Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Sep 21, 2025

“The Crown” runs counter to royal spin

“The Crown” runs counter to royal spin

The new season of the hit Netflix show depicts the Windsors as not just flawed but rather awful
SHORTLY AFTER the release of the first season of “The Crown”—Netflix’s decadent drama about the British monarchy during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II-various publications gleefully reported that the queen herself was a fan, having been encouraged to indulge in an episode or two by Prince Edward, her youngest son.

Though the royals have refused to be drawn publically on the matter, journalists enjoy speculating on what the Windsors might make of their onscreen counterparts. With season four, which was released on November 15th, that conjecture has intensified: tabloid newspapers have been awash with claims from “royal experts” and unnamed friends that the depictions, particularly of Prince Charles, are so cruelly inaccurate as to be “trolling on a Hollywood budget”.

If they do indeed watch the show, the royal family may well be unhappy with it. The first episode of this new season opens in 1979, with the election of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister, and concludes in 1990.

These were not good years for “the firm”, defined as they were by the union of Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Princess Diana’s ascent to the status of adored public figure-becoming the “queen of people’s hearts”-was matched only in speed and spectacle by the implosion of her marriage.

“The Crown” had, thus far, portrayed the royals as flawed but sympathetic victims of their highly unusual circumstance. This season is less kind: they appear self-serving, petulant and myopic. Thatcher, played with almost alarming verisimilitude by Gillian Anderson, spends a painful weekend at Balmoral Castle, where she is mocked for not having the right shoes, manners or breeding.

“I am struggling to find any redeeming features in these people at all,” she rasps at her husband. Charles, played by Josh O’Connor, is perhaps the worst of all, so insecure about his own insignificance that he explodes into snivelling savagery towards his wife. (Diana, played sensitively by Emma Corrin, is no angel either, but she is at least more sinned against than sinning.)

Writing in the Telegraph, Simon Heffer claimed that these accounts formed a “high-rent soap opera” and “an appalling travesty of history, wilfully misrepresenting everyone”. (The newspaper’s loyalty to the monarchy is referred to on the show when, in season three, Princess Anne begs to do an interview with it rather than the Guardian.)

According to the Express, Prince William, Charles and Diana’s eldest son, is “none too pleased with it”, feeling that “both of his parents are being exploited and being presented in a false, simplistic way to make money”.

“The Crown” has always been more concerned with gripping plots than rigid historical accuracy, something that no doubt helps explain the show’s wild popularity. Real events provide the show’s scaffolding but scenarios are exaggerated, conflated and, at times, invented entirely. Season four is no exception.

It plays fast and loose with, among other things, the extent of the queen’s interaction with Michael Fagan, who broke into Buckingham Palace in 1982; the timing of the disappearance of Thatcher’s son, Mark; and, according to several sources, the extent of Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles (Emerald Fennell) during the early years of his marriage.

The show also takes liberties when portraying its characters’ inner lives. Such fabrications are unavoidable given that the royals, particularly the queen, are famously taciturn about their thoughts and feelings.

The real royals understand the emotive power of a good yarn, however, and that they rely on the public’s goodwill. They have always sought to shape the stories in which they appear.

They trade in symbolism and ceremony, appearing chiefly via pre-planned engagements and carefully thought-out philanthropic projects. They have long attempted to manipulate the media, offering access in return for favourable coverage.

In recent years, as in those preceding Diana’s death in 1997, the royal family has once again lost control of its fairytale. The marriage of Prince Harry to the actor Meghan Markle-praised at the time as proof of the family’s willingness to change-turned sour after the pair cut ties and departed for Canada, citing bullying from the press.

Prince Andrew has been tarnished by his association with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Criticism of “The Crown” therefore seems a reflection of the problem faced by the modern monarchy: that it no longer gets to write its own story.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
×