The Crown fans spot glaring errors with Australia episode

Made it to the Australian episode of The Crown yet? If so, you’ll probably have some thoughts about the show’s depiction of our country.

Netflix Australia let The Crown fans into a little secret on social media last week: Episode six of the current season, which looks at Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s 1983 royal tour of Australia, wasn’t actually filmed here in Oz.

“The episode features some iconic Aussie locations, but not without a little cinematic magic. We’ll admit it – the episode was filmed entirely outside of Australia,” Netflix tweeted.

Uh … you don’t say. Eagle-eyed Aussie fans have been picking holes in the episode since the season dropped on November 15.

In fairness, The Crown did a commendable job at recreating Charles and Diana’s visits to iconic Australian landmarks like Uluru and the Sydney Opera House, thanks to believable computer effects:

The royal tour heads to Uluru.

Well at least they got Sydney right.

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But it’s in other scenes that the cracks – or rather, the episode’s actual filming location of Malaga, Spain – start to show.

Take the scene which shows Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) speaking to Bob Hawke (Richard Roxburgh) at Canberra’s Parliament House.

But look at the view in the background, to the right of the frame. I suppose that body of water could pass for Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin, but Canberra definitely has a distinct Spanish seaside resort town here – not a roundabout to be seen:

Prince Charles and Bob Hawke at Parliament House.

And then there’s this shot, panning from a rooftop pool as swimmers crane to get a view of Charles and Diana below. This is inner-city Brisbane circa 1983, according to The Crown:

This is Brisbane circa 1983, according to The Crown.

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Australia’s Spanish flavour hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans of the show:

BRISBANE: Famously the most Spanish city you’ve ever seen in your life.

— Peter Taggart (@petertaggart) November 21, 2020

I know we talked about the depiction of Brisbane on The Crown but can we have a second for Canberra, the picturesque beach town: pic.twitter.com/Sjmqj4Oi8z

— hannah story (@hannahmstory) November 25, 2020

This isn’t the only issue some have with The Crown’s depiction of Australia. This week ABC current affairs program Four Corners’ social media account roasted the show for its depiction of a vintage Bob Hawke interview.

“While we’re loving the fact that you’ve featured us in @TheCrownNetflix, we’re in the business of facts and there are a few things we want to clear up,” the Four Corners account tweeted, before pointing out that the late Mr Hawke never called the Queen a “pig” as depicted in The Crown, which also got the date of the interview wrong.