Kerry Parnell: More frocks, less shocks from the Royals please

Can’t we return to a bit of dignity? While I’m all for sharing feelings, conversely, if we saturate each other with misery, we’ll all end up depressed, writes Kerry Parnell.

Two tragedies play out in the final season of The Crown — the death of Diana and the realisation the Royal Family is still warring with each other, 26 years later.

Season 6 of the Netflix drama makes no attempt to disguise its allusions to the modern-day monarchy, with Diana and Dodi making loaded references to new starts in California and the Queen giving a clunky speech about how one is either in or out of the Royal Family, which is obviously meant to make all of us nod sagely and mutter “Harry”.

“I always say it’s hard to be half in anything. You’re either in or out,” Imelda Staunton, as the Queen, says of Diana.

“While she’s mother of the boys and, in that respect, always welcome at the palace, as a divorced woman and no longer an HRH, Diana is now learning the difference between being officially in the Royal Family and out.”

But learning seems to be something the Windsors have failed to do because watching all the leaking of stories, tit-for-tat photo-shoots and battling between the royal houses on-screen, leads you to conclude nothing much has changed — especially by those who see themselves wronged.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

Diana died almost 30 years ago but her youngest son — who ironically did find freedom of sorts in California — is in the same position she was.

And the latest royal biography, Endgame — which the Sussexes and author Omid Scobie are at pains to say has not been written with their co-operation, although we’ve heard that before — doesn’t help.

The Crown makes clear parallels between Diana and Harry’s status outside the immediate Royal family. Picture: Getty Images

Early extracts of the book, which is released this week, rehash all the drama of the day the Queen died and how Harry wasn’t invited to fly up to Balmoral with William and other relatives but had to make his own way there – too late, as it turned out.

Please. Can we just move on? I don’t need to read another word about what went down that day, cruel as it was that Harry was denied a lift by his own family.

Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in season 6 of The Crown. Picture: Netflix

I’ll tell you what went down — the Queen passed away and everything else is just unnecessary information.

We already heard it in great detail from Harry in Spare, we don’t need to go over this again.

With The Crown turning the end days of Diana into somewhat of a soap opera and Endgame promising to expose the Machiavellian machinations of the Royal Family “and its fight for survival”, I tell you what I wish it was the end of … royal tell-alls.

Viewers clearly prefer a bit of dignity in their Royals coverage.

Can’t we return to a bit of dignity? While I’m all for sharing feelings and not locking away emotions, conversely, if we saturate each other with misery, bitterness and accusations, we’ll all end up depressed.

We adored the first seasons of The Crown because they were so much more refined and relatively little of the Windsors’ private life was made public at that time.

We liked the later seasons less because it was the opposite.

I wish we could get back to maintaining more distance between the public and private personas of the royals, or anyone in the spotlight, to be honest.

Let’s return to a time when it was more frocks than shocks, more glamour than clamour.

Originally published as Kerry Parnell: More frocks, less shocks from the Royals please