The Crown is a biographical drama television series, created and written by Peter Morgan and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix. The show is a biographical story about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The first season covers the period between the Queen's marriage to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1947 to the disintegration of her sister Princess Margaret's engagement to Peter Townsend in 1955. A second season has been commissioned, which is intended to cover from the Suez Crisis in 1956 through the retirement of the Queen's third Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in 1963 following the Profumo affair political scandal.
The Crown evolved out of Morgan's 2006 film The Queen and 2013 stage play The Audience. The series is intended to last 60 episodes over six seasons, with 10 one-hour episodes a season, covering the Queen's entire life, with new actors being cast every two seasons. Claire Foy portrays the Queen in the first two seasons, along with Matt Smith as Prince Philip and Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret. Filming for the series takes place at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, with location shooting at various locations throughout the United Kingdom.
The first season released on Netflix in its entirety on November 4, 2016. Reception to the series was overwhelmingly positive, with critics praising cast performances, direction, writing, cinematography, production values, and relatively accurate historical accounts of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Significant praise was directed towards the performances of Foy in the leading role and John Lithgow as Winston Churchill; both actors were awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress and Best Actor at the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards, respectively, among other accolades, including the 74th Golden Globe Awards and the 7th Critics' Choice Television Awards.
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Premise
The Crown traces the life of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 to the present day. The first season depicts events up to 1955, with Claire Foy portraying the Queen in the early part of her reign. The second season is intended to cover from the Suez Crisis in 1956 through the retirement of the Queen's third Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in 1963 following the Profumo affair political scandal. A third season will include Princess Margaret's five-year affair with baronet and gardening expert Roddy Llewellyn.
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Cast
Main
- Claire Foy as Princess Elizabeth and later Queen Elizabeth II
- Matt Smith as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth's husband
- Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, Elizabeth's younger sister
- Eileen Atkins as Queen Mary, Elizabeth's grandmother
- Alex Jennings as Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, who abdicated in favor of his younger brother Bertie to marry Wallis Simpson; also known as David
- Lia Williams as Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, the wife of Edward
- Jeremy Northam as Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, who succeeds Churchill as Prime Minister
- Victoria Hamilton as Queen Elizabeth and later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to differentiate her from her daughter, Elizabeth, after her daughter became Queen; George VI's wife and Elizabeth's mother
- Ben Miles as Group Captain Peter Townsend, George VI's equerry, who hopes to marry Princess Margaret
- Greg Wise as Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Philip's ambitious uncle and great-grandson of Queen Victoria
- Jared Harris as King George VI, Elizabeth's father, also known as Bertie
- Stephen Dillane as Graham Sutherland, a noted artist who paints a portrait of the aging Churchill
- John Lithgow as Winston Churchill, the Queen's first Prime Minister
Recurring
Season 2
- Matthew Goode as Anthony Armstrong-Jones, a society photographer who marries Princess Margaret.
- Michael C. Hall as John F. Kennedy, an American politician who becomes President of the United States.
- Jodi Balfour as Jacqueline Kennedy, John's wife and the First Lady of the United States.
- Anton Lesser as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who followed Anthony Eden as Prime Minister.
Episodes
Season 1 (2016)
Season 2
Production
Development
Peter Morgan, who wrote the 2006 film The Queen and the 2013 stage play The Audience, is the main scriptwriter for The Crown. The directors of the television series who were also involved in the stage production are Stephen Daldry, Philip Martin, Julian Jarrold, and Benjamin Caron. The first 10-part season was the most expensive drama produced by Netflix and Left Bank Pictures to date, costing at least £100 million. A second season has been commissioned, with the series intended to span 60 episodes over six seasons. The series is expected to recast each role with older actors every two seasons, as the series progresses to present day events.
Filming
Filming for the series takes place at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. It was estimated that 25% of the first season was filmed at Elstree Studios, with the remaining 75% filmed on location, with the season filmed over 152 days. Sets for private quarters, the interior of a private jet, the cabinet room, and the exterior of 10 Downing Street were built at Elstree Studios, while Lancaster House, Wrotham Park and Wilton House were used for scenes to double as Buckingham Palace. Ely Cathedral stood in for Westminster Abbey, while filming in South Africa doubled as Kenya in the season. Additional filming locations in the United Kingdom included, Eltham Palace, the Royal Naval College, Goldsmiths' Hall, Shoreham Airport, New Slains Castle, Balmoral Castle, Cruden Bay, Lyceum Theatre, Loseley Park, Hatfield House, The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Southwark Cathedral, Ardverikie House, Englefield House, and Glenfeshie Estate. Filming on the second season began in early October 2016.
