How drama twists truth time after time

How far have The Crown’s storylines strayed from reality? Royal historian Ian Lloyd separates fiction from fact...

THE CROWN VERSION In a private audience with Prime Minister John Major in 1991, Prince Charles argues for a change of monarch, saying it would be dangerous to ignore a newspaper poll showing the public prefers him to his mother.

THE TRUTH This is utter nonsense. Charles would never have lobbied for the Queen to abdicate, as he knew very well that his mother had made a solemn oath to serve for the whole of her life.

THE CROWN VERSION The Queen (played in the new series by Imelda Staunton, right) orders John Major to pay for repairs to the Royal Yacht Britannia out of public funds, even though he is worried that in a recession it might backfire on both of them.

THE TRUTH Pure drama. The Queen loved the Royal Yacht but was stoic about its future. In 1997 Defence Secretary Michael Portillo announced that Britannia would be replaced ‘because we believe a Royal Yacht is an important national asset.’ THE CROWN

VERSION In the Royal stables, Charles confronts the Queen about the failed marriages of her children. He tells her: ‘If we were an ordinary family and social services came, they’d have thrown us into care and you into jail.’

THE TRUTH Any suggestion Charles would have been so vile to the Queen is malicious fiction. There was friction, but this is going too far.

THE CROWN VERSION The Queen Mother asks her daughter not to make her ‘annus horribilis’ speech, in case people think that ‘their Queen is depressed’.

THE TRUTH When the Queen spoke of her ‘annus horribilis’ during a lunch on November 24, 1992, her voice was still croaky from the smoke inhalation she suffered during the fire at Windsor Castle. In fact, the Queen Mother was supportive. She wrote a warm note in

February, telling her daughter: ‘My Darling Lilibet… I do hope that you feel rested and relaxed after all the ghastly happenings of last (& this) year.’

THE CROWN VERSION John Major tells his wife Norma:

‘The senior royals seem deluded and out of touch, the junior royals feckless, entitled and lost. It cannot help but affect the

stability of the country and it feels it’s all about to erupt on my watch.’

THE TRUTH John Major remained a staunch supporter of the Royal Family throughout his tenure and a close friend of the Queen. I very much doubt he ever believed the monarchy was about to crumble. l Ian Lloyd is the author of The Queen: 70 Chapters In The Life Of Elizabeth II