The Crown season 6: Brutal truth about captivating royal drama

In 2016, just five days apart, two massive events unfolded which changed the British royal family forever – and the hangover could cause huge issues.

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In 2016, two events occurred, just five days apart, which would forever change the British monarchy.

On Monday, October 31, millions devoured the news that Prince Harry – England’s adored, cheeky son and the world’s most eligible bachelor – was in a secret relationship and “besotted” with American TV star Meghan Markle.

Just days later, on Friday, November 4, Netflix took a huge swing in releasing its new monster budget royal drama: The Crown.

Oh, the celebrations that must have occurred over at the streamer’s HQ as the headlines took hold.

Palace interest was already sky-high. It was an inadvertent PR coup beyond any marketing team’s wildest imagination.

Harry and Meghan (seen here in 2018) had their secret relationship revealed in 2016. Picture: Gareth Fuller-Pool/Getty Images

Claire Foy as a young Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown season one. Picture: Netflix

Seven years on from that seismic royal week, the events which later unfolded have gripped the world in a way not seen since the Charles, Diana and Camilla controversy of the 90s.

Real-life royal dramas – Prince Andrew’s sex scandal lawsuit, Harry and Meghan’s departure from official duties and their subsequent tell-alls, and Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II’s deaths – have unfolded in gobsmacking unison with the historically-based, yet heavily fictionalised plots within The Crown (albeit covering different decades).

Millions have watched either, or both, play out. Gen Z, traditionally disconnected from palace drama, have suddenly – and enthusiastically – embraced it.

Charles and Diana’s early romance was portrayed in the hit series. Picture: Netflix

The Crown is a visually-stunning, gripping series. Textbooks and archived articles are decidedly less fun content to binge – and herein lies the brutal legacy of The Crown.

All the disclaimers in the world, and all the creators’ reminders of their own embellishments, will never stack up against the seductively-weaved threads of fact and fiction throughout its powerful scenes.

In fact, the biggest issue is just how accurate it often is – making its sensationalised versions all the more believable.

The Crown, for many, will provide the only royal history they’ll remember. For others, what has unfolded on the show will plug their gaps of knowledge.

All things “royal” is now firmly at the centre of modern pop culture – thanks in no small part to The Crown, plus Harry and Meghan creating a direct line between the monarchy and Hollywood – and when the Netflix series wraps up next month, the genie won’t go back into the lamp.

Love it or find it lacking taste (there’s rarely a middle ground), this is the series’ legacy.

And it doesn’t end with the finale in December: just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are now many offshoots of royal representation in the mix – and they’d surely not exist if not as an extension on the house, or palace, as it were, that the Crown built.

Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown season 5. Picture: Netflix

Kate Middleton and Prince William’s early story is also being told in the series. Picture: Justin Downing/Netflix

Even at this moment, there are two films about Prince Andrew’s trainwreck 2019 Newsnight interview currently in production: Netflix’s Scoop, starring Rufus Sewell and Gillian Anderson, as well as Prime Video’s A Very Royal Scandal, with Michael Sheen and Rita Wilson in the lead roles.

Hollywood representing the royal family on-screen is not a new concept. But the wave of content combing back through the parts of history Charles and co. would prefer to leave in the newspaper archives certainly is.

The overriding result of this sensationalised royal bonanza is an erosion of deference to the monarchy, which is obviously bad news for the royal family. Worse for them still is the fact that the fictionalised versions of themselves bleed so heavily into their real-life personas that it largely just becomes one and the same.

The late Queen no more discussed the plight of the working class with her bedroom intruder in 1982, as depicted in season four of The Crown, than she once headlined Glastonbury.

(She reportedly ran away to alert security, like a normal person).

But which version of “history” will the younger masses now remember?

Far-fetched as it was, it made for great TV and ultimately is unlikely to have ruffled feathers at Buckingham Palace. After all, Queen Elizabeth came off looking pretty cool, calm and collected.

But there have been plenty of more sinister and fictionalised plots that have certainly caused damage. Take, for instance, Prince Philip’s “emotional affair” or Prince Charles’ attempt to oust his mother as monarch in a secret deal with the Prime Minister in season five – both of which never happened.

Or, as we learned from a teaser for the final season this week, Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki) makes an offhand remark to Dodi Al Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) in an upcoming episode, comparing herself to a landmine victim.

“He said to me every survivor has a date of the day they stepped on the landmine. He said, ‘Mine was December 16, 1963’. I said, ‘Mine was 29 July, 1981 — my wedding day’,” she is heard saying.

Diana’s on-screen comment about landmines has been criticised. Picture: Netflix

The real Diana was known for her extensive work lobbying for an international treaty banning landmines and her support of victims. Watching her luxuriating on a yacht while suggesting she has been as victimised as those exposed to such horrors is jarring – and, as friend of the late princess and royal biographer Ingrid Seward recently pointed out, wildly untrue.

“Diana would never have said anything like that. I think it is an unfortunate comparison,” she told The Sun.

“I think the mere fact that The Crown is depicting Diana’s life and her death is exploiting her memory so they can put into her mouth anything that they want to — however distasteful people might find it.”

Almost since it hit the TV landscape, there have been arguments over whether The Crown should include disclaimers about its fictionalisation.

Just last year, season five’s Princess Anne, Claudia Harrison, told The Guardian that it was “condescending” to add such details as a reminder to its viewers.

“To think people are genuinely sitting down thinking this is a documentary and that everything they see is fact, I feel uncomfortable with that,” she said. “Patronise an audience at your peril.”

Maybe so.

But when the dust settles, which version of the royal family is most likely to stick with the masses? The one delivered through the high-budget, highly-entertaining Hollywood series, exposing the world’s most famous family behind doors? Or the information drip-fed through the palace’s PR machine?

As the groundbreaking series goes out with a bang, covering Diana’s death, the deep divisions between public expectation and royal protocol, and Charles’ marriage to Camilla – I’d say another reminder or two can’t hurt.

The first four episodes of The Crown season 6 will premiere on Netflix at 7pm tonight, with the remaining episodes arriving on December 14.

Originally published as The Crown season 6: Brutal truth about captivating royal drama