IT’S HOLA FROM DOWN UNDER FOR TV’S ROYAL TREATMENT
THE new season of The Crown has devoted an entire episode to Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s famous tour of Australia in 1983 – without even setting foot in the country.
Instead of making a long and expensive trip Down Under, producers of the award-winning drama used parts of England and Spain as substitutes for key Australian
locations featured in the wildly successful, six-week royal tour.
The port city of Malaga was used for footage of Sydney and the southern desert regions around Almeria – helped by some clever digital trickery and Aussie-accented extras – stood in for the pair’s famous trip to Uluru, while other scenes were shot in London’s Australia House.
Emma Corrin, who plays Diana
opposite Josh O’Connor’s Charles, was devastated not to visit Australia for real but said the pair pored over video footage of the real trip.
“Out there in Almeria, in the desert ... it’s an incredible landscape,” Corrin said. “I haven’t actually been to Australia but you did feel you could be somewhere like that.”
The trip was 22-year-old Princess Diana’s first time overseas with her husband of two years but their
relationship was already struggling. There was also pressure as new prime minister Bob Hawke – played in the series by Richard Roxburgh – made no secret of his desire to make Australia a republic.
The trip was so important to the royals that it was inevitable it would feature in the fourth season of The Crown, which covers the late 1970s and 80s and drops on Netflix next Friday.