PHILIP’S BOMBSHELL SCENE WITH PENNY
It is in The Crown’s carriagedriving scenes that the Duke of Edinburgh shows grief-stricken Penny Romsey a world beyond the loss of her daughter Leonora, who has died of cancer aged just five. The prince, with Penny at his side, races a carriage-driving team of four ebony horses through parkland, urging them into a lake and under the arches of a pale sandstone bridge. They make a daredevil high-speed turn, water flying from polished hooves, and canter back, with Penny clinging on and laughing.
Philip tells Penny, now Countess Mountbatten of Burma, that he has also known profound loss. ‘Grief makes a permanent home in your body,’ he says, before promising ‘you will be happy again but never in the same way, that’s the point, to keep finding new ways.’
It’s an open invitation to join him as his carriage-driving companion, forging a friendship which endured until he died and sparking rumours of an affair — always denied — with a woman who was the wife of his godson, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and over 30 years his junior.
The Crown chooses to depict physical intimacy, a touching of hands, as the duke teaches Penny how to handle the reins. There’s an imagined emotional intimacy too, as he confesses that his lifelong commitment to the Queen and their marriage vows haven’t allowed him to follow his heart. ‘The clarity of that permanence does not take into account the one thing human beings do the minute they take a commitment to make a life together.’ Penny asks what that is, and he replies, ‘To grow in separate directions.’
It’s a bombshell scene in the already controversial series five — but it perhaps contains a kernel of truth. For this plotline is not about showcasing the duke’s skill, but about exploring his need for an identity away from the Queen. Penny was critical to this, sharing his passion for the sport.
Stuntman and top carriage driver Daniel Naprous coached Jonathan Pryce’s Philip and Natascha McElhone’s Penny for these scenes. They were ultimately able to ‘go at a lick’ in training, according to Natascha, but when it came to filming, ‘They don’t actually let you near a horse!’ reveals Jonathan. ‘You’re being towed by a camera truck.’
The actor agrees the carriage-driving plotline, is a mechanism for exploring the Queen and Prince Philip’s marriage. ‘What Peter Morgan does is to show the life that surrounds them that we don’t see on the news. All these interests and his passions, they reflect directly on Philip’s relationship with Elizabeth. He wasn’t the reluctant debutant. He went into it with his eyes open, knowing what he would have to give up. I think he thought, “There’s still time for me to build a life outside this relationship.”’
The Queen accepted his need to be more than just her consort, inviting Countess Mountbatten of Burma to her husband’s funeral in 2021. Philip’s carriage-driving companion was one of only 30 mourners.