A NEW series of The Crown drops on Netflix on November 16 and it’s already causing controversy with critics lining up to brand it tasteless and insensitive.
The sixth and final instalment of the hit series deals with the death of Princess Diana, an earth shattering event which left the nation in mourning.
Programme makers have said the show is thoughtful and sensitive, but a trailer shows scenes in which senior royals are visited by Di’s ‘ghost’.
And director, Christian Schwochow, has already let slip that the episodes which deal with the tragic 1997 Paris crash which killed Diana are "almost like a thriller".
Critics have taken to social media to voice dismay at the depiction of Diana, while Dame Judi Dench called the series "crude sensationalism", and former PM John Major branded it "nonsense".
Royal commentator and TV presenter Jennie Bond says Netflix should be ashamed, telling Fabulous: “I don’t care how ‘sensitive’ the Netflix executives say they have been.
Depicting William’s dead mother as a ghost is tasteless, ghoulish and breathtakingly insensitive
Jennie Bond
"Depicting William’s dead mother as a ghost is tasteless, ghoulish and breathtakingly insensitive. And portraying her in the days that led up to her death, and her funeral, is shockingly thoughtless, painful and unnecessary.
"How would any of us feel if a TV drama decided to dramatise our mother’s sudden and tragic death? We all know what happened to Diana, and if you don’t, look it up online.
“There is absolutely no excuse for piling on the suffering that William, and Harry, have endured since that day in 1997. Shame on Netflix.”
Series screenwriter Peter Morgan recently told Variety magazine that when Diana appears after her death in the show, she is not meant to be a ghost.
“I never imagined it as Diana’s ‘ghost’ in the traditional sense. It was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she has left behind. Diana was unique, and I suppose that’s what inspired me to find a unique way of representing her. She deserved special treatment narratively,” he said.
And Netflix and The Crown production company Left Bank have taken pains to defend themselves.
Executive Producer, Suzanne Mackie, told an audience at the Edinburgh Film Festival earlier this year that while the show is "big and noisy" the team behind it were "thoughtful" and "sensitive" and "very careful" about how they handled the subject.
Netflix released a statement to confirm that the crash itself will not be depicted, only the lead-up to it and the aftermath.
“The audience will judge it in the end, but I think it’s been delicately, thoughtfully recreated,” said Suzanne.
William will undoubtedly seek to protect his children from seeing comments and reports about it, particularly George, who is a switched-on 10 year old
Jennie Bond
The series is split into two parts with the first four episodes dealing with the events up to Diana’s death in 1997. The last six episodes will be released on December 14 and deal with the aftermath and the life of the royals up to 2005. Other storylines include Charle’s wedding to Camilla and Prince William’s romance with Kate Middleton.
Dominic West, who plays Charles, spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the scene where his character tells the young princes their mother has died.
"I've got two boys of that age and so it's a heavy, heavy responsibility to get it right and something I think we all take pretty seriously," he said.
Jennie believes that William "will close his mind and his eyes to this latest series".
“And he will undoubtedly seek to protect his children from seeing comments and reports about it, particularly George, who is a switched-on ten year old,” she said.
Meanwhile, Peter Morgan believes critics of the show will change their minds when they see it and will even be left feeling "stupid".
“The minute it’s out and people look at it — whether it’s Judi Dench or John Major — they instantly fall silent. And I think they probably feel rather stupid,” he said.
Time will tell.
Five controversial scenes in The Crown set to make Prince William’s blood boil
Di’s ghost
A trailer for the series reveals that in two scenes, Diana’s ‘ghost’ returns and speaks to senior royals.
In one scene, Charles speaks tenderly to the vision in the cabin of the plane that brought her body back to the UK from Paris.
The scenes were heavily criticised by fans on social media.
Reaction to the controversial sequences forced Peter Morgan to offer an explanation that the characters are imagining Diana, and not being visited by her spirit.
The Queen hits out
In the other ‘ghost’ scene, William’s beloved grandmother, Queen Elizabeth is seen chatting to an apparition of Diana.
The Queen accuses the dead Princess of turning the royal household upside down.
In the years after Diana and Charles divorced, William’s family was deeply divided and his mother was a royal outcast.
At her funeral, Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer vowed to make sure William and Harry did not grow up "immersed by duty and tradition" but could "sing openly" as their mother planned.
The implication was clear. Diana did not want her sons to be raised in the straitjacket of traditions expected within the royal household.
William and Kate fall in love
When William went to St Andrew’s University in Scotland, the media, his family and University bosses took great pains to protect his privacy and ensure that he was largely left alone.
Students were warned of dire consequences if they gossiped and gave away any titbits about him and his budding romance with Catherine Middleton.
The Crown is set to shatter this special period of the prince’s life by creating a fictitious account of one of the most private times of his life.
Brotherly love?
While shamed Prince Andrew doesn’t feature in this series Harry does, which could prove painful for both brothers to watch, given the strain on their relationship since Harry stepped away from royal life and moved to the US.
Harry, who has a development deal at Netflix, is not such a critic of the show, even joking that he “fact-checks” the series.
Private lives laid bare
It was reported that Prince William was upset by scenes in series five of The Crown that showed Charles verbally abusing Diana.
A source said he felt his parents were being exploited and "presented in a false, simplistic way to make money".
While the series is based on real life events, scriptwriters use considerable artistic licence and exaggeration to ramp up the drama, so much so that Netflix has used a ‘fictional dramatisation’ disclaimer to warn people not to take it seriously.
The pattern is set to continue in series six with a focus on the love lives of Charles and Camilla, Diana and Dodi and William and Kate.
