Majestic drama returns with slightly less to say
Ayear ago, journalists were rubbing their hands in anticipation of a right royal scandal. Netflix, the US streaming service was about to commit an outrageous act of lèse-majesté and Buckingham Palace would go into meltdown. Except that this didn’t happen – shots of a young Prince Philip’s (played by Matt Smith) backside notwithstanding, The Crown was a remarkable piece of quality drama, which skilfully humanised the British Royal family.
This second series, which begins with the Suez Crisis in 1956 and ends with the birth of Prince Edward in 1964, is likely to sit less well with the Windsors. It opens with fissures in the marriage between the Queen (Claire Foy) and Philip amid reports of the Duke of Edinburgh goating around the globe with Australian equerry Mike Parker. There is also Margaret’s fiancé, Anthony Armstrong-jones, aka Lord Snowdon (Matthew Goode), luxuriating in bisexual ménages à trois, and several accusations (including one from Jackie Kennedy) that the Queen is out of touch and living in a stagnant sort of hinterland.
That’s not to say that
The Crown is setting out to shock. Peter Morgan’s drama, directed by Stephen Daldry among others, is tasteful, emotionally rich and teeming with smart historical observations.
In all, series two has slightly less to say than the first, even if it is covering rather more tumultuous times. The first three episodes, depicting the Duke’s interminable tour, lack dramatic pace. But two standout performances, from Vanessa Kirby as Margaret and Anton Lesser as Harold Macmillan (who replaced the disgraced Anthony Eden as prime minister after Suez), mean the series improves from episode four.
As with the first series, The Crown excels in its two isolated episodes, which have little to do with the continuing narrative.
The first, a story new to me, is that of John Grigg, the 2nd Baron Altrincham (played by rising RSC actor John Heffernan), who complained that the Queen sounded like a “priggish schoolgirl” and was attacked outside the recently opened ITV studios by a member of the League of Empire Loyalists, a sort of lunatic fringe bristling with anger over the attenuation of British overseas territories.
In the penultimate episode, the action slips back in time to Philip’s Thirties childhood. The flash-forwards to Philip’s thorny relationship with Prince Charles are where Smith really convinces – showing a sort of jealousy towards the future heir, because he knows that his role as a father never truly holds weight in a world dictated by protocol.
As with series one, it is Claire Foy’s consistently sympathetic portrait of the Queen that is at the centre of The Crown.
That her replacement for series three is to be the irrepressibly likeable Olivia Colman would suggest that, despite the odd whiff of unearthed skeletons, The Crown is likely to only strengthen the Windsors’ reputation.
The Crown is released on Netflix on Dec 8.