Hugo Vickers - The Crown Dissected

The author wishes to thank Tom Perrin for his customary encouragement and support, and Bridget Harrison for commissioning True and False articles about The Crown for The Times for all four Seasons.

Also thanks to Laura Kincaid for copy-editing, and Euan Monaghan for designing the book.

I started watching The Crown under the false premise that the fim-makers were trying to get things right. As it turns out, they are happy to alter the facts in order to create conflict and drama.

I wonder if there is not a sub-plot here too. When Claire Foy was playing the Queen, it seemed that they were building the Queen up into a person to be universally respected, while making the other characters emerge somewhat less than admirably. Viewers should be alert to the possibility of a Republican agenda.

Season 3 covers the years 1964 to 1977. Where Claire Foy did a brilliant job in portraying the Queen, getting her subtle timing and delivery just right, and showing the various issues she had to face early in the reign, Olivia Colmans Queen is less sympathetic. There is a restrained cheekiness in Olivia Colman which does not work for me in my understanding of the Queens character. I found that she overdid the clipped accent, and I got bored with her many sullen faces, and felt that she was trying too hard to get into what she perceived as the Queens character, and failing. I was left with the impression of a severe, cold and bossy Queen, which is not at all like the real monarch.

The new Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) is rather a dull stick, though mercifully he has thrown off the overt cockiness of Matt Smith and he improves as the series progresses. Charles Dance was magnificent as Lord Mountbatten, with much of the subtle menace of Ian Richardson in the 1990 version of House of Cards, and in this Season Erin Doherty captured the alert feistiness and robust humour of the young Princess Anne. Josh OConnor, as Prince Charles, portrays a spineless wimp, which is so often his fate in fictional representations. It is hard to remember that the real Prince Charles parachuted into the sea, took part in point-to-points and played polo with some vigour. Not to mention his more important endeavours such as The Princes Trust. Not a word about that.

Marion Bailey failed to convince me as the Queen Mother I got the impression that the film-makers did not much care for the Queen Mother as they barely gave her a civil line. Helena Bonham Carter plays Princess Margaret with zest. She has given an interview to say that she was helped to understand her part by consulting the Princess herself, communicating with her from across the divide.

Michael Thomas had a supporting role as the Queens uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. The actor had a mane of hair unlike the late Duke and was addressed as Henry instead of Harry, so it took me a while to work out who he was. The real life Duke of Gloucester would not have been around much in the mid 1960s as he had a series of strokes and after 1968 was confined to his Northamptonshire home, Barnwell Manor, yet he keeps appearing. He died on 10 June 1974. Sadly, Michael Thomas himself died on 4 March 2019.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were given good actors in Season 3. Derek Jacobi replaced Alex Jennings, and Geraldine Chaplin looked uncannily like the Duchess, albeit rather lined.

In Season 3 the film-makers hit on a theme they like and then cook up events to back up their thesis, regardless of whether they actually happened. An example of this is the conceit that Princess Margaret would have made a better Queen, explored and enforced with an exaggerated version of Princess Margarets trip to America in 1965.

I lived through much of what is shown here, sometimes quite closely. I visited the Windsors house in Paris the day before the Queen in 1972, I was present at his funeral some days later. I knew quite a number of those portrayed here for example, Robin Woods, Dean of Windsor from 1962 to 1971. I am also well documented, and so while watching the episodes, I was forever freezing the frame and diving into a variety of books.

When writing these somewhat forensic notes on Season 3, I concentrated mainly on the made-up and misleading areas in the plot of each episode. There were also some areas where minor errors occurred and since the budget is so large, I pointed a few out. There are so many experts in different fields that it is hard to satisfy everyone. One viewer knows about aeroplanes, another is an expert on cars. When I was an extra in Victoria & Abdul, I was chatting to a royal footman who told me: Im a plumber in everyday life. When I see these plastic pipes, I know they didnt invent them until 55.

A recurring annoyance in Season 3 was the way Princess Andrew of Greece, Lord Mountbatten and the Duke of Windsor addressed the Queen as Your Majesty. They are members of the Royal Family and can use her Christian name. Those that marry into the family like Lord Snowdon are not granted that privilege.

My final message is as always - fiction should help us to understand the truth, not pervert it.