The Trailer For “The Crown” Is Here And Judi Dench Calls The Show “Cruelly Unjust”
The fifth season of The Crown premieres November 4, and everyone and their QUEEN-lovin’ grandmum is in a tizzy. First, we heard that the Royals are nervous about the show covering all their 90s scandals, namely everything Princess Diana-related. And maybe they’re right to worry, cuz yesterday it was revealed that the show will cover King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla’s Tampongate. Yesterday also brought us an open letter to The Times UK, courtesy of an absolutely fucking pissed-off Dame Judi Dench. She calls the show “cruelly unjust,” and says she supports the campaign to add disclaimers about the show being fictional. Well, today, the trailer for Season 5 finally dropped, and there ain’t no stinking disclaimer. Watch out, Netflix, Judi’s comin’ for ya!
The two-and-a-half minute trailer has it all: THE QUEEN (Imelda Staunton) being sad about the fire at Windsor Castle, the end of the marriage between Charles (Dominic West) and Diana (Elizabeth Debicki), Di’s interview with Martin Bashir (Prasanna Puwanarajah), Charles and Camilla (Olivia Williams) finally going public with their relationship, Di fleeing from the paps, Prince Phillip (Jonathan Pryce) telling her to shut the fuck up, a flash of a young Prince William (Senan West), and THE REVENGE DRESS™. The trailer is set to “Bittersweet Symphony”, cuz why the heck not? #CruelIntentionsDidItBetter:
Back in September, when we learned Buckingham Palace was worried about The Crown, a source said the Royals wanted to remind everyone that the series is “a drama, not a documentary.” Earlier this week, former British Prime Minister John Major complained about a scene in the Season 5 premiere that suggest King Charles summoned him to bitch about having to wait to take over the throne. In her open letter to The Times, Judi Dench enthusiastically co-signed John Major’s concerns:
Indeed, the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.
While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true. 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.
Judi writes that “no one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I” but Netflix should add disclaimers about “The Crown” being fictional at the start of each episode:
The time has come for Netflix to reconsider — for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve its reputation in the eyes of its British subscribers.
Ya know, as a non-Brit, I think I forgot just how seriously these guys take the monarchy. For example, actress Rosamund Pike’s four-minute monologue about pulling her kids out of school to watch THE QUEEN’s funeral:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CisVp80KZaM/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=47a31dc6-a598-4b84-9f69-6a43c53ff9d6
Judi and Rosamund should band together to picket outside of Netflix offices. “FICTION NOT FACT! HAVE SOME TACT! WE LOVE THE QUEEN! DISCLAIMERS ON SCREEN!”
Pic: YouTube