The fifth season of ‘The Crown’ tackles one of the darkest moments of the monarchy

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It’s 1991 in the UK. At Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II, now a venerable 65, is making herself comfortable in her thirty-ninth year on the throne. No longer is Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street, who a year earlier had been savagely ousted by treacherous members of her own party. Her replacement as prime minister, a gray and ineffective John Major, has failed to repair a stagnant economy that has slipped into recession. It is an uncertain and bland moment.

That’s where we find ourselves as we enter the fifth season of The Crown. As is often the case with this much-watched, much-discussed and often-ridiculed series, the new episodes have already elicited angry complaints from critics, who say that the historical record is distorted by inventing conversations, motivations and behaviors. The main objection so far is that it is wrong to suggest, as the first episode does, that Prince Charles (played by Dominic West) was trying to persuade the Prime Minister (Jonny Lee Miller) that forcing his mother to abdicate in order to take its place.

Immersed in unusual public outrage, Major, who left office in 1997 and is now 79, issued a statement deploring the suggestion that such a conversation ever happened, calling it “a barrel of nonsense.” At The Times of London, actress Judi Dench joined the loadout, saying that the series was sometimes “unfairly cruel to people and damaging to the institution they represent.” He urged Netflix to include a “this is not true” notice in every episode. (Netflix advertising describes the show as a “fictitious skit”but the episodes themselves carry no such clarification).

More recently, another prime minister, Tony Blair, who was Major’s successor in 1997, criticized a later scene in which he (played by Bertie Carvel) is asked to pave the way for the now-divorced Carlos to step aside. over his parents’ objections and marry his girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles. “It should come as no surprise that this is complete and utter rubbish,” he said. a Blair spokesman to The Daily Telegraph.

The season begins airing on Wednesday, when viewers will be able to judge for themselves what feels real, what feels ridiculous and how much they’re willing to suspend disbelief. (For example, while Elizabeth Debicki is staggeringly persuasive as Diana, Princess of Wales, does it matter that she, at 6-foot-3, towers over everyone on screen? Discuss.)

But there is nothing to say about the underlying premise that the dismal early 1990s in the UK was an uncertain time for the monarchy. The age of deference was over. The Windsors could no longer count on the good faith of the tabloid press, which began to treat them—often with the covert help of Diana, who promoted her own version of events—like performers on a soap opera. The royal family was in the awkward position of having to defend its own relevance.

Enduring well into the 21st century, Elizabeth’s reign would, of course, become incredibly popular, and she an imposing and much-loved figure serving as a link to a bygone era of duty and stoicism that reflected the best image the UK had. he had of himself. But in 1991, those very values ​​that would make her so respected after her seemed old-fashioned and heavy. In a Gallup poll conducted three years earlier, 59 percent of the participants said that they considered that Elizabeth should cede the throne to Carlos.

As a clever montage from the first episode of the fifth series shows, being queen was boring in a way that Elizabeth’s subjects were able to appreciate, because they never saw the monotony behind the clothes. Much of her time was spent in dignified activities but with a tedium similar to watching paint dry. (The Crown features her giving a speech to the Milk Marketing Committee on the subject of her “modern dairy complex”).

His mere appearance, which would later prove comforting in its familiarity, as much a part of the national furnishings as the pound notes on which his effigy appeared, seemed back then to scream “irrelevant”. Her youthful style had given way to old-lady suits, sensible shoes, quaint hats, and an unchanging, unchanging gray hairdo.

Accused in The Crown of suffering from “Queen Victoria syndrome” – clinging to the throne after its expiration date – Isabel (Imelda Staunton) declares that it is a compliment to be compared with her great-great-grandmother. “I would be proud if I were described as having the qualities that people use to characterize her: constancy, stability, calm, service.”

But, as viewers will see this season, that surface calm hid underlying turbulence. The seeds of discord and difficulties were already planted and were about to spiral out of control.

