV series and not all factual - Harry himself said it isn’t but close enough.'

The problem is the mimicry. It is basically a load of people impersonating the RF, clothes, hairstyles, speech etc. Events are copied exactly. Then they throw in a load of controversial crap and say oh it's a drama silly, none of it is factual 🙄.

I was a bit mystified by Gillian Anderson's portrayal. Thatcher was only in her mid-50s when she was elected but Gillian played her like she was about 80 from day one.

When I heard Jonny Lee Miller had been cast as John Major I thought "What? Sick Boy? He's not old enough!" But it turns out he's actually older than Major was when he became PM!

True, Keeley Hawes is a lot taller than the queen, but then the 1m 70 Vanessa Kirby did a fantastic job of playing the petite Princess Margaret. Much better, I would say, than Helena Bonham Carter, who was about her height and physically resembled her much more.

I think Olivia Colman was, and looked, too old to play the Queen in s3 - she’d have been late 30’s/early 40’s. It was really jarring. She was fine in s4 though.

I don’t like Imelda Staunton as an actor so for me, that is particularly disappointing casting.

HBC is just herself in everything at this point isn’t she? Posh and eccentric.

“I was a bit mystified by Gillian Anderson's portrayal. Thatcher was only in her mid-50s when she was elected but Gillian played her like she was about 80 from day one.

When I heard Jonny Lee Miller had been cast as John Major I thought "What? Sick Boy? He's not old enough!" But it turns out he's actually older than Major was when he became PM!”

@KillingMeDeftly 👋 lol about Jonny Lee Miller, he’s a bit better looking though than John Major !
Don’t you think Thatcher always seemed older anyway ? The way she walked and her fake voice, I thought she always acted and dressed like a much older woman. Gillian Anderson was too pretty though that’s for sure.

Thatcher always seemed old.

@667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast I was a baby when Thatcher got into power so can't remember! She seems older than her years in footage I've seen but not like an octogenarian!

Jonny looking the partt*.

This is a video of Thatcher at 55 years old.
www.bing.com/videos/search?q=video+thatcher+as+prime+minister+1979&&view=detail&mid=20D9D5ABE50D6E0EF52920D9D5ABE50D6E0EF529&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dvideo%2Bthatcher%2Bas%2Bprime%2Bminister%2B1979%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

Oh god the hair! Lol it was like a helmet.

Omg ! He looks so different. Looking forward to seeing if he’s got the voice right.
Sadly I do remember Thatcher.. I was about 13 when she got in. My mum dyed her dark hair blonde about the same time, (not as a tribute) and we all hated it and said it reminded us of Mrs Thatcher 😃

Err, I think you mean crowned! 🤣

With the exception of Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip I thought the series 3&4 cast weren't as good as the series 1&2 cast. Partly because of their fame, partly because series 4 in particular was covering a period I remember. But it felt much more a case of 'lets watch Olivia's excellent mimicry of the Queen'. I did love HBC as Margaret though, but she had meatier storylines so had more to do.

John Major (the grey man) was only 47 when he became PM so relatively young.

The standards really fell last season so I'm not watching the next one.
The last season was so badly written and researched, the acting standards had slipped too.
Tbh I'd rather watch The Windsors or The Royals - they're both much more entertaining and not pretending to be anything other than nonsense.

I agree with that.

Other than Matt Smith, most of the cast in the first two seasons were not that well known. Add in the fact that the time period covered was also not as remembered as the period covered in series 3 and 4, then you felt that you were watching it with 'fresh eyes'.

In general, I don't think it's a good idea to cast very well known actors as very famous people, especially when the actors are 'stars' with big personalities. There's two much of a 'clash' between your idea of the actor and your idea of the character. Claire Foy is very well known now but she keeps quite a low profile and we don't know much about her as a person. I think that's much better for an actor.

I was worried about Helena BC just being herself, however I did like her as Margaret, especially the half drunk singing at her evening soirée lol. I loved Vanessa Kirby though although she towered over Claire Foy. I agree with what someone else said about Vanessa her portrayal of Margaret was more nuanced but I guess HBC is showing Margaret a few years down the road a bit harder and more jaded.
I felt a lot of empathy for Claire Foy’s Queen but struggled with Olivia Coleman to feel as invested.
Does anyone know what the time jump was supposed to be from end of second series to third ?

Also as someone who lived through Diana years I found that the stories around her were very sentimentalised, I did like Diana and I felt sorry for her but she was a human being not a saint. To be honest I felt sorry for Charles, Camilla and Diana at the time as none of them were free to live their lives how they wanted. However I did get that in Diana case she was very young only 19 and that made it so much worse.

There are some photos of Elizabeth Debicki filming season 6, which surprised me. I assumed the upcoming season would end with Diana's death, especially as actors have been cast as Dodi and Mohammed Fayed.