It’s Philip the Poldark prince
£100m TV drama shows how topless hunk left Elizabeth oarstruck
FIRST Ross Poldark bared his torso to send female viewers into a swoon. Then a half-naked Prince Albert won a legion of admirers in the ITV series Victoria.
But now there’s a new – and very surprising – screen heart-throb: Prince Philip.
Seen bare-chested and dripping with sweat as he strains every sinew in a rowing competition, the young Philip oozes sex appeal in a scene far removed from the formal occasions in which the British people are used to seeing the Queen’s consort.
This is the Prince as played by former Doctor Who star Matt Smith in the hotly awaited new £100million television drama The Crown.
The Prince’s athletic display clearly meets with the approval of a young Princess Elizabeth – played by Claire Foy – who is unable to take her eyes off him.
The salty scene is part of a multiseason drama written by Peter Morgan – who scripted The Queen with Helen Mirren on Oscar-winning form – which will chart the entire
Most intimate moments of the Queen’s life
life of Her Majesty, from her childhood to the present day.
The first ten-episode series begins on November 4 and will take the story from the Queen’s childhood to the late 1950s, showing Elizabeth in some of the most intimate and turbulent moments of her early life.
In one scene, Princess Margaret – played by Vanessa Kirby – enjoys an illicit kiss with Group Captain Peter Townsend (Ben Miles), who later proposed marriage to her but was deemed unsuitable because he was divorced.
In another emotionally y charged scene, Margaret t furiously confronts thee Queen over the man she e loves. She interrupts a social l gathering and yells: ‘I need d to speak to my sister. Now!’
The Queen is portrayed as s a headstrong young woman determined to fulfil her destiny even at the cost of her personal happiness. In one exchange, her grandmother Queen Mary, played by Dame Eileen Atkins, tells her: ‘I have seen three great monarchies brought down through their failure to spare personal indulgences from duty. You must not allow yourself to make similar mistakes. The Crown must win, it must always win.’
But the most controversial aspect of the drama is its depiction of the Queen’s relationship with her husband. The series, which has been commissioned by the US broadcaster Netflix, will claim that Prince Philip struggled with having to play second fiddle to his wife in public.
In one scene, he is resentful after being told he must walk behind her after they disembark from a plane. He is told: ‘The Crown must have precedence.’ He then protests when the Queen orders him to kneel before her at the Coronation ceremony of 1953.
These scenes have infuriated historians and constitutional experts.
Royal biographer Philip Ziegler said of the young Prince Philip: ‘I think he would have been far more sophisticated about things than the drama implies. Of course it was difficult, because he was a strongminded man. But he knew what he was taking on when he took on the job. There were no unpleasant surprises for him and he didn’t seriously challenge the rules.’
Ziegler said the drama’s boast that it was ‘inspired by true events’ did arouse an element of ‘suspicion’. He said: ‘I look forward to the show with some apprehension, because the truth is no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. It’s all guess
Matt Smith as bare-chested oarsman Philip, above centre. Inset: Claire Foye’s Elizabeth work.’ And Royal biographer Hugo Vickers said it was ridiculous to think Prince Philip questioned his role and added that the programme was inevitably ‘fantasising’ about the Queen’s private life.
He said: ‘It’s all nonsense in my view. Prince Philip was born in the Royal House of Greece. He knew the rules and would have done since he was a little boy.
‘He would have known perfectly well how to behave from the moment he was born. He couldn’t care less about things like who got off the plane first.’ He added: ‘I don’t think I am alone in thinking we have been fortunate in having the Queen and Prince Philip for nearly 65 years. I don’t like seeing any production fantasising about their lives.’
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace confirmed the producers of the drama had not approached them and declined to comment further.
The Crown begins on November 4 on Netflix.