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Netflix The Crown series 4 starts tonight...who will be watching it?

(223 Posts)
mamaa Sun 15-Nov-20 16:49:30

I really enjoyed series 1-3 partly due to the historical aspect I think. From the trailers I've seen, series 4 is set in the 80's- so the Thatcher Years, Charles and Diana etc.

This is recent memory and I wonder how it'll be received by those whom it portrays, and their relatives, who are still with us...maybe they'll rise above it with no comment.

However some 'friends' of the Royals are already in the press criticising the portrayal of C and D, and Carol Thatcher has dismissed as nonsense the way her mother has been shown as favouring her brother (but even when he got lost in the Sahara I seem to remember Mrs T defending him so maybe the producers aren't too far away from the reality!).

Sparklefizz Fri 20-Nov-20 18:21:35

merlotgran

It seems I must have dreamt it. grin

Their priorities do seem a bit off the wall.

Maybe it was! No idea ... I have brain fog confused

Baggs Fri 20-Nov-20 19:49:10

Charles (as played) is a drip. What's with the permanently hunched shoulders and drooping head? He seems very self-centred and wimpish to me.

Baggs Fri 20-Nov-20 19:55:36

Especially when compared to the Queen's sturdiness of character.

Jane10 Fri 20-Nov-20 20:27:24

Maybe it's accurate?

Baggs Fri 20-Nov-20 20:47:39

There is that, jane10 ?

Toadinthehole Sat 21-Nov-20 16:34:34

We’ve finished the series, and enjoyed them. We’re not Royalists in any way, but watched for nostalgia and history, the latter of which I am so bad at remembering. They obviously couldn’t include everything, but the most poignant part for us, was when the Duke was talking to Diana in the final episode. I won’t say too much...don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet, but the door was open....and the servant was outside. I can’t see how anyone would possibly know for sure, what was said in many conversations, but this one....I can.

Anniebach Sat 21-Nov-20 16:53:51

How can anyone know what was said in private conversations unless they were present

hollysteers Sat 21-Nov-20 16:58:54

Anyone else notice how dark all the interiors appeared?
I love side lights myself and not keen on harsh lighting, but I can’t imagine the RF live in such gloom??

Jane10 Sat 21-Nov-20 17:34:46

Toadinthehole- but Philip wasn't an outsider. His parents were king and Queen of Greece and direct descendants of Queen Victoria.

Jaberwok Sat 21-Nov-20 18:22:00

Prince Phillips parents were Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark. Prince Andrew was the fourth son of King George 1st of Greece and Denmark and Phillips mother was Princess Alice of Battenburg, a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Her brother was Lord Mountbatten, Phillips Uncle Dicky. The whole family were ousted from Greece in 1917. Phillip was always considered a poor relation by the RF, and not suitable for the hand of Princess Elizabeth, but George V1th relented in order not to upset his beloved daughter. The Queen mother is said to have never liked Prince Phillip, but that could be heresay!

Toadinthehole Sun 22-Nov-20 10:44:10

Jane10 good morning. I didn’t say Philip was an outsider.... he did!

Anniebach Sun 22-Nov-20 11:32:36

The marriage of the Queen and Phillip was an arranged marriage so her parents were involved. Who else was there for
a future queen.

paddyanne Sun 22-Nov-20 11:47:53

I still say tricky Dicky and his nephew groomed Lizzie,if any man had hung around my young teenage daughter he'd have been not just shown the door but helped through it .

Anniebach Sun 22-Nov-20 11:51:16

I disagree, unless all arranged marriages were brought about by the girls being groomed.

Parsley3 Sun 22-Nov-20 12:53:38

I was thinking that too, paddyanne. The Queen was 13 when she met him and he wrote to her. Today, he would have emailed. Anyway, as history has shown, they have both stuck it out.
I was surprised to find myself agreeing with Thatcher about the Queen’s misguided devotion to the Commonwealth. She spent a lot of time travelling to far flung places but had to be persuaded to visit Aberfan.

Anniebach Sun 22-Nov-20 13:21:39

Sorry to speak of Aberfan again but so many lies about the Queen and Aberfan.