Historical accuracy
The show has been interpreted by some as perpetuating the myth that the Queen and Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden forced Princess Margaret to give up the idea of marrying Group Captain Peter Townsend. In reality, evidence shows they produced a plan to remove the hurdle holding up the marriage. In contradiction to the TV dramatization this plan would have allowed Princess Margaret to keep her royal title and her civil list allowance, stay in the country and even continue with her public duties. In the dramatization, the Queen is seen telling her sister that if she marries Townsend she will no longer be a member of the family because of the Royal Marriages Act 1772.
Release
The series' first two episodes were released theatrically in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2016. The first season was released worldwide in its entirety on November 4, 2016. The second season is expected to be released in November 2017.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 90% approval rating based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Powerful performances and lavish cinematography make The Crown a top-notch production worthy of its grand subject." On Metacritic, the series holds a score of 81 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
The Guardian's TV critic Lucy Mangan praised the series and said, "Netflix can rest assured that its £100m gamble has paid off. This first series, about good old British phlegm from first to last, is the service's crowning achievement so far." Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Ben Lawrence said, "The Crown is a PR triumph for the Windsors, a compassionate piece of work that humanises them in a way that has never been seen before. It is a portrait of an extraordinary family, an intelligent comment on the effects of the constitution on their personal lives and a fascinating account of postwar Britain all rolled into one." Chief television critic Jaci Stephen of The Mail on Sunday lauded the series and said, "Faultless is the only word for The Crown with its exquisite writing and magnificent acting." Writing for The Boston Globe, Matthew Gilbert lauded the series saying, "The show, created and written by Peter Morgan of The Queen and Frost/Nixon is thoroughly engaging, gorgeously shot, beautifully acted, rich in the historical events of postwar England, and designed with a sharp eye to psychological nuance." Vicki Hyman of The Star-Ledger said, "A sumptuous, stately but never dull look inside the life of Queen Elizabeth (Claire Foy)." The A.V. Club's Gwen Ihnat said, "The Crown easily rises far above, adding a cinematic quality to a complex and intricate time for an intimate family. The performers and creators are seemingly up for the task."
The Wall Street Journal critic Dorothy Rabinowitz said, "We're clearly meant to see the duke [of Windsor] as a wastrel with heart. It doesn't quite come off--Mr. Jennings is far too convincing as an empty-hearted scoundrel--but it's a minor flaw in this superbly sustained work." Television critic Robert Lloyd writing for Los Angeles Times said, "As television it's excellent--beautifully mounted, movingly played and only mildly melodramatic." Hank Stuever of The Washington Post also reviewed the series positively: "Pieces of The Crown are more brilliant on their own than they are as a series, taken in as shorter, intently focused films like The Queen and another Morgan achievement, the play and film versions of Frost/Nixon." Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times said, "This is a thoughtful series that lingers over death rather than using it for shock value; one that finds its story lines in small power struggles rather than gruesome palace coups.". The Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg reviewed the series positively and said, "The first chapter of Peter Morgan's chronicle of the rule of Queen Elizabeth II remains gripping across the entirety of the 10 episodes made available to critics, finding both emotional heft in Elizabeth's youthful ascension and unexpected suspense in matters of courtly protocol and etiquette." Other publications such as USA Today, Indiewire, The Atlantic, CNNand Variety all reviewed the series positively.
Some were more critical towards the show. In a less enthusiastic review for Time magazine, Daniel D'Addario wrote, "The show will be compared to Downton Abbey, but that late soap opera was able to invent ahistorical or at least unexpected notes, Foy [Clair] struggles mightily, but she's given little: Avoiding her children, her husband, and her subjects in favor of meetings at which she either acquiesces to her advisors or puts off acquiescing until fifteen minutes later, The Crown's Elizabeth is more than unknowable. She's a bore". Vulture's Matt Zoller Seitz quipped, "The Crown never entirely figures out how to make the political and domestic drama genuinely dramatic, much less bestow complexity on characters outside England's innermost circle." Verne Gay of Newsday said, "Sumptuously produced but glacially told, The Crown is the TV equivalent of a long drive through the English countryside. The scenery keeps changing, but remains the same." Slate magazine's Willa Paskin, expressed "It will scratch your period drama itch--and leave you itchy for action." Writing for The Mail on Sunday, Hugo Vickers, an English biographer of the Royal Family, was of the opinion that "while [The Crown] certainly holds the attention, it is marred by a series of sensationalist errors and some quite remarkable lapses into vulgarity."
Accolades
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