作為Netflix的首部“英劇”，擔任編劇的Peter Morgan早在2008年就因為操刀相同題材的影片《女王》為大家所知。《王冠》的誕生同樣可以追溯到2013年由他編劇的戲劇《女王召見》（The Audience），這部劇展現了伊麗莎白二世在位60年中和歷任英國首相們（從丘吉爾到卡梅倫）每周御前報告的場景。沒錯，這部13年度熱劇《女王召見》正是電視劇《王冠》的底本——戲劇導演Stephen Daldry同是電視劇集導演之一，Netflix為此擲下重金，號稱網飛史上投資最高劇集，預期把女王自1940年代末繼位前夕起的生涯用每季10年的跨度展現給觀眾。

戲劇《女王召見》

在頭一個10年里（從1947年到1956年），伊麗莎白成婚，喬治六世去世，女王繼位，倫敦大霧，公主結婚風波，蘇聯氫彈試爆，女王出訪英聯邦，丘吉爾卸任……這一連串和英國王室關聯的事件中，我們窺見了什么？菲利普親王時常鬧情緒，雖然情有可原但越到后來他看起來越不像一位稱職的丈夫，在重壓之下他似乎選擇了逃避。女王的私人秘書湯米（Tommy Lascelles）包辦一切的古板“老父”形象，真的非常討人厭。龍鐘老態(tài)的丘吉爾在戰(zhàn)后不像是一個英雄，而是個自大的老頑固，在52年應對倫敦大霧時犯了大錯，更可氣的是，這場危機中“拯救”他的是秘書的意外死亡。至于副手艾登，也就是下一任首相，有野心卻無能力，還是個藥罐頭，雖然在歷史上對他的評價確實不高。

本劇討喜的角色似乎不多，或是為了滿足觀眾對王室的窺視欲，或是為了讓劇集更可看，他們個性都很突出，可這樣并沒有讓人感覺更好。最明顯的例子是劇中的溫莎公爵，溫莎王室的親戚們大半都厭恨他，他是個不負責任的敗家子，他的私情讓王室權威岌岌可危。更有甚者，老去的溫莎公爵開始做起了曾經皇帝的舊夢，對過往地位的懷念讓他對如今的王室更加眼紅憤恨?！@一切，如果站在“王權”的角度看并無不妥，女王畢竟還是對這位叔叔給予了最低限度的尊重。劇中溫莎公爵的形象，實則樹立了一個王權榮耀的對立面，似乎想告訴我們，辜負無上榮耀的人最終只會落得喪家犬般的下場。這也很好地說明了，為何與王權關系不大的溫莎公爵，在劇中戲份如此之多。

溫莎公爵這個角色不僅是被黑，還十分刻意地安排在那里，以顯示出“崇高”和“背離崇高”之間懸殊的距離。但在我看來，這反而使他成為《王冠》中的絕對例外。他幾乎每次出場都語帶譏諷，一提祖國和家庭就是徹骨的陰冷。還在通過電視機觀看加冕典禮時嘴炮連連：“你會變魔術時，怎么會希望別人一眼看穿”。通覽全劇后，難道他的語句不是最毒辣和戳中要害的嗎？同時，他也見縫插針地被安排成為化解兩起事件（阻止女王子嗣改姓和爭取公主婚事）的關鍵人物，難道他是一時詆毀王權一時又勸說女王維護王權的跳梁小丑？沒有這么簡單，誰都知道他并非沒有堅定立場，他一再宣示自己的對立，所以他的出場無非是為自己而已。最微妙的是，這位被加以強調的不負責任的公爵，孤立于王權之外的人，居然仍對女王有著強大的說服力！他自稱沒有國土的王，向另一位王宣教并立下預言。

若從這個角度看，劇中沒有其他王室成員敢像他那般地破格做事和說話（唯一敢愛敢恨的瑪格麗特公主每在彰顯個性時就立即被遏制）——因為那樣做會被告知破壞了王權。這讓溫莎公爵比伊麗莎白二世看起來更像一個人，他是真正從枷鎖中掙脫出來的，他的生命更加敞開和充滿未知，就算為了錢寫寫專欄接接采訪，又何嘗不可呢？

