The Queen is a woman of limited intelligence who’d prefer to be looking after her dogs, says Crown writer
THE Queen is merely ‘a countryside woman of limited intelligence’, the writer of the hit royal drama The Crown has claimed.
In remarks sure to raise eyebrows among the TV show’s millions of fans, Peter Morgan insisted the monarch ‘would have much preferred looking after her dogs and breeding horses to being Queen’.
The screenwriter, known for his republican leanings, said he never would have predicted that he would end up working on a programme about the Royal Family.
‘If you had told me I would be doing this, I would have told you it was mad, hallucinogenic conjecture,’ he told the Sunday Times magazine.
‘I wouldn’t have guessed there would be anything more to say about this countryside woman of limited intelligence who would have much preferred looking after her dogs and breeding horses to being Queen.’
He also likened the ‘insane system’ of the monarchy to a virus.
‘They’re survival organisms, like a mutating virus,’ he said.
‘Look at how many prime ministers are wheeled out in coffins, on stretchers, having made fools of themselves – Downing Street is full of sick people.
‘And yet she [the Queen] sur- vives. It is clearly a deranged institution and a completely insane system, but perhaps it’s the insanity that makes it work.’
The Crown, which airs on Netflix, won a Golden Globe for best TV series, with further awards for Claire Foy, who played the Queen, and John Lithgow, who portrayed Winston Churchill.
The first series followed the Queen and Prince Philip before and after her coronation, charting their transition into life at Buckingham Palace. Miss Foy, 33, and Matt Smith, 35 – who plays the young Duke of Edinburgh – will return for the second series, which will be set between 1957 and 1964.
Beginning on Friday, December 8, it will include episodes featuring President Kennedy and his wife Jackie.
Mr Morgan said the show’s success was down to him being ‘blessed with the richness of the history of the second half of the 20th century’.
He added: ‘I’m also blessed because the system she [the Queen] is in is so ridiculous and illogical that even just to unpack it from a point of view of reason or logic is such a joy.
‘And that’s why I do what I do and I’ll keep on doing it until they stop me.’
Olivia Colman, the star of Broadchurch and The Night Manager, is set to take over the role of Queen Elizabeth from Miss Foy.
She has said of her forthcoming involvement in the drama: ‘I’m so thrilled to be part of The Crown. I was utterly gripped watching it.’
Miss Colman, 43, will be in series three and four of the show – due to air from 2019.
She paid tribute to her predecessor, saying: ‘I think Claire Foy is an absolute genius – she’s an incredibly hard act to follow.
‘I’m basically going to re-watch every episode and copy her.’
‘Deranged institution’