Stepdaughter of IRA cheerleader cast as Countess Mountbatten in The Crown
Natascha Mcelhone’s journalist stepfather was active supporter of group that killed royal in 1979
IT IS a slice of casting that may raise eyebrows in the corridors of Buckingham Palace and beyond.
The stepdaughter of Roy Greenslade, Fleet Street’s self-confessed cheerleader for the IRA, has been cast in The Crown as a scion of the Mountbatten family, whose members were murdered by the terrorist group in one of its most infamous atrocities.
The choice of Natascha Mcelhone, 51, for the role of Countess Mountbatten, who married the grandson of the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, has led to questions over the appropriateness of The Crown’s casting for the fifth season of the award-winning series.
Lord Mountbatten, his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas Knatchbull, and Knatchbull’s grandmother Baroness Brabourne, were killed when the IRA detonated a bomb planted on board a fishing boat in Co Sligo, Ireland, in August 1979. Paul Maxwell, 15, a member of the crew, was also killed.
The murders had a profound impact on the Royal family. Lord Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle and a mentor to the Prince of Wales, had a huge influence on the modern day Royal family and any depiction on screen – including casting – is particularly sensitive.
Greenslade, a former editor of the Daily Mirror, Guardian columnist and a professor of journalism, outed himself earlier this year as a supporter of the IRA who had written regularly under a pseudonym for An Phoblacht, Sinn Fein’s weekly newspaper. In an admission published in February, Greenslade explained how his support for the Republican cause “and the use of physical force” had followed a journey that began when he fell in love with Noreen Mcelhone in 1971.
Noreen, wrote Greenslade, had been “imbued with a Republican spirit” and early on in their relationship introduced him to Patrick Doherty, who would go on to become Sinn Fein’s vice president. At the time Greenslade moved in with Noreen Mcelhone, her daughter Natascha was just two.
Penny Junor, a royal biographer, said that while Mcelhone could bear no responsibility for the “sins of her stepfather”, she believed another actress might have been chosen to play a member of a family in such sensitive circumstances.
“I think it shows a lack of respect [by the programme’s makers],” said Ms Junor. “Of course, you cannot visit the sins of the father on the daughter but there are lots of actresses out there. It just feels slightly two fingers.”
Ms Junor suggested the new series of The Crown, which premieres in November next year, will “raise eyebrows in so many ways” because it covers “recent history” focusing on the early to mid1990s and the break-up of the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The actress has also acknowledged the influence her stepfather once had on her thinking, although she says that “he politicised me only temporarily, much to his chagrin”.
In an interview in 2009, more than a decade before Greenslade admitted his secret IRA support, the actress said: “I am so glad and grateful he [Greenslade] came along. He was a tremendous influence on me. Roy was a great activist.”
Greenslade said last night: “I have nothing to say, not a single word, to say about a nonsensical story.”
A spokeswoman for The Crown said: “I don’t think we would comment on that story.”
Mcelhone declined to comment.