Netflix rejects calls to add disclaimer to ‘The Crown’

Despite pressure from U.K. culture secretary, company says everyone knows show is fiction

LONDON— Netflix has “no plans” to add a disclaimer to “The Crown,” stating that its lavish drama about Britain’s royal family is a work of fiction.

“We have always presented ‘ The Crown’ as a drama — and we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events,” it said in a statement.

“As a result we have no plans — and see no need — to add a disclaimer.”

Netflix was urged last week by British Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to add the disclaimer, after the release of the drama’s fourth series.

Questions of historical fidelity weren’t a major issue during earlier seasons of the show, which debuted in 2016 and traces the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II, which began in 1952.

But the current fourth season is set in the 1980s, a divisive decade in Britain. Characters include Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose 11-year tenure transformed and divided Britain, and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, whose death in a car crash in 1997 transfixed the nation and the world.

Some Conservatives have criticized the program’s depiction of Thatcher, played by Gillian Anderson.

Britain’s first female prime minister, who died in 2013, is portrayed as clashing with Olivia Colman’s Elizabeth to an extent that some say is exaggerated.

“The Crown” creator Peter Morgan, whose work also includes recent-history dramas “The Queen” and “Frost/Nixon,” has defended his work, saying it is thoroughly researched and true in spirit.

Charles Spencer, Diana’s brother, also called on Netflix to add a disclaimer.

“I worry people do think that this is gospel and that’s unfair.”