NETFLIX RESPONDS

The Crown creator Peter Morgan says the series has always been a “love letter” to Queen Elizabeth, and Netflix says the show has always been presented as a drama based on historical events.

“Series five is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family – one that has already been scrutinised and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians,” the streamer says in a statement.

Peter acknowledges that the 1990s were a difficult time for the royal family.

“And King Charles will almost certainly have some painful memories of that period. But that doesn’t mean that, with the benefit of hindsight, history will be unkind to him or the monarchy.

“The show certainly isn’t. I have enormous sympathy for a man in his position – indeed, a family in their position. People are more understanding and compassionate than we expect sometimes.”

Historian and author

Robert Lacey, who’s The Crown’s historical consultant, says there are “two sorts of truths”. “There’s a historical truth and then there’s the larger truth about the past.” The Crown, he says, is not representing historic fact, but the emotional truth of lives and loves, highs and lows and the tears and smiles of a real family. Dominic West, who plays Charles, defends the show too. “It lives in the imagined conversations of the family’s private life, which is something no one knows. I think that’s what it gets a lot of criticism for. How can you know what they talk about in their private lives? “The obvious answer is we don’t – but we have an incredible writer who imagines [events] based on exhaustive research. And that’s really part of the fascination of the show.”

‘THERE’S A HISTORICAL TRUTH AND THEN THERE’S THE LARGER TRUTH ABOUT THE PAST’