PRINCE CHARMING

Cast as Prince Philip in the new series of The Crown, actor Tobias Menzies talks to Jen Crothers about his latest role, his republican roots and what it’s like to work with Olivia Colman

Actor Tobias Menzies on life as The Crown’s new Duke of Edinburgh

How is it? Is it good? How does the transition from the old cast to new faces feel?’ Tobias Menzies is asking me for my honest opinion on the new series of The Crown. He has taken the reins from Matt Smith as Prince Philip in Netflix’s hit drama about the royal family throughout Queen Elizabeth II’S rule. The drama has been recast – an unusual move for a successful show – and, naturally, Menzies is eager to discover how it plays out to viewers. I tell him they’ve nailed it. His first scene, in which he is irritated by the Queen buttering her toast loudly while he’s watching TV, is kitchen-sink drama gold. The series opener has our new Queen, Olivia Colman, reflecting on a portrait from the Royal Mail, while, to her left, Claire Foy is in profile as the Queen on a series of stamps. It’s a clever segue from old to new. I tell Menzies this and he beams. ‘It’s nice, isn’t it? It’s very graceful; a great piece of writing,’ he says. Even so, there are nerves. ‘There’s definitely some trepidation about it,’ he admits, gently setting down his coffee on the small table before us in a London hotel suite. With the previous two series of The Crown making household names of Claire Foy and Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret) and further elevating Matt Smith’s profile, Menzies is justified in feeling anxious about the gilded baton being passed on to the ‘new faces’. As well as the mighty Olivia Colman, there’s the iconic Helena Bonham Carter, who plays a scene-stealing Princess Margaret. The involvement of these acting legends makes for quite a different starting point to that of the original ensemble. He was a fan of the previous two series, and was really excited to discover he’d landed the role of the Duke of Edinburgh. ‘I was a great admirer of the show anyway,’ he says. ‘I liked it because, for me, it wasn’t that you had to be interested in the royal family particularly; it was bigger than that. It was an investigation of those institutions about leadership and what it’s like to exist inside a ceremonial position. I really like that about the show. I was pretty pumped.’

‘THIS ISN’T A WORLD I SPENT A LOT OF MY LIFE THINKING ABOUT’

And all this in spite of an anti-monarchy upbringing. ‘This isn’t a world I spent a lot of my life thinking about,’ he laughs. ‘I came from a left-wing, republican background, where my mum would actively not put on the Queen’s speech on Christmas Day. To step into a role like this was an interesting thing for me to do, because I thought, “I’m really not this, and I don’t come from this world at all.’”

Menzies is already a well-known face. With shows such as Game Of Thrones and Outlander under his belt, the 45-year-old British actor, who lives in London, has a stage and screen career that has spanned 21 years so far, and is also keen to pay homage to his predecessors. ‘There’s no way we can be like the last cast, but hopefully, if it’s authentic and

‘I LOVED WHAT MATT DID AND I TRIED TO NICK A FEW IDEAS’

confident, we’ll take the audience with us,’ he says. ‘Hopefully, within one episode, they’ll go, “Okay, it’s this lot now.” We wanted to honour what the others had done but make our own show.’

The Crown’s first series started out set in 1947, while the third begins in 1964, and the fifth will begin in the 1980s – which explains the need to recast characters every two series.

This time around, Prince Philip is in his 40s, as is Menzies, while Colman’s Queen is approaching that decade. One of Menzies’ favourite moments is in episode seven, set in 1969. ‘It’s built around the moon landings, which throws Prince Philip into self-reflection, which you don’t see often,’ he explains. ‘Peter Morgan’s writing for that episode is beautiful; he juxtaposes things that you wouldn’t think would live alongside each other, such as the royal family and the moon landings. That’s the show’s brilliance.’

When Menzies landed the role of Prince Philip, he called Philip 1.0, Matt Smith. They had appeared on stage together in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys in the mid-2000s, and were friends. He didn’t explicitly ask Smith for tips, but says, ‘I loved what Matt did, and I think I tried to nick a few ideas from how he played it, but it was 20% Matt and 80% the real guy.’

Like Prince Philip himself, Menzies comes across as a bit of an enigma. There’s not a lot out there about his private life, and he’s happy for it to stay that way. ‘I guess I’m naturally reticent about putting my personal life in the public domain and, in that regard, maybe I’m similar to him,’ he says. ‘I’ve always felt that if people know a lot about you, it has an effect on their ability to accept you as a character.’ He adds, ‘My hero would be [Daniel] Day-lewis, in that I’m someone who just wants the work to be the thing. Also, there’s not much to tell about my private life, to be honest – there are no bodies!’ he whispers conspiratorially.

Menzies’ turn as the Duke of Edinburgh is extraordinary. The accuracy of his voice, the shock of blond hair in contrast to his natural brown – an expensive-looking wig that took an hour-and-a-half to apply – and the precision in his scene-shattering facial expressions is a masterclass in character acting. His first scene with Colman showcases the precision of his withering looks, as well as signposting the transition from Smith to Menzies.

‘It’s quite a technical role,’ he admits. ‘There’s a vocal issue because everyone knows what they sound like – or they think they do, in that Spitting Image way. You want to get close to what he sounds like, but without it being pastiche or clichéd.’

On set for seven months, he wasn’t tempted to go fully method, nor did he catch the rest of the cast chatting in an RP accent over lunch – not even the ‘Queen’ herself. ‘Olivia’s a very down-to-earth person,’ he laughs.

The pair had worked together before on BBC One’s The Night Manager, for which Colman won a Golden Globe. ‘It felt great to team up again,’ he says. As for the rest of the cast, he’s equally complimentary. Helena’s ‘done so much amazing work’, while Colman and Marion Bailey [who plays the Queen Mother] ‘are people who know what it is to be brilliant at their job’. They all get on well, too. ‘We are a harmonious group, who enjoy one another’s company,’ he enthuses.

There’s even talk of them watching a screening of the new series en masse. They’re already well into filming season four, with Gillian Anderson coming in as Margaret Thatcher, and Emma Corrin as Diana, Princess of Wales. Menzies says returning for season four was like coming back to an old friend. ‘It felt different and the same; it was like we’d never left,’ he explains. ‘But we’re going into a different period. The look is changing.’

With the cast getting older in seasons five and six, has Menzies already earmarked who he’d like to succeed him in the next chapter of Prince Philip’s life? ‘You know who I thought would be great? Bill Nighy,’ he says proudly. ‘It’s not a bad shout, is it? You heard it here first.’

The Crown is on Netflix from 17th November