Dame Judi Dench has hit out at The Crown, saying the hit Netflix drama has begun to verge on "crude sensationalism".
The legendary actress, 87, has called for a disclaimer to be added to each episode, believing the "fictionalised drama" poses as a risk because "a significant number of viewers" will take its events as historical truth.
Dame Judi added "wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series" will prove "damaging" to the monarchy and cannot go unchallenged.
The Bond icon's comments come after 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 Major is not alone in his concerns that the latest series of The Crown will present an inaccurate and hurtful account of history (News, Oct 17)," Dame Judi wrote in a letter to The Times.
"Indeed, the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.
"While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true."
Dame Judi said the suggestions expected to be made in the new series are "cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent."
The actress urged Netflix to reconsider calls to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode, for the "sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved as a mark of respect" to Queen Elizabeth.
For the forthcoming series of the lavish royal drama, which features recast roles, Dominic West stars as Charles, while Elizabeth Debicki plays Diana and Imelda Staunton the Queen.
Sir John is said to have described the forthcoming 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.
A spokeswoman for The Crown previously said: “The Crown has always been presented as a drama based on historical events.
“Series five is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family – one that has already been scrutinised and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians.”
The programme’s creator, Peter Morgan, also defended the forthcoming series in an interview with US publication Entertainment Weekly published this week.
“I think we must all accept that the 1990s was a difficult time for the royal family, and King Charles will almost certainly have some painful memories of that period,” he said.
“But that doesn’t mean that, with the benefit of hindsight, history will be unkind to him, or the monarchy. The show certainly isn’t.”
Netflix has also said the sixth and final series of The Crown will not depict the Paris car crash that killed Diana in August 1997, contrary to media reports.
The series is said to show the lead-up to the fatal incident as well as its aftermath but not the crash itself.
The fourth series of the lavish Netflix drama also attracted criticism for allegedly not doing enough to ensure viewers knew it was a work of fiction.