報紙對公主戀情的報道

和“例外”的對比，恰恰讓全劇表現女王個人和王權之間張力的意圖顯得尷尬，編劇想通過想象和史實的結合來豐滿她的個性，但實際上王權在這兩面之中總是壓倒性的。這不是在過程和抵抗中展現出西緒福斯式的生命力量，而是一切尚未開始，就看到了結局，一再預演和服從，其中的掙扎甚至有些假模假樣了。英國《獨立報》（The Independent）對《王冠》的評論中寫道：“簡而言之，如果把這部劇集拆開來，本質上只看見在一個房間里，一連串的男人在談論一個女人應該和不應該做什么，當然在這之前，他們會禮貌地在這位女人面前坐下并提出自己的建議?！边@樣看來，《王冠》只是在重復上演父權制的把戲（即便溫莎公爵也不外如是），尤其是，這次掌權的正是一個女人。女王的角色似乎令人同情，因為在這套系統(tǒng)中越往上走，越失去個人自由——潛在的呼喊是：根本沒有人想當國王/女王。但總體上來說，本劇只關心“王冠”，它強調王冠是一種責任，乃至是神圣的責任，它也在敘述這個新生的王是如何一步步讓王權壓過自身，最終“在其位，謀其職”的——而不是兩者之間調和的可能?！巴豕凇边€有效地隔絕了人民的蹤影，在本劇為數不多出現民眾意見的時刻，我們反而發(fā)現人民擁戴“動搖王權”的公主和上校，那么貴族和政客們每天念叨的王權要垮，是誰的王權呢？真是英國人民的嗎？本劇暫未給出任何可能的回答。

正如劇中所有沖突都被一股力量所鉗制，劇中人物真實可觸的靈魂也極其有限——沒有任何反思的自我，也看不出什么孤獨，只是一直在說：真的很對不起，但那是規(guī)矩，我不能碰。在夾縫中填充進的人物個性最終觸及到的是真實的王權，在現實中，女王不會也不能對英國議會做出的決定表示異議。但同時，王室并不是受害者，它握有一定的權力。使得本劇在各個層面上都折射出王權在現代的尷尬處境，甚至隱含著更廣的價值沖突：曾經那嵌入的，統(tǒng)一的世界和如今這祛魅的，多元的世界。

既然一種榮耀樹立起來了、穩(wěn)固了，它不可避免地描述王權衰微和危機。如果《王冠》的后續(xù)劇集還有什么令人期待地方，那就是當60年代之后王室面對更多丑聞和外界攻擊時，王室家族會有怎樣的反應？還是拭目以待吧。

丘吉爾80大壽演講和他的肖像畫

參考資料：

The Crown writer Peter Morgan: 'I bet the queen would've voted Brexit', via The Guardian

The Audience – review, via The Guardian

The Crown review: Sumptuous but empty, Netflix's latest fails its queen, via The Independentt

我終于跑完了“觀看〈Crown〉（《王冠》）”馬拉松，到現在它更新到第四季，待播第五季，從喬治六世在位一直到伊麗莎白二世掌權至中年，女王把這條路越走越堅定，家庭中各個成員卻迷失各自的迷失。

第一季其實是我最喜歡的一季，它把每個人物的自由和驕傲之間的掙扎講得太好了。

為了完成婚姻的自主選擇，被迫退位的溫莎公爵有多愛損女王的繼位儀式，就有多舍不得這本屬于自己的王權，平衡自由與驕傲的方式，他選擇了以無視、嘲諷的姿態(tài)對抗向往和遺憾。

這像人世間的任何事，它不僅會停留在王室里，它停留在任何地方，接受每一個選擇的另一面，有的時候太難了，道理應是好事不能你一人占全，但落在真實生活時，平復我們的也許是激憤的情緒，是嘲弄的意味，總不會是那條誰都懂的道理。

