The Crown season two is royally good TV

THERE’S never been a better time to be completely obsessed with The Crown. And things are heating up this year.

WITH royal fever at a pitch thanks to Harry and Meghan’s romance, there’s never been a better time to get into The Crown, Netflix’s sumptuous and wonderfully performed series about the British royal family.

The measured turbulence of stiff-upper-lips is exactly the show you need to get you through the chaos of your Christmas preparations. It’s also the last chance to watch the luminous Claire Foy, Matt Smith and Vanessa Kirby in these roles as the characters will be recast for the next season as the royals age.

From the outside, the entitled world of the Windsors appear glamorous and opulent, but as The Crown has revealed, everyone trapped inside it would probably rather be elsewhere, burdened as they are by intense scrutiny and crippling duty. Above all, no one seems particularly happy.

Not long ago, the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary — the longest royal marriage in history. Over the decades, their union has been plagued by rumours of tension and betrayal (on his part, never hers).

While royal obsessives, plus regular folk, pore over their adorable anniversary portraits, The Crown is offering up its own version of what some of those behind-doors conversations may have been.

At odds.

The season opens with the portrait of a marriage in crisis, a marriage that could never be dissolved with divorce. As Elizabeth and Philip circle each in a room, their body language hostile, their voices clipped, it’s a signal of the emotional and narrative ambition of the series.

Much of the season is focused on the challenges of that relationship and there’s not a more telling image that the chasm between Elizabeth and Philip’s beds in their adjoining suites. On the flip side, apparently Elizabeth finds the Duke’s morning callisthenics very alluring.

Foy and Smith play this dynamic with superb tension, a reminder of why the pair will be so very missed. The performances are even better than before and credit really must go to Foy whose full-body portrayal of Her Maj is magnetic, right down to the little details like how she holds her shoulders or rubs her hands when she’s in an uncomfortable meeting.

Just like the previous season, you’ll have to resist watching The Crown with Wikipedia at your fingertips as it delves into fascinating episodes in British history — the Suez Canal crisis, the Profumo Affair, the Michael Parker divorce, Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones’ passionate courtship, JFK’s visit, the Duke of Windsor’s Nazi ties and Lord Altrincham’s scathing critique of the monarchy.

That last example goes to the heart of a hubristic, traditional institution trying to hold back the tide of modernity — unable to grasp its changed position after Suez reduced Britain’s standing in the world.

What a pair: Queen Liz and Jackie Kennedy.

What this season is missing is a character like John Lithgow’s sublime portrayal of Winston Churchill — PMs Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan were historically dull pills so they were never going to be able to fill that space.

Not having that person, who almost acts like an external foil, also serves to focus the turmoil internally, within the family, which is ultimately what season two has been about. But Churchill’s absence still looms large.

The Crown continues to be enthralling TV with its extraordinary production values and rich writing. That its subject hews so closely to today’s headlines is royally good timing.

The Crown season two drops on Netflix tonight from 7pm AEDT.

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