"The Crown" enters its final season
Just as Lady Diana is walking through a landmine field for her aid project in Bosnia, a bombshell breaks in London: paparazzi photos from 1997 show the Princess of Wales flirting with department store heir Dodi Al-Fayed, exchanging caresses and kisses on a yacht off the Côte d'Azur. The unsuspecting Di has to cancel the press conference on mine victims. Everyone just wants to know if the lover is a good kisser and what William and Harry think of him.
The sixth and final season of the epic Netflix series "The Crown" begins by showing how the "persona non grata" with the short blonde hair gets caught up in the international tabloid press more than ever before. "You could feel sorry for her if you weren't so angry," sighs Queen Elizabeth II. The all-too-familiar end of Diana, Queen of Hearts, hangs over the story like a sword of Damocles from the very first minutes.
The "annus horribilis" of 1992
The series, which has been broadcast since 2016, began with the wedding of Elizabeth and her Prince Philip in 1947. This was followed by the early death of her father, George VI, which made her a very young monarch, the scandals surrounding her sister Margaret, the Thatcher years, the Falklands War, the "Annus horribilis" of 1992. In short: events that are more historical for the majority of today's Netflix audience, not necessarily a part of their own lives.
This is changing now at the latest: Because with the final season, the series about the British royal family under Elizabeth II finally arrives in a time that at least everyone over the age of 35 should still remember well. One of the biggest media events of the past 30 years is likely to take center stage: The death of Princess Diana in a car tunnel in Paris while fleeing from the paparazzi.
The days of public mourning (not only) by the British outside the palace walls. The shaken young Princes William and Harry, who marched behind their mother's coffin at the big funeral service. All of this is familiar to many people not primarily from history documentaries, but from hours of live television coverage, special editions of tabloid titles - and not least from Harry's headline-grabbing biography "Spare", which caused quite a stir earlier this year.
Imelda Staunton plays the Queen again
A much younger version of Harry will be played by Fflyn Edwards in the new season, the first four episodes of which are due to start on November 16. His brother William will first be played by Rufus Kampa and then by Ed McVey in the second part of the season, which will be shown from December 14. The fact that William's current wife Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy) and her sister Pippa also appear shows how close the series is now approaching pop culture memory.
In terms of content, the season will cover the years 1997 to 2005 and thus not only Diana's fatal accident and the royal family's handling of it, but also Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee in 2002 and Charles and Camilla's wedding three years later.
In season six of the award-winning series, which has won several Emmys and Golden Globes, Diana is once again played by Elizabeth Debicki, who has perfected the former Princess of Wales's typically cagey sideways glance. Her partner Dodi Al-Fayed, at whose side she died, is played by Khalid Abdalla.
The ageing Queen once again plays Imelda Staunton, best known as the nasty principal Umbridge from the Harry Potter films. Dominic West (aptly known from the series "The Affair") plays Charles again and Olivia Williams his second wife Camilla Parker Bowles.
It will be interesting to see how the Windsor epic ends. Series author Peter Morgan said in an interview with the magazine "Variety" that, with regard to the Queen, he was "looking for a way to hint at her death for the last episode, even though she is not yet dead at the time of the plot". At the beginning of the season, a loyal royalist court photographer says of the head of state in anguished words: "If one day she is no longer alive, we will miss her."
- The unfolding drama of Princess Diana's relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed becomes a major focus on British television during the final season of "The Crown."
- The media's obsessive coverage of Diana and Dodi's romantic escapades on television during this time period highlighted the impact of celebrity gossip on nobility.
- The streaming platform Netflix, known for its historical dramas, has brought the tumultuous period in the British royal family's history to the small screens, marking a shift in how history is consumed by the public.
- Queen Elizabeth II's early relationship with the British media during a pivotal time in her reign is explored against the backdrop of Princess Diana's tragic death and the subsequent public outpouring.
Source: www.dpa.com
