Season five of hit Netflix series The Crown is upon us, and it has an all-new cast.
As the series reaches the Nineties, we bid adieu to Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II and Emma Corrin as Diana, Princess of Wales, and welcome Imelda Staunton and Elizabeth Debicki, respectively, in their places.
While reviews of the series have called it the “definition of first world problems”, viewers who love scandal are in for a treat as the new series explores everything from “tampongate” to Diana’s infamous Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.
With Dominic West in for a middle-aged King Charles III and Khalid Abdalla as Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed, here’s how the cast of season five of The Crown stacks up against its real life counterparts.
Imelda Satunton as Queen Elizabeth II
Imelda Staunton has taken on the role of the Queen in her late sixties and early seventies, as she tackles the breakdown of her children’s marriages, and the scandals that plagued the royal family in the Nineties.
Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip
Jonathan Pryce plays a late middle-aged Prince Philip. “[Phillip’s] a highly educated, intelligent intellectual with great interests in the natural world and in the sciences. I think I wanted to present more of that side of him,” Pryce told Vanity Fair. “I also grew to like him and realised he had a sense of humor and a sense of fun.”
Dominic West as Prince Charles
Dominic West plays Prince Charles, now King Charles III, in possibly the most dramatic period his life. During the early Nineties the King divorced Diana and saw an intimate conversation between himself and Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Consort, released to the public.
Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales
Elizabeth Debicki’s Diana goes through a tumultuous few years in the early Nineties. As well as her divorce from Charles, she also recorded secret tapes for journalist Andrew Morton’s book and appeared in Martin Bashir’s now-controversial Panorama interview on the BBC.
Claudia Harrison and Theo Fraser Steele as the Princess Royal and Sir Timothy Laurence
In the Nineties, Anne, the Princess Royal met and fell in love with Timothy Laurence, who was then an equerry for Queen Elizabeth II. Actors Claudia Harrison and Theo Fraser Steele depict this meeting in the new season.
Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles
Olivia Williams looks uncanny as Camilla Parker Bowles in the new season of The Crown. During a roundtable discussion with the costume designers and hair and makeup lead of The Crown, Sidonie Roberts, associate costume designer and head buyer said of Williams: “She’s quite chic isn’t she, Olivia Williams? Because some of the stuff we were putting on Camilla … it absolutely goes to show you how much the wig and makeup help us.”
Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret
Lesley Manville plays a lively Princess Margaret in The Crown’s fifth season, and viewers will feel satisfied as one of her older romantic storylines comes to a close.
Senan West and Will Powell as Prince William and Prince Harry
There are four actors who play a young Prince of Wales and Duke of Sussex this season, but the older more prominent versions are Senan West (the son of Dominic West) as Prince William, and Will Powell as Prince Harry.
Salim Dau as Mohamed Al-Fayed
Salim Dau shines in his role as billionaire businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. The father of Dodi, Al-Fayed plays an integral role in one of this season’s episodes.
Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed
Khalid Abdalla’s Dodi Fayed appears more towards the end of this season. His character is set to play a more prominent role in season six.