瑪格麗特公主這條線的故事，我看的時候，難過，鼻腔和眼睛都成了被堵塞的通道?，敻覃愄毓髯鳛橐粋€基督徒和王室成員，為自己和Peter的婚姻爭取了些年，但四面八方的壓力、威脅，最終還是將她壓死在白金漢宮的森嚴之中。

她沒有辦法離開王室?guī)Ыo她的一切，最多她只能做到在內部進行對抗，她無法做任何外部的進攻。接受，看似是一個平和地將往事壓于箱底的姿態(tài)，但它反噬的力量卻極大。瑪格麗特公主一生都在尋找有別于規(guī)則，最接近自由的情感和人，但她一生都沒有得到。

自由當然會生長在被控制的環(huán)境中，但如果它沖不破這藩籬，它就一生都是被控制的自由。

也只有第一季對Mother Queen的掙扎做了表達，她想要在海邊花100磅買下年久失修的城堡，和城堡主人的交談中，她拋去頭銜的交流最終被白金漢宮對自己的急召打斷，城堡主終于知道她是誰的時候，Mother Queen哭著說，你終于想起來了。

這句話里有期待被認出，期待被俯首稱臣，也有被認出后，對突然在彼此之間豎起銅墻鐵壁的無奈。最平凡的情感和最高的王權它大部分時候肯定是相悖的，我們是人類，所以無法真正生活在哪一個絕對的立場，我們只能生活在這個夾縫中。

Mother Queen在這個夾縫中，瑪格麗特公主、溫莎公爵、菲利普親王、查爾斯王儲，包括女王自己，他們每一個人都在。

在這四季中，他們每個人都會對王權更堅定，會更冷靜，會講些殘酷的道理，但也并不影響他們總有那么幾個時刻，是沒辦法說服自己的。

不僅是他們，我們也一樣，沒有一條鐵律可以說服我們的一生，我們要不然不斷被不同的東西說服，要不然不斷用同一個理由去辯駁。

海報上面的那個女孩，黑白陰影之間，眉目輪廓清淡而凜冽，垂目低視。 這部不像美劇的美劇《女王》，乍一看，似乎是BBC出品，敘事節(jié)奏平緩，劇本扎實有力，帶有一股濃濃的英倫味道。 雖然兩部劇之間沒有關系，但是，在第一眼，我即想起了那部《無人生還》。也許是英國的風格太凜冽，但凡有一點相似，便會喚醒腦海中的回憶。

這部劇的故事從菲利普親王迎娶伊麗莎白女王開始。伊麗莎白二世，在中國，我們習慣調侃她的在位時間。 那位在二零一二年倫敦奧運會上從飛機上一“跳”而下，震驚了所有年輕人的高齡女王陛下。 她的父親，喬治六世，同樣是一位有名的人物，以口吃聞名。 二零一二年《國王的演講》以大勢之姿橫掃奧斯卡，講的便是這位國王的故事。 故事的幕布便是從這位國王身上拉開。 他病了。他咳嗽、咳出了血沫子。緊接著，他被診斷出腫瘤。 《王冠》第一季的敘事，主線其實不是女王與親王的婚姻，而是這位國王的病。 也恰恰是這位國王的病，暗示了接下來，女王的登基。 在平時的新聞中，我們經?？吹接忻襟w贊頌菲利普親王與女王的愛情。說，真正愛一個人，是為她放棄繼承權，甘心守候在她身后。 那樣的深情。 我們習慣了這樣的符號。仿佛這樣的深情，是與身俱來的。 但是，在《王冠》中，在女王未登基之前，這位深知自己不久于人世的國王與菲利普的一番談話，證明了菲利普同樣是一個普通的男人。他依然困惑，依然有自己的執(zhí)著。他也不甘愿放棄自己的前途與職責。 但是，他娶的人是女王。 相比起大部分人稱頌的說，第一集最后喬治六世對菲利普說的話，是父親對女兒的愛。 或許是我心太冷硬。那就像是我們古代的王朝，父親在死之前為兒子留下的一些賢臣。 喬治六世希望用自己最后的力量，幫下一任女王，解決后顧之憂。

