The Crown: ‘I never imagined it as Diana’s ghost in the traditional sense’

The Crown has long been haunted by the spirit of Diana, whose rise and fall has provided the Netflix blockbuster with one of its juiciest storylines. But as Peter Morgan’s retelling of the life and times of the British royal family returns for its final series, it is amid speculation that Diana’s ghostly presence might be more than metaphor.

According to British tabloids, both Prince Charles and his mother will converse with the “spirit” of the late princess of Wales, whose death, in 1997, takes place early in the new season. Cue red-top outrage: to quote the Daily Mail, The Crown had veered into the realm of “cruel”, “farcical” and “sick jokes”.

Morgan has, it should be pointed out, dismissed the notion that the new series, which is under wraps until the first episodes arrive next week, features a “ghost Diana”. He did, however, tell Variety that both Charles and Queen Elizabeth would talk with the princess after her demise. And he confirmed that her death would not be depicted on screen.

“I never imagined it as Diana’s ghost in the traditional sense,” says Morgan. “It was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she has left behind. Diana was unique, and I suppose that’s what inspired me to find a unique way of representing her. She deserved special treatment narratively.”

Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in May

---

Is Dublin still an option for first-time buyers?

---

Anthony Boyle: ‘My dad had to go to Gaelic training, and the same British soldier would throw his kit in a puddle every day’

---

According to Dominic West, who returns as the prince of Wales, “there were some really heavy scenes this season, and a lot of tears for Charles” as he tries to come to terms with his ex-wife’s death, has to break the news to his sons, and attempts, to varying degrees of success, to help William and Harry mourn.

What Morgan regards as “special treatment” of Diana might strike others as poor taste. But that type of tension is what has sustained The Crown through six incredibly successful years. Morgan’s mission has been to balance an appropriate amount of respect for the Windsors and their place in British society with enough soapy shenanigans to hook audiences and keep them bingeing – a lesson he learned with The Queen, his Oscar-winning 2006 movie, in which Helen Mirren played Elizabeth in the weeks following Diana’s death.

The problem is that the closer The Crown comes to the present day, the easier it is to see the cross-stitching in Morgan’s scripts. When the frilly franchise debuted, in 2016, nobody protested about its portrayal of Winston Churchill, the first prime minister with whom the young queen worked. But then few sitting down to watch were alive when Churchill was in office. It was so long ago that we couldn’t tell the factual from the fanciful. Morgan could embellish with gusto.

The makers pick and choose which historical events they wish to portray with accuracy and those which they do not. This leaves audiences unsure whether they are watching historical fact or fiction

By last year, when the Trainspotting star Jonny Lee Miller played John Major, inaccuracies were being called out – most notably by Major himself, who took issue with the suggestion that a footloose Prince Charles had suggested to him in the early 1990s that the queen should abdicate so he could succeed her. “A barrel load of nonsense,” said the former prime minister, adding that the scene had been “peddled for no other reason than to provide maximum – and entirely false – dramatic impact.”

Morgan has always been upfront about The Crown being an interpretation of history rather than a re-creation of it. His business is drama, not documentary. Still, last year, amid criticisms from Major and figures such as Judi Dench, Netflix bowed to pressure and added a disclaimer to the series that described it as a “fictional dramatisation”.

Does that go far enough? Some feel that Netflix should do more. The streamer “takes liberties with the truth, invents fictionalised characters to add to the entertainment value of real events and [shows] a lack of responsibility regarding historical rigour,” says Dr Finola Doyle-O’Neill, a broadcast historian at University College Cork.

“Many people, in particular international audiences, and despite the protests of its creators, believe this to be the full and chronological history of the royals. In earlier episodes, they deliberately omit any historical context, for example, regarding Lord Mountbatten’s death” – he is blown up by the Provisional IRA – “and yet pick and choose which historical events they wish to portray with accuracy and those which they do not. This leaves audiences unsure whether they are watching historical fact or fiction.”

Rightly or wrongly, Netflix won’t lose any sleep over such criticisms. In an era when big streaming hits are ever harder to come by, The Crown remains stone-cold box office. Indeed, with the series due to conclude after this sixth series (which arrives in two tranches, in November and December), the big question will be how the streamer adjusts to life after the British royal family.

“The Crown fits Netflix’s business model of focusing on content that can appeal to global audiences with specialised or niche interests,” says Dr Sarah Arnold, the head of the department of media studies at Maynooth University.

“The British royal family is globally recognised. Many stories and scandals have been of great interest to non-British audiences. At the same time, because The Crown is not a ‘British’ show in the strictest sense of the definition, there isn’t as much audience or critical concern with objectivity, accuracy and the general politics of representing the monarchy.

“If The Crown were produced by one of the British terrestrials, especially the BBC, there would be much more focus on the position the broadcaster would be seen to take and whether representations were positive and favourable or not. In fact, the BBC had shown interest in The Crown, but Netflix offered the best deal to the makers.”

[ ‘It’s a bit of a minefield’: The new Charles and Diana join The Crown ]

The Crown also shows how conservative the streamer has grown in its commissioning choices, she says. “What’s happened over the years is that Netflix has become more risk averse. TV shows based on royalty are fairly well-trodden ground. The form and style are also very much like a typical drama series. In other words, Netflix plays it very safe with The Crown, which is successful because it is like ordinary TV. All of that work by Netflix, only to arrive back at good old-fashioned TV series.”

The end of The Crown is sure to be poignant for Morgan, particularly in light of Queen Elizabeth’s death last year. He will no doubt be relieved, too, that it survived the early hiccup of the Brexit referendum, which took place mere months before the Windsors arrived on Netflix. At the time he fretted whether Britain had shot itself in the foot: would anyone care about a country that was preparing to turn away from the world?

“I wondered would these people think, ‘Well, those Brits can go to hell, we don’t want to see the show,’” he said in 2016. Then he shrugged. “It might work the other way. Now that we see how mad they are, or how eccentric their system is, maybe we understand better this island and the soul of the UK.”

The first four episodes of The Crown series six are available on Netflix from Thursday, November 16th; the final six episodes will be available from Thursday, December 14th