It's definitely the year that telly went mad for the royals: The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee drew an audience of 13.4 million, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentarydropped bombshells we’d not seen the likes of since Diana’s 1996 Panorama interview and, after what felt like an age, season five of The Crown finally landed on Netflix.
But little over a month after the dramatisation of the turbulent 90s aired and there’s already controversy around series six, thought to be the last creator Peter Morgan will make. A major criticism of series five was that the ‘fictional’ drama hit too close to home, tackling the relatively recent history of the Royals including Prince Charles’ doomed marriage to Lady Diana Spencer.
Season five prompted Dame Judi Dench, who was something of a friend to Queen Elizabeth, to write in an open letter to The Times, ‘Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series – that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence – this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.’
It seems series six, which will cover Princess Diana's death, may cause just as much outrage.
In particular, scenes reportedly showing actor Elizabeth Debicki lying in an open casket have apparently lead to cast and crew complaints, with one telling The Sun, ‘They actually made Elizabeth climb into a coffin and play dead as Diana. Viewers will see a French priest administering the last rites for Diana as she is pronounced deceased.
‘Prince Charles — played by Dominic West — enters the room and is in floods of tears. In his hysteria he notices that Diana is missing an earring. It is all he can focus on as grief envelops him.’
The source continues, ‘Princes William and Harry never saw their mother dead in a coffin and they shouldn’t have to watch this. Nor should the British public.
‘The bosses went way over the top to chase ratings. Everyone was very uncomfortable doing the shoot. It is obscene and should be banned from broadcast.’
Its important to note no such scenes have actually been confirmed by Netflix, which has has now agreed to add a ‘fictional disclaimer’ at the start of each episode. Despite the furore around these more ‘shocking’ aspects of the show The Crown continues to be one of Netflix’s top performing series of all time, and season six is likely to be another global hit.