The danger in making your television program about a real person is that life happens. And so does death.
In the aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II's passing on Sept. 8, mourners wondered about everything from money bearing her image to the royal succession and those corgis. As details of the grand state funeral emerged, so did more questions (though it turns out the dogs will be all right). Perhaps not urgently on the royals' minds, but on ours: What will happen to "The Crown"?
Netflix's popular series dramatizes the life of the queen from her 1947 wedding to the current century. A surprise in the wake of Elizabeth's death? The queen herself was apparently a fan. So swears George Jobson, "considered one of Britain's leading royal commentators," according to Entertainment Weekly, who notes "the Queen had a habit of settling in to watch the Netflix series on Sundays."
The actor who stepped into that role of "a callous, unfaithful spouse" in his younger years is Matt Smith who, after his charming "Doctor Who" tenure, seems drawn to dastardly guys. On NBC's "Today," Smith discussed meeting the queen's grandson, Prince Harry, who jokingly called him "grandad," in a reference to the show. Smith also said he had heard — though he did not specify his source — that the queen did watch "The Crown." Moreover, "she used to watch it on a projector on a Sunday night."
Harry confirmed his own viewing habits to James Corden of "The Late Late Show," saying he preferred the TV dramatization to tabloid stories. "I'm way more comfortable with 'The Crown' than I am seeing the stories written about my family or my wife or myself . . . They don't pretend to be news — it's fictional."
Harry described the Netflix show as "loosely based on the truth. Of course, it's not strictly accurate, but . . . it gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that."
"The Crown" is currently filming its sixth season. As news of the monarch's death arrived, production halted. This pause wasn't due to uncertainty over how to proceed following the death of its main subject but rather, as Deadline reports, "a mark of respect." Filming was stopped not only on the day of the queen's death but also on the day of her funeral. In a statement about the queen's death, series creator Peter Morgan said, "'The Crown' is a love letter to her and I've nothing to add for now, just silence and respect."
On a 2017 Christmas broadcast, the queen seemed to hint at her "The Crown" viewership.
On a 2017 Christmas broadcast, the queen seemed to hint at her "The Crown" viewership, when some onlookers believe she referenced a scene from the show. However, in 2019, her communication secretary wrote a letter to The Guardian that read, in part, "We appreciate that readers of the Guardian may enjoy this fictionalized interpretation of historical events, but they should do so knowing that the royal household is not complicit in interpretations made by the program."
The queen may never have condoned "The Crown," but what could she have thought of it? As a source told The Sunday Express in 2017, the queen was apparently introduced to the series by Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, who would often watch a Netflix show while eating casually together, and "she really liked it, although obviously there were some depictions of events that she found too heavily dramatized."
