As filming continues for the final episodes of Netflix’s global hit The Crown in London, calls have emerged for it to remove scenes depicting Princess Diana’s death.
London’s The Sun reports that “disgusted” crew members claim Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, who plays the late princess, was made to lie in a coffin so viewers could see Diana “dead in the open casket”.
In another scene, French emergency doctors and nurses were seen in a “blood-drenched hospital theatre” as they tried to save her.
It is understood the crash scenes were filmed in Paris and Barcelona.
Diana, Princess of Wales, died early on August 31, 1997, after a crash in Paris’ Pont de l’Alma tunnel, with her partner Dodi Al Fayed, after being chased by paparazzi.
Her sudden death, at age 36, sent shockwaves around the world and her televised funeral was watched by more than 2.5 billion people.
She left behind her two sons, William, then 15, and Harry, 12.
The Prince of Wales, now 40, has previously expressed outrage about the blending of fact and fiction, and the dramatisation of historic events in Netflix’s smash-hit series about the British royals.
“[Prince William] has spoken about it, and now, as it is coming closer to the present, he is particularly concerned about it,” one source previously told Britain’s Sunday Times.
“William does think it is damaging.
“It is really harsh and hurtful.”
Axe the ‘distressing’ scenes
As production continues for The Crown‘s final series, The Sun reported horrified onlookers on set said they hoped public outrage would force producers to axe the two distressing scenes.
“They actually made Elizabeth climb into a coffin and play dead as Diana,” one person on set told the newspaper.
“Viewers will see a French priest administering the last rites for Diana as she is pronounced deceased.
“Prince Charles [played by Dominic West] enters the room and is in floods of tears. In his hysteria he notices that Diana is missing an earring.
“It is all he can focus on as grief envelops him.
“Charles tells French officials: ‘You’ve got to find that earring. She loved that earring’, in terribly upsetting scenes.
“Diana’s two sisters then join Charles and there is wailing and more tears around the dead body in the open coffin,” says the person who was there for the re-enactment.
‘It is obscene’
Diana was not the only fatality that day.
The driver, Henri Paul, and Mr Al Fayed were believed to have been killed instantly.
The only survivor was bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones. He was hospitalised for two months with severe injuries and remembers little of the accident.
After the crash, Diana was rushed by ambulance to the Pitie Salpetriere Hospital.
Those present for The Crown‘s hospital scene re-enactment say “viewers see her lying on a table with medics frantically surrounding her”.
“They hired real surgeons for the scenes. Nurses are also seen around the lifeless body. There is blood everywhere – on the surgeons’ gowns and gloves, and on the door.”
“Princes William and Harry never saw their mother dead in a coffin and they shouldn’t have to watch this. Nor should the British public.
“The bosses went way over the top to chase ratings.
“Everyone was very uncomfortable doing the shoot. It is obscene and should be banned from broadcast.”
It is far from the first controversy to hit the Netflix show. Its fifth series, which has just aired, sparked anger with a story line featuring then Prince Charles (now the King) and then British PM Sir John Major discussing potentially overthrowing the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Mr Major blasted it as “nothing other than damaging and malicious fiction”, while Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench urged producers to add a disclaimer to the show warning that it was not all fact.
Producers also apparently plan to recreate part of Princess Diana’s now discredited BBC Panorama interview about the break-up of her marriage to Charles.
Prince William has said it brought him “indescribable sadness” that the interview had significantly contributed to the “fear, paranoia and isolation” his mother felt in the final years of her life. He has asked that the footage never be aired again.
