Ex of murder victim jailed over fake will
TOUR Queen and Philip after the row The royal bust-up in episode eight occurred on Sunday, March 7, 1954, some 50 miles east of Melbourne, Australia. “It was the Duke of Edinburgh who came speeding out of the chalet first, followed by his tennis racket and shoes,” says Lacey. The argument might have gone unnoticed, were it not for film director Loch Townsend and his crew. They followed the couple for eight weeks for a feature film called The Queen in Australia, and accidentally filmed the quarrel. Not wanting to offend the Queen, they spoiled the footage. In The Crown, the fight is sparked by the strains of touring. Prince Philip, played by Matt Smith, complains the “whole thing is a circus”. The real cause is unknown but in two months the pair covered 2,500 miles by rail, 900 miles by car and 10,000 by plane. Charging elephants nearly kill Elizabeth during a nail-biting sequence in episode two. Thankfully, a brave Prince Philip distracts one beast before chasing the furious animal off.
Lacey says it’s true the pair were surrounded by trumpeting elephants on a visit to Aberdare National Park, Kenya, in 1952.
“In the series, they go a step further and you see Philip stepping out. He confronts an elephant and tells it to go away,” says Lacey. “That is invention. That was an episode where history was improved upon.” In episode three, Churchill’s devoted secretary Venetia Scott is hit and killed by a bus whose driver is unable to see her because of the thick smog caused by burning coal.
Churchill is seen taking action on pollution after her demise. But Lacey reveals Venetia was not a real person. Churchill did something after official figures showed more people died in the smog than in the worst month of the Blitz.
Lacey says: “Drama imagines the things we can’t be sure of. That’s the difference between drama and documentary.” In episode seven, set in 1953, Churchill has a stroke which is concealed from the Queen. When she finds out, she makes her fury known. Lacey says: “We see that she rebukes Churchill. “That is made up. The Queen did not discover for another 25 years that Churchill had deceived her about a stroke that incapacitated him. He couldn’t really carry on his duties as Prime Minister. At the time it was concealed.” This was for fear of Britain looking weak on the international stage and creating panic at a time of concern about the atomic bomb. ABDICATION Claire is giving up her royal role TRAGEDY Robyn Mercer