Dame Judi Dench has called for a disclaimer to be added to each episode of The Crown, saying the hit Netflix drama has begun to verge on “crude sensationalism”. The screen and stage veteran said despite previous statements by the streaming giant that the show is a “fictionalised drama”, there was a risk that “a significant number of viewers” would take its events as historical truth.
She added that “wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series” would prove “damaging” to the monarchy and could not go unchallenged. Dame Judi made the remarks in a letter to The Times, following previous concerns voiced by former prime minister Sir John Major, about the content of The Crown’s highly anticipated fifth series, which will launch on November 9.
Sir John is said to have described the upcoming scenes, which reportedly depict the King, then the Prince of Wales, plotting to oust the Queen, as “malicious nonsense”. It is expected to show Charles cutting short a holiday with Diana, Princess of Wales, to host a secret meeting with Sir John at Highgrove in 1991.