比起后來女王的種種傳奇，在未登基之前，她其實就像一個普通的女人，只不過，有著皇家的規(guī)范禮儀教養(yǎng)。 但是，在教堂里宣誓時，也會緊張得說不出話；在自己的愛情里面，也會不顧周圍人的反對，執(zhí)著地對自己的丈夫說“服從你?！?這個時候的女王，還未展露她的風范。 與其說，第一集是女王登基前的鋪墊，不如說，是給喬治六世彈奏的歡送曲。 這樣一位不敢在眾人面前講話的國王，“口吃”的國王，他或許是史上最有損禮儀的國王，但是，他一生為了國家而奉獻自己。 得知自己腫瘤，即將不久于人世，他幾乎連為自己傷心的時間都沒有，化妝、掩蓋自己的病容，和再度上任的丘吉爾會面。 他在努力維持一個作為國王的尊嚴。 直到那個圣誕夜晚，他知道了自己的腫瘤，當地的民眾們遵從禮儀風俗，舉著燈來為國王陛下禱告。 他終于紅了眼眶。 大概，那是他一直拼命做好一個國王的鎧甲之下，死亡來臨之際，破冰而出的疲倦，與對這個國家的眷戀。

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原文鏈接

Series one, episode one: Wolferton Splash

The series opens with King George VI spewing blood into a lavatory pan, to indicate that he is a sick man. Before the opening credits, there is a scene in which the King invests Prince Philip, as Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip is described as a Prince of Greece and ‘of’ Denmark. Then the King knights him as he bestows titles on him in the wrong order, and only then gives him the Order of the Garter. There is a scene in which the King uses the ‘C’ word. We are introduced to the Prince Philip character, portrayed throughout the series as a kind of ‘Jack the Lad’, smoking a cigarette on the day before the wedding and treating it all as something of a game.

This episode introduces the various themes. We see tension between the King and Prince Philip, we meet Group Captain Peter Townsend hovering amorously around Princess Margaret, and Princess Elizabeth preparing for her future role, at work with her father.

At the 1947 royal wedding Prince Philip’s mother is depicted in a nun’s habit – in reality she was a civilian then and did not adopt the habit (which she wore at the Coronation) until 1948. But this allows Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) to describe her disparagingly as ‘the hun nun’. But then she calls her daughter ‘Elizabeth’ when it was always ‘Lilibet’. There are scenes in Malta of Princess Elizabeth’s carefree life, though her son, Prince Charles, was not in Malta at that time.

The King has to have an operation, so we see Princess Margaret waiting anxiously with Queen Mary and the King with his doctors. There are gory scenes of the lung being removed and the lung is wrapped up in a copy of The Times (a story gleaned from Hugh Trevor-Roper’s letters). There is a scene where Sir John Weir, the well-known homeopathic doctor, informs the King of the gravity of his illness despite the operation. It is curious that this role was assigned to Weir. In reality he failed to give the King proper advice. He was even mistrusted by the admirable Dr Margery Blackie, the most distinguished of homeopathic doctors, who had little time for him.

In 1948 Dermot Morrah, a respected Times writer, reported privately that the King was in danger of losing his leg: ‘One special source of anxiety is his personal physician – a homeopathic quack with a fascination for women, some of whom planted him on Edward, Prince of Wales, who bequeathed him to his successor as official medical officer. Of course they’ve called in good men as consultants, Cassidy and Learmouth especially, but this old menace is there all the time, and it was he who let the trouble go to this length before sounding the alarm.’

It was as bad in 1951, in which this episode is set. Weir accompanied the King to Balmoral for the summer. The worldly doctor enjoyed himself shooting with Scottish dukes. Only when the local doctor was called in was the gravity of the King’s illness appreciated, resulting in him being whisked down to London to have his lung removed. Following that, those who understood such things realised that the King’s life was likely to be short.

