The Crown season five has had many people reaching for Wikipedia to doublecheck the stories told in the latest instalment of the hit Netflix drama – and one storyline that most certainly took place is the publication of Diana's biography, where the late royal recorded herself explaining her side of the story for the biographer, Andrew Morton. Speaking to HELLO!, Andrew opened up about his thoughts on the story's portrayal.
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He explained: "There have been numerous portrayals of Princess Diana but Elizabeth Debicki really conveyed the Diana I came to know during the early 1990s. I was shocked at how she got the mannerisms and voice of the late princess so convincingly. It was like being in the room with her."
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Andrew continued: "I was consultant on The Crown and as such they got the storyline pretty true. I think the back and forth of question and answer between myself and Diana in episode two really conveyed the intensity of her commitment to the project and her sense of release at finally being taken seriously."
Andrew wrote Diana's biography
However, Andrew also suggested that the episode could have been "more dramatic and sinister" after it portrayed his and Diana's increasing paranoia after his study was ransacked. "It was genuinely a year of living dangerously," he said. "If anything, the episode could have been more dramatic and sinister. There was always the fear of discovery, of being watched.
"My job during this whole process was not only to ask questions and write the book but to come up with a strategy to protect the princess from discovery so that she would feel comfortable with the process. I think my character, played by Andrew Steele, does that."
Andrew was full of praise for Elizabeth Debicki's performance
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Andrew's new book The Queen: Her Life is out now, and Andrew spoke about Her Majesty's attitude towards Diana and Charles' marriage. He said: "She kept on hoping that they would there be reconciliation. She even invited Diana to a state banquet. She was hoping that what [Prime Minister] John Major said in the in the House of Commons – that they had 'no plans to divorce' – was true. And I think that that was, to a degree, a mistake, because it just continued the the War of the Waleses for the next few years."
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