Lady Diana’s Spencer!
Yes, that really IS what the young actress playing the princess calls her cockapoo
OUT FOR a stroll with her beloved dog in the spring sunshine, this is the young actress who has been plucked from obscurity to play Princess Diana in The Crown.
And, by happy coincidence, it turns out that Emma Corrin had named her cockapoo Spencer – Diana’s maiden name – long before she was given the role.
As she stood clutching the cocker spaniel-poodle cross, her pose echoed that of Diana on a visit to Dartmouth in 1989, when the Princess showed a similar affection for a dog she was handed.
An onlooker said: ‘The funny thing is that people are only interested in stopping to talk to her about her dog Spencer at the moment. He’s the one who attracts attention but no doubt that will all change.’
Miss Corrin, 23, only had two minor screen acting credits to her name when, less than a year after sitting her finals at Cambridge University, she landed the role of a lifetime.
She is the eldest of three siblings raised by businessman Chris Corrin and his South African wife, Dr Juliette Corrin, a speech therapist, at their £2.5 million home with a swimming pool near Sevenoaks in Kent.
She attended £36,000-a-year Roman Catholic independent girls’ school, Woldingham, near Oxted in Surrey.
At St John’s College, she became a frequent performer at Cambridge University’s ADC theatre, where stars such as Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie forged their careers. It was also where Oscar-winning Crown actress Olivia Colman, who is set to appear in season three as the Queen, took on some of her earliest roles.
Miss Corrin will play Lady Diana Spencer in her early days, when she worked at the Young England kindergarten in Pimlico, London.
She will also portray her engagement and ill-fated marriage to Charles, who is being played by The Durrells star Josh O’Connor.
The Crown returns for its third series on Netflix in July, covering the Queen’s reign from the mid-Sixties to the late Seventies. Miss Corrin will not appear until series four next year.