This episode depicts Churchill becoming Prime Minister again (in October 1951), and suggests that neither he nor the King are in good health, the King is forced to wear rouge (which was the case). In reality it is not certain how much the King was told about his state of health. The episode ends with Princess Elizabeth looking at the King’s boxes, and in a sense facing her destiny.

A minor mistake: Princess Elizabeth’s car has the royal coat of arms on it. This is reserved for the monarch. Lady Churchill’s GBE riband at the wedding is too red and too wide.

Series one, episode two: Hyde Park Corner

Episode 1 warned us that the King’s life was in danger. Episode 2 carries him off. It starts with Princess Elizabeth arriving in Kenya on the first leg of the proposed Commonwealth tour she is undertaking on her father’s behalf.

We see the royal limousine arriving at an event and the Royal Standard fluttering on the front of it, the inference here being that Princess Elizabeth has already become Queen, but no, it is the wrong Royal Standard. Princess Elizabeth’s would have had a label of three white points. Soon afterwards a cocky Prince Philip mocks a Kikuyu chieftain for wearing a medal to which he is apparently not entitled, in fact a VC, though this is not explained. This was in February 1952 and yet Prince Philip was wearing a 1953 Coronation medal, which, arguably, might not have mattered, but for the fact that he was chiding someone else for wearing the wrong medal.

As they arrive at Treetops for the fateful night of 5/6 February, the Prince Philip character does a Crocodile Dundee feat in seeing off a bull elephant. In reality there were no elephants there that day or night.

The scenes in which Lord Salisbury is seen plotting to get rid of Churchill have not been well received by the Cecil family due to inaccuracies. He would never have elicited the help of Lord Mountbatten, for example. Anthony Eden did not go to Sandringham to ask the King to exercise his constitutional right to remove the Prime Minister from office on account of his incapacity to run the country properly, least of all in February 1952. Churchill himself is given a fictitious secretary called Venetia Scott, so that she can play a role in Episode 4.

Following the King’s death, we see a gruesome scene in which Princess Margaret visits the body of her father during the embalming process. Churchill did not broadcast in the presence of the entire Cabinet, yet his actual words are as moving to listen to today as they surely were at the time. Tommy Lascelles, the Private Secretary, is invested with a most sinister role. He is given good lines, such as when he passes on the Queen Mother’s offer to Townsend to become her Comptroller at Clarence House: ‘I don’t expect you to accept.’

Minor mistakes: It was not Lascelles who told Churchill of the King’s death, it was Sir Edward Ford; Queen Mary was told by Lady Cynthia Colville, not by a footman; it is unlikely that Princess Elizabeth had just written to her father before hearing of his death; Queen Mary did not come to Sandringham to curtsy to the new Queen (that happened at Marlborough House); there is no evidence that Lascelles caught Princess Margaret and Townsend kissing; contemporary evidence proves that the Queen Mother did not cry hysterically when she heard of the King’s death (she was far too stoical); Martin Charteris did not disappear from royal service immediately after the King’s death (he became part of the team, though no longer the new Queen’s actual Private Secretary). Some of these things are acceptable under the heading of dramatic licence.

Series one, episode three: Windsor

Back we go to 1936, seeing Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret playing just before their uncle, King Edward VIII, broadcasts his Abdication speech. There is no way that Queen Mary would have come into the room to see the King to try to dissuade him from broadcasting. And Mrs Simpson was not hovering in the background as he made that speech. In reality she was in Cannes. In the real abdication speech he was announced as ‘His Royal Highness Prince Edward’ not as Duke of Windsor.

Presently there are many scenes involved with the aftermath of King George VI’s death, the young Queen wearing black and sometimes a black veil, and Tommy Lascelles becoming ever more the dominant figure in the Palace.

