Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, Sep 11, 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
Merz Rebukes AfD Expansion in Saxony-Anhalt
OpenAI Unveils GPT-6 and Says: "We May Already Have Reached AGI"
Congressman Accused Andrew of Sex Crimes in the United States
Donald Trump: "I'm Glad Harry and Meghan Left the United States"
Spicy Food Is Linked to Lower Death Risk — but It Is Not a Miracle Cure
AfD Enters Saxony-Anhalt Election at 41% in Historic Test for German Politics
Gen Z Turns to Investing as America's First-Home Dream Moves Further Out of Reach
TSA Unveils Major Airport-Security Overhaul as It Drops Gold+ Privatization Plan
CIA Chief Warned Russia Against Attacking NATO in Secret Moscow Mission
Raheem Sterling Charged With Dangerous Driving After Lamborghini Crash
The Secret Dolly Parton Kept Until Her Death: "She Was Much Sicker Than She Let On"
Glacier Collapse, Not Earthquake, Triggered Deadly Nepal-Tibet Flood
Turnbull Warns AUKUS Could Leave Australia Without Promised Nuclear Submarines
California Billionaires Pour More Than $150 Million Into Fight Over Proposed Wealth Tax
German Broadcaster Goes Dark to Warn AfD Could End Its Saxony-Anhalt Service
Badenoch Plans Major Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle as Tories Struggle in Third Place
Prime Minister Andy Burnham to Give Ukraine Classified Storm Shadow Blueprints for Domestic Missile Production
UK Graduate Job Vacancies Plunge 45% to Lowest Levels on Record
Iranian Hackers Shut Down British Power Plant for Four Days in Landmark Cyber Attack
Novak Djokovic Reveals Relentless Self-Doubt and Rejects Retirement in New Documentary
Trump Imposes 50% Tariffs on Canadian Goods After Bilateral Trade Talks Collapse
Australia Combines Indigenous Fire Knowledge With Satellite Tech to Combat Catastrophic Wildfires
Father and Son Jailed in Scotland Over £900,000 Airport Cannabis Smuggling Operation
UK Fraud Reports Surge Sevenfold as Criminals Exploit QR Codes in Parking Meters and Phishing Emails
Brighton Thrash Aston Villa in Four-Goal Opening Half as Manchester City Trail Bournemouth
Erin Patterson Appeals Triple Murder Convictions After Hotel Mixed Sequestered Jury With Prosecution
The rise and fall of Hui Ka Yan, China’s richest man
Woke: Britain Considers Plain Packaging for Cigars as Specialist Shops Warn of Industry Collapse
Britain's Public-Service Productivity Remains Below 2019 as £80 Billion Output Gap Fuels WFH Debate
Mandelson Epstein Case in Jeopardy as U.S. Files Stay Out of Reach
Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million After High Court Defeat
Petrol Bombs Set Luxury Cars Alight Outside Birmingham Wedding as Police Hunt Three Men
Bitcoin Surges Toward $80,000 as Short Squeeze and ETF Inflows Ignite Crypto Rally
Twenty-Nine US States Take Meta to Trial Over Alleged Child Addiction on Instagram and Facebook
Former Scottish National Party Executive Peter Murrell Jailed for Five Years Over £400,000 Embezzlement
Moderna and Merck's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Historic Late-Stage Melanoma Trial
Prince Harry and Meghan to Move Back to Britain With Their Children
England and Wales Have Fewer Than 1,800 Prison Places Left for Men
Suspected People Smuggler Arrested After Investigation Identified Him
Children's Doctors Warn That Vaping Can Lead Young People to Smoking
Hundreds of Thousands of Students Receive GCSE and Vocational Results Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Here Is What Can Never Happen in Your Country: Taiwan Is Giving Money to All Its People Because It Collected Too Much Tax
UK Inflation Rises to 2.9% as Energy Bills Jump
UK Issues New Conduct Guide for Asylum Seekers on Consent and Respect
A Sleepless Night on Wall Street: Nasdaq to Begin Nearly Round-the-Clock Trading
"The First in the World": 69-Year-Old Protested Artificial Intelligence—and Went to Jail
Ukraine's Ousted Defence Minister Calls for Wartime Presidential Election
China’s Lifelike AI Humans Move From Livestreams Into Real-World Service Roles
Sarah Ferguson Reportedly Retreats to Late Ex-Boyfriend's Swiss Chalet
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez Sign Prenup Protecting Their Separate Fortunes
×