A REAL GEM
Judith Timson finds a much needed distraction from grim U.S. politics in The Crown,
It weighed “five pounds.” Before her televised coronation in 1953, Elizabeth, who suddenly became Queen at 25 when her father King George VI died, practised wearing it while walking the corridors of Buckingham Palace, her two young children marching solemnly behind her.
I am talking the crown, but I am also talking a scene from The Crown, the Netflix original series of the life of the monarch, Season 1 of which was released this month and may just have saved my sanity.
To declare I binged on its first 10 episodes, which focus on the very early days of Elizabeth’s reign, does not speak the whole truth: in fact, with my soul sick from the uncertain aftermath of the U.S. election, and Trump this and Trump that, The Crown provided me with a glorious escape complete with pearls and pomp.
When writer Peter Morgan — also responsible for the pithy 2006 movie The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, and the play The Audience, about the Queen and her prime ministers — premiered this sumptuous series, he couldn’t have known it would provide balm for many a tired politics-tortured soul.
But it has. And how poignant that the lushly dramatized story of how “an ordinary young woman of modest ability and limited imagination” as her Uncle David, who had abdicated the throne to be with the woman he loved, describes his niece in one episode, offers in a dark time, moving and inspiring examples of leadership.
Those examples include not only that young woman, now 90, who seemingly never wavered from her commitment to her country and to her own dignity, but also Prime Minister Winston Churchill, stunningly portrayed by American actor John Lithgow.
The scenes with an aging Churchill as Elizabeth’s mentor, valiantly fighting his own political battles, are among the series’ finest.
The young Queen, is luminously brought to life by Claire Foy, who not only captures her de rigueur solemnity but portrays a flesh-andblood young woman, in love with and at times exasperated by her rambunctious husband, Prince Philip.
Morgan told Variety in an interview he found the marriage “interesting” and wanted to show Elizabeth as “a romantic creature, a sexual creature.”
That he has. No reaction from the palace yet about scenes that show the young couple kissing passionately but also bickering as Philip, a handsome cousin of the Queen who had no real pedigree or wealth, took a while to adjust to his highly restricted role.
The Queen and her mother actually murmur to each other that Philip is “not settling,” which sounds a bit horsey, but perfectly gets the message across.
Along the way, some dialogue is recognizable to most married couples: “I’d like us to spend more time together” Elizabeth wistfully tells her high-spirited party-going husband. (Morgan tiptoes up to the edge of long-standing rumours of Philip’s philandering but so far doesn’t exploit or explain them.)
At the same time, the talk is utterly exotic: “Are you my wife or my Queen?” Philip says bitterly to Elizabeth, who as monarch was entitled to a deference from her husband, including kneeling before her at her coronation, which any man of that era would have found challenging.
Morgan counters that deference with Philip making a racy reference to his wife kneeling before him and, oh, never mind. Of course this is high-grade soap with many luscious bubbles.
The series apparently cost more than £100 million to make and looks it — with scenes set in Kenya, on the crowded streets of London during a 1952 traumatizing smog that enveloped the city and killed thousands, and in many royal houses complete with more velvet drapery, great art and vintage fashions than the eye can digest.
The Crown is above all a family story.
There is a teary father-daughter tale as George realizes he’s dying and tries to prepare his adored first-born daughter to be the monarch.
There’s a tension-filled sister story as Elizabeth, with deep regret but stiff backbone, prevents her beautiful younger sister Margaret from marrying the love of her life because he was divorced (how times swiftly changed with three of the Queen’s four children divorcing their spouses).
And there’s a dowager duet as a fiercely focused grandmother and mother of the Queen stop at nothing to get their way.
Does it humanize the Royal Family? Yes, but it also glamourizes them. As a Crown-watching friend of mine put it: “They seem wittier and way more attractive than the originals.”
The Queen and her often hapless state-supported kin fall in and out of favour regularly. They seem to be having a good moment now with the attractive young royals Will and Kate and their adorable children.
And while Queen Elizabeth enjoys respect and affection as Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, the unpredictable winds of change that have brought Brexit and now Trump and the roiling anger underneath could sweep that good will away in a moment.
But in an era in which a reality show ethos has produced the next highly undisciplined leader of the free world, this story fascinates: A lovely young woman is called to duty, leaves her private self behind and with immense self discipline transforms into a Queen devoted to her country.
The next season of The Crown will be released sometime in 2017. Lord knows what the world will be experiencing then. Judith Timson writes weekly about cultural, social and political issues. You can reach her at judith.timson@sympatico.ca and follow her on Twitter @judithtimson.
In an era in which a reality show ethos has produced the next highly undisciplined leader of the free world, this story fascinates