It’s safe to say that The Crown faced criticism in the weeks leading up to the Netflix premiere. The series, which looks at a fictionalised retelling of the major events throughout the Queen’s reign, was met with outright criticism by the likes of Jonathan Dimbleby and John Major - with even Dame Judi Dench preemptively calling it "cruelly unjust". In short, they really needn’t have bothered.
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Season five of The Crown is on top form as ever as a deeply senshitive retelling of an admittedly turbulent time for the royal family. It was during this period that the Queen broke her usual stoicism, telling the public that 1992 was her "annus horribilis" following a fire at Windsor Castle and the breakdown of her children’s marriages. But despite what must be very tempting source material, the show keeps dramatising marital woes at arm’s length.
WATCH: the trailer for the fifth season of The Crown...
Instead, it is a story of three-dimensional people - the good and the bad - who are part of an institution that they can’t remove themselves from, as much as they might like to. Charles and Diana’s personal troubles aren’t a result of warring with each other - but from external forces - including a leaked phone call from Charles, and the manipulation of Diana into giving an interview that is still well remembered to this day.
Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne
The empathy with which the series deals with these issues, if anything, makes season five of the Netflix juggernaut its greatest love letter to the royal family yet. While royalists that the show would impact the popularity of the now King and Queen Consort, Charles and Camilla, it actually does much more to build up King Charles III than tear him down - with one episode even dedicated to the huge amount of good he has done with The Prince’s Trust.
Charles and Diana with William and Harry
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Of course, there are moments that the royals would probably like to keep in the past, with 'Tampongate' perhaps being the most excruciating of them all. However, the show’s depiction of the scandal is less about the conversation shared between Charles and Camilla, but the gross invasion of their privacy. Should it have been leaked in 2022, the news story would surely be greeted with distaste from the British public for the gross violation - much more so than the reaction to a silly chat between two lovers.
Camilla and Charles
The royal family’s relationship with Diana is met with similar treatment in the series, including a particularly affecting scene with Diana and the Queen, where the pair finally discuss Diana’s feelings of isolation and abandonment.
In fact, if we had to choose one villain of the piece, it would have to be Martin Bashir, whose efforts to convince Diana that the royal family was spying on her led her to deep paranoia.
Imelda Staunton as the Queen
The newly-minted cast is - as with previous seasons - perfect in their roles. While Elizabeth Debicki is a worthy successor to Emma Corrin as the post-separation Diana trying to find her place in the world, Dominic West is excellent as Charles, doing less of an imitation but somehow still capturing the essence of our new monarch. We also have to give a shout-out to Lesley Manville, whose softer, pining version of Margaret is perfection.
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Imelda is the third actor to play the monarch on the show
However, the MVP of the piece has to go to Imelda Staunton, who picks up Olivia Colman’s stolid version of the Queen with a warmer, heart-wrenching one as she deals with one deep disappointment after the other. With the show out two months after Her Majesty’s death in September, the show will certainly serve as a reminder to us all of the tribulations throughout her reign - and just how much she sacrificed for her unerring sense of duty.
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