Crown to show Duke’s anger as son eclipses him
THE new series of The Crown will portray the Duke of Edinburgh as a man angry at being “outranked” by Charles, his young son.
The return of the lavish Netflix drama on Dec 8 will show the Queen’s marriage under strain and the monarchy itself in crisis.
The Duke is frustrated by his role as consort, feeling unable to stamp his authority as a father because his son is the future king.
In one heated row, the Duke, played by Matt Smith, tells the Queen that he must fight to be respected because “right now I am currently outranked by my eight-year-old son”.
The Prince of Wales turned eight at the end of 1956, where the second series of The Crown picks up. That year, the Duke goes on a world tour aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Officially, the purpose of his trip was to open the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. But as he travelled around the South Pacific meeting beautiful women the trip began to attract bad headlines at home.
The Crown will show an anguished Queen (Claire Foy) confronting him about rumours of alleged infidelities, although it will not show any.