ROYAL RETURN OF DRAMA
As Netflix’s hit series The Crown comes back for a fifth epic season, the cast talks to Siobhan Duck
WILLIAM Shakespeare famously said: “Heavy is the head that wears the crown” – and that’s certainly true for actor Imelda Staunton.
The Oscar-nominated star has a hard act to follow, taking over Queen Elizabeth II’s TV reign from Olivia Colman, who like Claire Foy before her, won numerous accolades as a younger version of the monarch in Netflix’s hit series The Crown. Adding to the pressure, the veteran British actor is rehashing some of the Queen’s darkest days at a time when public affection for the late leader is at an all-time high.
The promos alone for this controversial season have sparked outrage about “disrespectful” storylines involving Prince
Philip’s affair with a close friend, Charles plotting against his mother, and Diana’s infamous Panorama interview (which her sons William and Harry had requested never air again following revelations about Martin Bashir’s manipulations).
Concern reached such a fever pitch that Dame Judi
Dench called for Netflix to add a disclaimer advising viewers that The Crown is a work of fiction “for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years”. Last month, the streaming service followed suit – and has labelled the show a “fictional dramatisation”.
While Staunton says she had no hesitation about accepting the much-talked-about role – she and co-stars Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret) and Jonathan Pryce (Philip) were all cast years before the Queen’s death – she admits that it was still a “terrifying prospect”.
“But the production was so sublime, and these people are interesting and complicated.
“And [creator] Peter [Morgan] gives you an imagined life behind the doors. But it’s not ridiculous,” Staunton says.
“We all try to tread a truthful line, and the challenge of playing people who are, for all intents and purposes, constrained by their lives and their duty and their relationships, in some cases, is a great acting challenge. So to try to keep the standards up from the previous four seasons was a privilege.”
Dominic West, who plays Charles, says “everybody felt so much responsibility playing these parts in such a sad time. More people have witnessed the events in this season than any previous season,” he adds, as Olivia Williams, who plays Camilla, nods in agreement.
“And certainly when I was first doing a screen test and standing next to Elizabeth Debicki – who looked extremely like Diana and I looked extremely not like Charles – I felt very daunted by it, and it took quite a long time to sort of feel at ease with it, and to realise that ultimately, you’re making the part yourself and you’re playing the scene that’s on the page.”
THE CROWN
Streaming, netflix