It’s drama – not a documentary, says Crown star

JONATHAN PRYCE, the actor starring as the Duke of Edinburgh in the latest series of The Crown, said he is playing him as a “fictional character”.

“I’m not being Prince Philip, I’m being my version of Prince Philip, who in my head has to be a fictional character because it’s not a documentary, it’s a drama,” said Pryce.

The award-winning actor’s remarks came after months of mounting calls for a disclaimer to be displayed at the start of each episode stating that The Crown

is a “fictionalised drama”.

The fifth series of the show launched on Netflix last Wednesday and has proven to be its most controversial yet, but Pryce, speaking on the latest episode of the show’s official podcast that was released yesterday, insisted the dramatisation has been “the value of The Crown”.

He said that he and Peter Morgan, the writer of the drama, made “incredible assumptions” about Prince Philip and “his inner life”.

“This has been the value of The Crown anyways, that they present an image usually sympathetic to what that person may or may not be thinking and feeling,” he added.