At the time, Elizabeth had been married to her husband, Prince Philip, for 44 years in a solid union that would last until his death in 2021. Widespread rumors survived that Philip was occasionally unfaithful, like upper-class men of his generation. , in this case supposedly due to his feeling of helplessness for being constitutionally inferior to his wife. (The new series has also drawn criticism for highlighting his “friendship,” as he describes it, with Burma’s Countess Mountbatten, a beautiful young aristocrat played by Natascha McElhone, who is introduced by him to the racy sport of carriage racing. ).

The Windsors’ eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, carried with him a perpetual air of Hamletian melancholy. His main asset was his glamorous wife, Diana, whose electrifying presence had given the monarchy excitement, sex appeal and, thanks to her personal charitable work, a sense of connection to the common citizen.

Too bad Carlos couldn’t stand Diana. Or that her protracted affair with Camila, then married to her longtime husband, was about to become public in various embarrassing ways, such as the leak, in 1993, of the tape in which she excitedly fantasized about be her tampon. (After Diana’s death, of course, Carlos and Camila would end up getting married; they are now the king and queen consort).

The long romance of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, played by Olivia Williams, was about to explode during the period of time covered by the fifth season.

It was also a pity that Diana was terribly unhappy, a volatile personality in a signed marriage who used the tabloids to promote the idea that her husband’s infidelity and general contempt made her less of a sinner and rather aggrieved (despite, she was). herself, having several love affairs). She was also prepared to secretly cooperate with Andrew Morton, a tabloid reporter determined to uncover the Welsh marriage.

morton’s book, Diana: A True Story, which included startling accounts of mental illness, suicide attempts and adultery, was published in 1992 and caused consternation in the palace and outrage in Parliament. It also caused the couple to formally announce their separation. Charles soon began collaborating with a biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, in an effort to gain public support.

Meanwhile, the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, an outstanding amazon who competed in the Olympics and became a tireless promoter of many charitable causes, was also having an affair. In 1992 she divorced her husband and months later she married Major Timothy Laurence, her mistress and a former knight to the queen.

Prince Andrew, the sprightly third child—nicknamed “Fiery Little Andrew”—had served with distinction in the Falklands War and brought a semblance of joviality to a serious family by marrying Sarah Ferguson, a playful redhead nicknamed Fergie. Like Diana, Fergie rebelled against the restrictions of being a royal wife. Like Diana, she had a series of affairs. (Someone of these people were faithful to their partners?). After photos of her with a boyfriend were published in a tabloid, she and Andres also announced her separation in 1992. (There would be other photos with a different boyfriend later that year.)

It turned out that 1992 was the year that Windsor Castle, which dates back to the 11th century and is the oldest occupied castle in the world, caught fire. The fire ended up destroying 115 roomsincluding nine State Rooms, and cost over £35m to repair, most of which was raised by the crown with stocks that included, among others, charge admission to Buckingham Palace.

Queen Elizabeth rarely complained or got into trouble. So she was shocked when she opened a small slit to glimpse her somber royal mood at a now well-known speech at London’s Guildhall in 1992, the year she celebrated forty years on the throne.

That year, up to that point, one of his residences had burned down, three of four children had separated or divorced from their spouses, his own popularity was faltering, and his family seemed set on irrelevance because of his behavior.

A fire at Windsor Castle in 1992 destroyed 115 rooms, including nine State Rooms, and cost more than £35m to repair.

That the queen used a kind of double negative and then a Latin phrase to sum up her mood is a sign of her annoyance with emotional openness.

“1992 is not a year that I will look back on with absolute pleasure,” he said. in the speech. “In the words of one of my most sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an ‘annus horribilis’”.

He expressed equal sadness when referring to petty remarks directed at his family and the monarchy, and begged the audience not to immediately rush into disgrace.

“Sometimes I wonder how future generations will judge the events of this turbulent year,” he said. It is fair to assume that he could hardly have had The Crown in mind when he added: “I daresay the story will take a slightly more moderate attitude than some of the contemporary commentators.”

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The fifth season of ‘The Crown’ tackles one of the darkest moments of the monarchy