Budget doubles for 2nd series £200M CROWN JEWELS

MONARCHY drama The Crown is to make a comeback – with a king-sized £200million budget.

The Netflix production wowed viewers when it launched last November as one of the most expensive TV shows ever made, costing £100million.

But the second series, which follows Queen Elizabeth II and her family from 1955-65, will double that.

The cast – including Wolf Hall’s Claire Foy, 33, as Her Majesty and ex-Dr Who Matt Smith, 34, as Prince Philip – are expected to get hefty pay rises. And elaborate costumes and huge production costs will help up the ante once again.

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In the first series, £200,000 was spent on one 30-second scene depicting a train journey to Sandringham – and 7,000 extras appeared throughout the 10 hour-long episodes.

Claire’s wedding dress, based on the original 1947 Norman Hartnell design with embroidered flowers, pearls and crystals, cost around £27,000. It’s a sum considerably higher than the cost of the real thing.

The Queen paid for the material for hers using rations coupons like other brides of the era, with a donation of £200 from the Government thrown in. Catherine Bailey, who plays Elizabeth Cavendish, the Queen’s childhood pal and Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting, revealed: “The budget for the first season was something like £ 100million – it’s probably £200million now. “We just wrapped filming on the second series and it’ it’ll come out on Netflix later thi this y ear. “It looks ex exquisite and it’ll make as mu much of a splash as season one.” The fir first series of The Crown showed the newlyw newlywed Queen at 25 dea dealing with heading up the monarchy during a time of political d disarray. A As she forged a relationship with Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, we sawaw how her life changeded through her marriage to Philip in 1947, the births hs of Prince Charles and Princess ncess Anne, and the dramatic c end of Margaret’s engagementent to RAF Group Captain Peter Townsend in 1955.

Viewing figures off under 500,000 for the launch failed to come close to fellow Netflix tflix originals like Orange Is The New Black and Stranger Things.

But the second seriess aims to be grander on every scaleale when it returns this November.

Because it’s a streaming ming service, Netflix rates success storiesries on sub-