The Crown's best moments - cruel splits, Queen's big regret and Diana's ghost
As it has played out in reality, the drama of the lives of Queen Elizabeth II and her offspring has made for riveting if, at times, excruciating viewing.
That drama turned Drama in The Crown, the Netflix hit that has re-created – and, yes, added just a little of the finest embroidery to that reality – since 2016.
With critics arguing it has re-written history and its reluctant characters reportedly livid their apparent highs and lows are now thought to be known and understood intimately the world over, the show was made for controversy. And the release of the hit’s final episodes today, featuring the romance of William and Kate, is likely to stoke even more.
Here, with all the craned necks and whispers of a huddle of gossiping courtiers, we cast an eye back across the water cooler moments of The Crown’s six seasons...
Claire Foy and Matt Smith (PA)The playboy prince
We instantly adored the beautiful people – Claire Foy and Matt Smith, right – as a youthful Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and their giddy love affair.
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We’d forgotten they were once young. And gorgeous.
But eyebrows were raised at the suggestion Philip might have been having fun away from home.
In series two, Elizabeth discovers a picture of ballerina Galina Ulanova in his briefcase. In real life, there is no proof of affairs and some growled this was all a bit disrespectful. But that didn’t stop The Crown returning to the theme in series five, when Elizabeth is portrayed as jealous at his friendship with Penny Knatchbull.
Poor Princess Margaret
The romance of the young Queen is shown in parallel to her younger sister’s doomed love affair with dashing, divorced Peter Townsend.
This was heartbreaking stuff. The Church of England stands in the way and Elizabeth cannot allow her sister to be happy – unless Margaret, portrayed by Vanessa Kirby, right, forsakes her royal title.
Eventually, the Queen gives her private secretary permission to split up the couple.
In reality, it seems Margaret was told she could have kept her HRH had she gone ahead, plus her civil list income. But that’s not as sexy.
Erin Doherty as Anne (Netflix)The cool princess
She was part of the royal furniture but never the leading light – especially when Diana arrived. But thanks to The Crown, Princess Anne finally found some fans.
Devil-may-care Anne as played by Erin Doherty comes across as feisty and a bit cool in the early series, outshining Charles. We learn that while Charles and Camilla were first carrying on, pre-Di, Anne was having her way with Andrew Parker Bowles, who would later become Camilla’s husband.
In real life, it’s not believed the romances overlapped – but that’s not as much fun.
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Emma Corrin as Diana (Des Willie/Netflix)Resurrection of Diana
Both actresses to play Diana – Elizabeth Debicki, following Emma Corrin – looked uncannily like her.
Season four’s re-creation of her 1995 Panorama chat with the BBC's Martin Bashir was gripping. And the depiction of Charles’ affair with Camilla was reportedly labelled “trolling on a Hollywood budget” by his friends. But William was said to be unhappy at how his parents were portrayed.
Olivia Colman as the Queen (WENN.com)Queen's big regret
The mining village of Aberfan in South Wales was imprinted forever in the Queen's mind.
Tragically, 116 children and 28 adults were killed there when a colliery spoil tip collapsed, engulfing a primary school, in October 1966.
The Queen did not arrive on the scene for eight days. In series three, The Crown told how she was criticised for her apparent lack of compassion and reportedly always regretted her reaction. We even see a tear roll down actress Olivia Coleman’s cheek.
The Queen’s ex-private secretary, Lord Charteris, later said he had given poor advice.
Katherine and Nerissa (Netflix)The hidden cousins
This was an unexpected twist few of us knew about.
Series four revealed Elizabeth and Margaret had cousins hidden away in a psychiatric institution.
Katherine and Nerissa, daughters of the Queen Mother's brother, John Bowes-Lyon, were a family secret.
They had severe learning difficulties and were put in care in 1941, after their father's death, but wrongly listed as having died. It is understood that although some royals knew of their existence, Queen Elizabeth did not.
With the intruder Michael Fagan (Daily Mirror)The palace intruder
A man called Fagan, a hefty dose of 1980s anti-Thatcherism and the Queen in her nightie.
The Crown turned this real-life incident into a surreal episode of its own.
In 1982, Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace – twice. He got in through a window, despite palace security. We see him enter the Queen’s bedroom and then the pair talk as the unflappable monarch keeps her cool.
In reality, Fagan said she scarpered – but, yes, he did get into her bedroom.
Princess Alice
One of the most striking introductions was to Prince Philip’s mum, Princess Alice of Battenberg, in series three.
Alice (Jane Lapotaire)moves into the Palace in 1967 as a smoking nun who has given away all her possessions.
The great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria married Prince Andrew of Greece but was forced into exile when Greece axed its monarchy in 1917.
After being sent to an asylum with schizophrenia, she became Mother-Superior of a monastic community.
Elizabeth Debicki as Diana (Netflix)Diana's ghost
You can’t look back at the hit drama’s watercooler moments without mentioning Princess Diana’s ghost.
The sixth series naturally had little choice but to bid a tragic farewell to the People’s Princess – but lookalike actress Elizabeth Debicki was just too good to let go. Diana returned as a “presence” after her death, talking to a grieving Charles and Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth with more sense and judgement than her character showed while alive.
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