She didn’t turn up as soon as it happened, bodies were being dug up. What could she do ? Start digging . As for the Crown
claiming she dapped her eyes pretending to shed tears, I saw
her there, I saw her eyes filled with tears, she went into one house to meet a family who had lost 6 members of their extended their family, she sat with them .

She has been to Aberfan 5 times, a group formed called young
wives, not young now, some dead, still invited to garden parties at Buck House. Charles delivered a personal letter from
her in 2016 , the 50th anniversary of the disaster.

Jane10 Sun 22-Nov-20 13:24:27

Toadinthehole the writer said that Philip was an outsider.
Paddyann I agree about Mountbatten grooming Philip for the potential marriage. It was lucky that Princess Elizabeth fell in love with him. So far so good with that royal marriage anyway (but goodness knows what the Queen has had to put up with)

Sparklefizz Sun 22-Nov-20 13:26:46

I read an article today that suggested that Netflix put a disclaimer at the start of the latest series of The Crown, saying that it is a dramatisation and not fact.

I think William and Harry are pressing for this, or for more than this, and I don't blame them. The writer of The Crown was pushing his own agenda.

Iam64 Sun 22-Nov-20 13:28:28

Thanks Annie for the first hand experience of Aberfan.
I absolutely understand the Crown is fictional drama, rather than a historical report.
I'm enjoying watching it, many of the historical events that provide the backdrop are events we lived through. My feeling is that generally the portrayals are fairly sympathetic.

I don't see the coverage of the doomed married is biased towards a kindly view of Diana. I was less sympathetic to Charles in 1982 when at 32 he married a naive 19 year old. I'm older and I have a better understanding of the pressures and constraints as he grew up.

Jaberwok Sun 22-Nov-20 13:55:56

It's certainly true that ambitious Mountbatten encouraged and pushed P.P into marriage with P.E. She was very much in love with him at a very young age, he? certainly he had misgivings about exactly what he was letting himself in for! The King and Queen were well aware of this and reluctantly gave their permission - eventually. They considered P.P upstart and far too full of himself. Whose to say they weren't right?! There's a wonderful story about PP while wearing a kilt at Balmoral, curtseying to King George and Queen Elizabeth! They were not amused! I think there have been times when he has made her very unhappy, but almost certainly he's felt resentful and unhappy too at this arranged marriage orchestrated by Uncle Dickie.

hollysteers Sun 22-Nov-20 18:04:41

As PP was pretty broke and practically homeless, staying with various relatives around Europe, he certainly landed on his feet marrying the future Queen of England.

Sparklefizz Sun 22-Nov-20 18:50:26

It's always been said that Philip and the Queen were happiest in Malta.

As she became Queen at only 25 and he had to give up his job, that can't have been easy, and I reckon he was probably very hard to live with. I think the Queen has turned a blind eye to a number of things over the years. Whatever anyone thinks of her, she has always been steadfast.

rosecarmel Sun 22-Nov-20 19:08:31

I watched all of The Crown followed by a docu-series about the Windsors- Both seem to have painted them pretty much the same- I enjoyed watching both-

Jaberwok Sun 22-Nov-20 19:15:36

Landing on his feet? Maybe, maybe not. He would certainly have had a very successful naval career which was cut short, he might have married on his own terms and been able to live his life as he really wished, not in the shadow of his wife, a difficult and frustrating position to be in, and his children would have had his surname without a major upset! Not sure that it was that advantageous.

hollysteers Mon 23-Nov-20 01:49:38

Back to the cheeky mouse! (no bow).
After looking around Clarence House, I’m not too surprised, it was shabby in parts, rather surprising for a prominent member of the RF.
The death of Diana might have been mitigated somewhat by the fact that the boys would have spent a lot of time with nannies, then long periods away at Eton, unlike an average family, in close contact every day and although Diana is called a devoted mother, she seems to have spent a lot of time away from her children. If she had been at Balmoral with them, she might not have died. Even if I heartily disliked the annual holidays at Sandringham and Balmoral, wild horses would not have kept me away from my children at such times and there is no shortage of accommodation on those vast estates if one wanted to keep some distance, as Sarah Ferguson does.