Two big issues are explored to show how Prince Philip no longer has any say in the running of his family. There are many scenes of the redecoration of Clarence House, and he wants the family to stay there. He insists that the Queen puts this proposal to Churchill. The other issue is the family name. It is understood that, in real life, the Queen and Prince Philip would have preferred to stay at Clarence House, which was the perfect London home for a young family, not too big, and with a well-sized garden. Buckingham Palace has always served multiple purposes: a series of state rooms, offices for members of the Household, and the King and Queen’s rooms along a long corridor on the Constitution Hill side. It must have been a bit like living in an Edwardian hotel. But Churchill insisted that the monarch must live in the Palace, and so they moved in on 5 May 1952. The Queen Mother moved into Clarence House on 18 May 1953.

The name issue was another genuine cause for Prince Philip to be upset. As seen in this episode, Lord Mountbatten, curiously dressed for dinner in his own home (Broadlands) as an Admiral, boasts, with some justification, that the House of Mountbatten now reigns in Britain. Normally the male who marries a Queen Regnant gives his name to the new house, hence Queen Victoria was the last Queen of the House of Hanover which became Saxe-Coburg when she married Prince Albert in 1840. Prince Ernst August of Hanover was at Mountbatten’s table in 1952 and did not like what he heard. He informed Queen Mary who called for Jock Colville, then Private Secretary to Winston Churchill. The Prime Minister duly informed the Queen that the Royal House must be called the House of Windsor. There is a fictional scene in which the Queen reads out this declaration to the Privy Council.

It is true that Prince Philip was livid about this though, in reality, he wanted it called the House of Edinburgh, rather than Mountbatten, the preferred choice of his ever-manipulative uncle. Harold Macmillan recorded that Prince Philip wrote a well-reasoned memorandum making his case, but the Government would not countenance the Mountbatten name being used. In opposing Prince Philip, ministers such as Macmillan were keen to send ‘a shot across his bows’, to keep the young consort in his place.

The Duke of Windsor comes over for his brother’s funeral, and the series makes much of the newly styled Queen Mother’s hostility to him. The Duke of Windsor also wants various things. There is a lot of bargaining in this episode. The Queen asks Churchill to do her a favour by informing the Cabinet about the Mountbatten name, claiming that she is keeping him in office by agreeing to a delayed Coronation. In fact the Coronation was always planned for June 1953 as it takes a long time to arrange such a ceremony.

Then Churchill asks the Duke of Windsor to help put various points to the Queen – for example to be an intermediary over the other two issues of this episode, the family name and the move to Buckingham Palace. In exchange, the Duke wants to retain the allowance King George VI promised him (which ceased at the King’s death) and again demanded an HRH for the Duchess. There is a curious scene in which three contrasting aspects of love are explored – we see a sequence with the Windsors dancing romantically, the Queen and Prince Philip at the opera (where he takes her hand), and Princess Margaret popping in to Townsend’s office to kiss him with some passion.

The Duke of Windsor then lunches with the Queen, which did not happen in real life, and puts Churchill’s two points to her. Most erroneously, we find the new young Queen turning to the Duke of Windsor for avuncular advice. He is presented as a sage and explains in the almost Shakespearean language the scriptwriters give him why she, as a monarch, must move from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace.

Alex Jennings, the actor, looks incredibly like the Duke of Windsor, but the real life Duke never delivered such Shakespearean oratory. Nor would the real Queen ever have asked for advice from a man so patently incapable of giving it.

The Duke of Windsor had been immensely tiresome ever since the Abdication in 1936, and Tommy Lascelles had seen him off on more than one occasion, most effectively in 1945. The Royal Family felt gravely let down by the Abdication, and Lascelles wrote at one point in the 1940s that any appearance in Britain by the Duke would have a grave effect on the health and peace of mind of George VI. Later on, in real life, the Queen was courteous to her uncle, and various rapprochements were made before he died, but the trouble with the Duke of Windsor was that if he was given an inch, he would take a mile.

