Netflix’s smash-hit drama has influenced perceptions of the queen around the world—and may do so in posterity
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThen Peter Morgan, a screenwriter and playwright, spied a story in the bond between monarch and prime minister. He explored that relationship in “The Queen”, a film of 2006 that chronicled the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death in 1997, when Tony Blair was in Downing Street. The weekly meetings between queen and prime ministers provided the structure for “The Audience”, his play of 2013.
Its recurring theme is the queen’s unwavering sense of duty. In the first season, Elizabeth is taught about the “dignified” and “efficient” branches of government as outlined in Walter Bagehot’s “The English Constitution”. She belongs to the dignified, symbolic branch, and stands apart from the bit that does the actual governing. After her accession to the throne in 1952, the show suggests, that doctrine is her guiding principle.
All that makes her a tricky protagonist. The queen, Mr Morgan has said, is “not naturally a person you’d want to put at the centre of any drama, because she’s this remarkably undramatic woman”. He has likened her to a Russian doll, her feelings and impulses concealed deep within. Still, “The Crown” imbues her with the dry wit she is often said to have exuded in private. When new stamps are issued with her likeness, she quips that they mark her transition into an “old bat”.
So far, so flattering. But “The Crown” is not pure hagiography. It suggests that the famed stoicism was both a strength and a flaw. In 1966 the fictional queen struggles to find the right words after the Aberfan disaster, which killed almost 150 people, and resorts to faking tears. Her judgment of royal interests is not always astute. One episode explores her meddling in the early relationship between Charles and Camilla.
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