Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Jul 13, 2026

'The Crown' creator defends 'made up' scenes

'The Crown' creator defends 'made up' scenes

Peter Morgan, the creator of "The Crown," has defended including imagined scenes in the latest series of the hit Netflix show.

Season four, which is based on real-life events but not entirely factual, premiered on Netflix on Sunday with a range of new characters, including Princess Diana and then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

In the first episode of the new series, Lord Louis Mountbatten, played by Charles Dance, confronts his great-nephew, Prince Charles, for being romantically involved with Camilla, who was married to Andrew Parker Bowles at the time.

In the series, Mountbatten is also shown to write a letter accusing Charles, portrayed by Josh O'Connor, of contemplating such "ruin and disappointment" to himself and his family, and orders him to instead marry "some sweet and innocent well-tempered girl with no past."



In the show, Charles receives the correspondence after learning that Mountbatten has been assassinated by the IRA -- but some critics insist there is no evidence that such a letter was ever written.

Writer Morgan addressed the show's portrayal of the interaction in an episode of "The Crown" podcast, explaining that, while he "made up" the scene, he believed that the fictionalized interaction would have aligned with Mountbatten's views.

"I made up in my head -- whether it's right or wrong -- what we know is that Mountbatten was really responsible for taking Charles to one side at precisely this point and saying, 'Look, you know, enough already with playing the field. It's time you got married and it's time you provided an heir,'" Morgan said.

"I think everything that's in the letter that Mountbatten writes to Charles is what I really believe -- you know, based on everything I've read and people I've spoken to, that that represents his view.

"We will never know if it was put into a letter, and we will never know if Charles got that letter before or after Mountbatten's death but in this particular drama, this is how I decided to deal with it," he added.

Critics of the show have argued that the latest series includes a raft of falsehoods.

"People actually do believe it because it is well filmed, lavishly produced, well acted with good actors. You can't just dismiss it as tabloid rubbish," Hugo Vickers, historian and author of "The Crown Dissected," told CNN.

"In this particular series, every member of the royal family, in my view, comes out of it badly, except the Princess of Wales," he said. "It's totally one sided, it's totally against Prince Charles."



Vickers told CNN that the show contains a number of "mischievous" inaccuracies -- including scenes which show Queen Elizabeth at odds with Thatcher -- adding that viewers could watch the show and assume it to be true.

"Anyone watching, they may say, 'I saw it on The Crown, it must be true.' It's not true," he added.

Last year, the British royal family denied any involvement with the Netflix series, after Morgan claimed to meet regularly with "people who are very high-ranking and very active within the organisation."

Donal McCabe, the Queen's communications secretary, said in a letter to the UK's Times, which Buckingham Palace subsequently forwarded to CNN: "The Royal Household has never agreed to vet or approve content, has not asked to know what topics will be included, and would never express a view as to the programme's accuracy."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
World Cup Visitors Turn American Big-Box Stores Into Souvenir Stops
Netflix Weighs Always-On Channels, Bundles and Short-Form Video
Passenger Is Pulled Partly Outside Ryanair Jet After Window Fails Mid-Flight
The AI Invoice Shock: Layoffs Didn't Save Managers Money — They Cost Them More
Concern: Sexually Transmitted Bacterium Among Men Develops Antibiotic Resistance
Following Massive Investor Demand: SK Hynix Raises 26.5 Billion Dollars on Nasdaq
Passenger Partially Pulled Out of Ryanair Jet After Cabin Window Fails Mid-Flight
After Four Years, and Under a Heavy Veil of Secrecy: King Charles Meets His Grandchildren, Harry and Meghan's Children
Severe Heatwave Drives Dangerous Ground-Level Ozone Pollution Across Two Thirds of European Union
Westminster in Freefall as Farage's By-Election Gamble Triggers Broader Systemic Crises
Institutional Fractures and Political Volatility Reshape Britain's Domestic Landscape
Deadly Fire, Health Emergencies and Political Upheaval Shape a Volatile Global News Cycle
Flight Instructor Jumped to His Death — Student Landed the Plane: "You Know What You Need to Do"
The Physical and Electronic Barriers Disrupting Domestic Wireless Networks
France and Morocco Open World Cup Quarter-Finals as Collina Defends Refereeing
Prince Harry Suffers Major Court Defeat in Legal Battle Against Daily Mail Publisher
Bonnie Tyler, Welsh Singer Behind Total Eclipse of the Heart, Dies at 75
Tech Pulse: The Future of AI and Screen Culture
Global News Briefing: Escalating Geopolitical Tensions and Corporate Shakeups
Global News Brief: Escalating Conflicts, Public Health Crises, and World Cup Drama
Federal Financial Framework Shifts as Treasury Launches Universal Savings Program for Minors
French Court Allows Le Pen to Run for Presidency, but with an Electronic Tag: "I Will Appeal, and I Will Run"
$1.4 Trillion: The Lawsuit That Could Crush Meta
Europe's Growing Struggle with Extreme Heat and Air Conditioning
UK Daily Briefing: Legal Developments and Social Issues
Political Turmoil and Rising Costs
Anthropic Reengineers Agentic Architecture to Shift Autonomous Workplace Automation to the Cloud
Logic Flaw in Windows 11 Permission Architecture Silently Consumes Hundreds of Gigabytes of Local Storage
Apple Advances Late-Stage Operating Systems with Fourth Beta Deployments
Global Crisis Alert: Escalating Middle East Tensions and UK Political Upheaval
Deep Purple Has Released Its Best Album in Decades
Microsoft Lays Off 4,800 Employees and Xbox Suffers the Hardest Blow
Morocco and France Advance as 2026 FIFA World Cup Enters Quarterfinals.
Historic 2026 Tour de France Opens in Barcelona With Revamped Team Time Trial.
Global Mergers and Acquisitions Approach $4 Trillion Defying Geopolitical Tumult.
Negotiators Advance 20-Point Framework for Gaza Ceasefire and Demilitarization.
OECD Warns Middle East Conflict Will Depress Global Economic Growth.
Ukrainian Drones Strike Major Oil Terminal in St. Petersburg.
World Meteorological Organization Issues Urgent Alert Over Rapidly Intensifying El Niño.
United States Commemorates 250th Anniversary With Diplomatic Summits and Global Flotilla.
Iran Begins Days-Long Funeral for Supreme Leader Khamenei Amid Strait of Hormuz Standoff.
Technology giant reports surging carbon emissions driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure demands.
Artificial intelligence adoption accelerates workforce reductions across the technology and financial sectors.
Global technology and financial conglomerates collaborate to launch a new stablecoin standard.
United States regulators lift export restrictions on a major frontier artificial intelligence model.
Luxury bags take over the World Cup: style, status symbol, or just showing off?
×