In other themes, we see Prince Philip asking Group Captain Townsend to teach him to fly, a theme followed up in the next episode. He did learn at White Waltham, near Maidenhead, but was taught by Flight Lieutenant C.R. Gordon, of Cheltenham. He received his wings from Air Chief Marshal Sir William Dickson, on 4 May 1953, having flown for 90 to 100 hours.

The film-makers also introduce the idea that Prince Philip bullied Prince Charles, which is again addressed in later episodes.

Minor mistakes: Prince Philip was a descendant of the royal houses of Greece and Denmark, but not of Norway. King Haakon of Norway (1872-1957) was a Prince of Denmark who was given the Norwegian throne in 1905.

A recurring mistake throughout the series: All the characters arrive at Buckingham Palace through the ceremonial front gates. Normally they enter via the gate to the right near Constitution Hill.

Series one, episode four: Act of God

This is a curious episode based on the great fog that descended on London between 5 and 9 December 1952. This fog caused some spontaneous burglaries and one murder. London was perfectly used to fog, so it was not treated as a particular emergency until much later when it was estimated that between 4,000 and 12,000 people died – though most of them had breathing problems or were very old. Most of this episode is fictional and did not happen. Obviously the scenes involving Churchill’s fictional secretary, Venetia Scott, were made up. She is killed when hit by a bus, but since there was no public transport, other than trains on the London Underground, due to the fog, this could not have happened.

The film-makers then involve Churchill failing to take action, the question of Clement Attlee, the Leader of the Opposition, potentially turning the situation to political advantage, and Churchill’s decision to visit a hospital during the crisis, but all this is fiction too. Interestingly the fog did not rate a mention in Martin Gilbert’s official biography of Churchill.

The other scenes involve Prince Philip learning to fly and Government annoyance at this. Queen Mary falls ill and takes to her bed, attended by Sir John Weir. The Queen walks through the fog to visit her ailing grandmother to discuss what is expected of her as a monarch.

Series one, episode five: Smoke and Mirrors

There is a flashback to 11 May, with George VI explaining the significance of anointing in the Coronation ceremony, and talking of the weight of the crown, both actual and symbolic. The action then moves forward to 1953, with the Queen trying on the same crown before her Coronation.

Queen Mary falls gravely ill, which brings the Duke of Windsor over. In this series he comes from France, though he actually came with his sister, the Princess Royal, from New York. There are lots of opportunities for him to complain to the Duchess of Windsor about his family, his mother and his treatment. The Queen is warned by the Queen Mother to be wary of the Duke – ‘like mercury, he’ll slip through the tiniest crack.’ During his visit, the Duke is summoned from Marlborough House to Lambeth Palace where he finds the Archbishop of Canterbury, Tommy Lascelles and one other, ranged against him explaining why he should not attend the Coronation and that the Duchess would not be invited. The Duke is furious, but he agrees to put out a statement explaining why he won’t be there.

While he is at Lambeth Palace, a message comes through that Queen Mary has died. In reality the Duke was not at Lambeth Palace. Her funeral is shown (with the Royal Standard on her coffin, not her personal standard).

In real life, the question of the Duke’s possible attendance preoccupied the Archbishop of Canterbury as early as November 1952 and he raised the matter with the Queen at lunch. It was agreed that his presence ‘would create a very difficult situation for everybody, and if had not the wits to see that for himself, then he ought to be told it.’ Churchill took the line that while it was understandable that the Duke would wish to be present at family funerals, it would be completely inappropriate for him to attend the Coronation of one of his successors. Tommy Lascelles wrote to the Duke’s lawyers making it clear that no summons would be forthcoming. A statement was prepared for the Duke to issue to save face, but he must have alarmed the British Government by giving an interview at Cherbourg in which he said he might well be in England at the time of the ceremony. As it happened he and the Duchess stayed in Paris and watched it on television with friends, a scene recreated in this episode. We see the Duke explaining the proceedings in the Abbey, again in Shakespearean phrases, to a group of undistinguished guests. The episode ends with him playing his bagpipes outside the house, with tears in his eyes, presumably to hint that he is regretting all that he discarded.

