The Crown season five controversies explained

As we approach the premiere of the fifth season of Netflix’s The Crown, the conversation over the show’s interpretation of real-world events is heating up. Controversy is nothing new for The Crown; its warts-and-all depiction of the inner lives of the British royal family has been a source of irritation for Buckingham Palace and its supporters since the show first premiered. Creator and showrunner Peter Morgan has always asserted that The Crown is a fictional drama and not intended to be taken as unbiased truth. Netflix even added a disclaimer stating as much before the season five trailer on YouTube: “Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign.”

The show’s unflinching and sharply focused narrative seemed more removed when it was dealing with events from, say, the 1950s, ’60s, or ’70s, but as the story inches closer to the present day and events that are still fresh in the public consciousness, it feels more like a contemporary drama than a historical one. To complicate things further, the new season comes at a time of turmoil in the U.K., with the nation still in the process of mourning the queen and transitioning to a new sovereign, King Charles III. As the British public openly questions the necessity and utility of the royal family in the real world, the series will be taking us back to a period, not so long ago, when those same questions were at the top of everyone’s mind. It all makes for a minefield of sensitive topics just waiting to provoke outrage. Here’s a rundown of the stories that have already made headlines.

Buckingham Palace is ready to defend the king

Season four ended with Charles and Diana’s marriage on the rocks, and despite Queen Elizabeth’s refusal to let Charles be with Camilla and Prince Philip’s reminder to Diana that her duty first and foremost is to the queen, we all know what’s coming next. Season five will include events from the year 1992, or the “annus horribilis,” as the queen once referred to it in a famous speech, as well as Diana’s death in 1997 and its aftermath. It was a low point for the monarchy, from which no one emerged unscathed. And it’s probably the last thing they want the public thinking about right now.

As the show heads into the “all-out war” behind the scenes of the failing royal marriage, the palace is already prepared to denounce anything that paints the new king in an unflattering light. Speaking to The Telegraph, a source reiterated the palace’s official stance that The Crown is, “a drama, not a documentary.” The same story quoted a friend of the king, who called the show “exploitative.” So it’s safe to say that there’s no love lost between Peter Morgan and the institution.

A letter of resignation and a hint of approval

This season, Dominic West will take over the role of King Charles while Elizabeth Debicki steps in for Emma Corrin as Diana. West told Radio Times that when he found out he got the part he sent a letter to King Charles offering to resign from his position as ambassador of The Prince’s Trust charity. He received a reply directly from the king’s private secretary politely turning him down, which he summed up in the interview as the institution saying, “You do what you like. You’re an actor. It’s nothing to do with us.” He also said that he got a tacit nod of approval from Camilla when he ran into her at a party and she jokingly referred to him as “Your Majesty.”

A former prime minister has his say

Season five reportedly includes a scene in which Prince Charles and Prime Minister John Major (played by Jonny Lee Miller) meet in secret in 1991 and discuss the queen’s potential abdication. There’s also a scene that shows Major and his wife making disparaging remarks about the royal family. When news of these dramatic liberties broke, a spokesman for Major put out a statement denouncing the show in no uncertain terms: “Sir John has not cooperated—in any way—with The Crown. Nor has he ever been approached by them to fact-check any script material in this or any other series. … Discussions between the monarch and prime minister are entirely private and—for Sir John—will always remain so.” The statement went on to say that The Crown is “nothing other than damaging and malicious fiction” and “a barrel-load of nonsense peddled for no other reason than to provide maximum—and entirely false—dramatic impact.” Tell us how you really feel, Sir John.

Dame Judi Dench has entered the chat

Judi Dench is no stranger to playing fictionalized versions of English queens. Nevertheless, she denounced the new season of The Crown in a letter published in The Times, calling it “cruel and crude.”

“Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series—that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence—this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent,” she wrote.

Dench was also one of the driving forces behind Netflix’s decision to add that disclaimer about it being purely fictionalized, not just to the trailer but to every episode of the season.

Netflix reacts to the backlash

The controversy over the new season of The Crown has also spilled into other programming decisions at Netflix. Besides adding the disclaimer, Netflix has also delayed a documentary it was planning to release about rogue royals Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess Of Sussex. The project was never officially announced, but Deadline reported that it has been pushed into 2023 so as not to irk the institution any more than it already has. According to Deadline’s source, “they’re rattled at Netflix and they blinked first and decided to postpone the documentary.”

Jonathan Pryce to the rescue

Meanwhile, Jonathan Pryce, who takes over for Tobias Menzies as the older Prince Philip this season, also had his say about the controversy swirling around season five. “I just find it very disappointing that a handful of people, and it is a handful of people, are being critical of this in any way without having seen it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I mean, they say it’s hurtful, unjust, dangerous—none of those things I see in this production. I don’t think any of us do.”

Viewers will get to see for themselves and decide whether they agree that The Crown is properly respectful to its subjects when the fifth season drops on Netflix on November 9.