The other main theme in this episode is the role of Prince Philip in the preparations and also in respect of the part he intends to play in the ceremony. Here he only agrees to chair the Coronation Committee if he has total control and we see him coming out with all sorts of modern ideas for the day, such as inviting Trade Union leaders and businessmen to take part. He is told that some things cannot be changed. There is a row with the Queen and he tells her he refuses to kneel before her to do homage. In the end he is obliged to do so, but he is given credit for insisting the ceremony be televised.

Having written a book on the Coronation and delved into the Archbishop of Canterbury’s papers I can testify that these reveal the Archbishop of Canterbury, pushing Prince Philip out as much as possible. He pronounced: “There must be no association of him in any way with the process & rite of Coronation.” Yet they also show that Prince Philip was quite happy to do fealty after the Archbishop (when he could have been expected to go first) and that he presented a silver gilt wafer box to the Abbey, and a chalice and paten to Lambeth as a form of offering to respect taking his place next to the Queen during the communion.

Unlike other flaky consorts such as Prince Claus of the Netherlands and Prince Henrik of Denmark, Prince Philip was raised within the Royal House of Greece. But for the birth of the future King Constantine in 1940, he would have ended up as King of Greece in 1964, and marriage with Princess Elizabeth would have been out of the question. In real life he adapted quickly to his changed circumstances, but in The Crown, they put him in conflict at every opportunity.

The Coronation scene was a wonderful opportunity to create a scene of great visual magnificence but it fell seriously short in regard to a great number of details. Earl Mountbatten, seated in the front row of the Royal Box (he was not in the front row) appears dressed in ducal robes, and is not wearing his Garter collar. Nor is the supporting actor representing the Queen’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. The Marquess of Salisbury carries the Sword of State (which he did at the actual Coronation), but he crowns himself with an Earl’s coronet. The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (Mistress of the Robes) fails to put on a coronet. The oath was not administered during the anointing but before it. There are a number of peeresses sitting where the Peers sat in reality. Thus this scene is one of the least convincing in the series.

The St Edward’s Crown with which the Queen is crowned was far too big, but this may have been intentional to demonstrate the burden the Queen was assuming.

Series one, episode six: Gelignite

The theme of this episode is the Princess Margaret – Peter Townsend love affair and their attempt to marry in 1953. The opening scene shows the Queen and Prince Philip going to the Coronation Derby, but we then see a newspaper office where an unshaven journalist has picked up what he realises is a huge scoop (hence ‘gelignite’) – Princess Margaret having been observed picking some fluff off the jacket of Group Captain Peter Townsend at the Coronation – he being by then a divorced equerry. Princess Margaret and Townsend are on the point of accompanying the Queen Mother on an official visit to Rhodesia.

The Princess invites the Queen and Prince Philip to dine with her and Townsend and they believe that they have her blessing, but they soon run up against the establishment. Tommy Lascelles invokes the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, which stated that no lineal descendant of George II could marry without the consent of the Sovereign, and so Princess Margaret is asked to wait for two years. The series suggests that the Queen deceived her sister by appearing to support her wish to marry him and then eventually forbidding it. The film-makers imply that the Princess never forgave her sister, a theme which recurs in later episodes. The essence of this episode is more or less correct, but the sequence of events is somewhat muddled. Since there are also a number of contradictory accounts left by Peter Townsend, Tommy Lascelles, and Princess Margaret to her biographer, it is hard to settle on a true version, since that true version depends on which source is trusted.

Lascelles appears at his most severe in this episode, a Satanic and menacing figure. This is an interpretation that might well have resonated with the real life Princess Margaret, not to mention the real life Peter Townsend.

There is no doubt that Princess Margaret fell in love with the Group Captain. He was the trusted equerry of the father she adored and a Battle of Britain hero. He was rather a gentle figure. However, as Lascelles made clear to him in no uncertain terms, he had been placed in a position of trust and responsibility. He was a married man with two sons and he was considerably older than the Princess. The real Lascelles said of him: ‘He has Theudas trouble’, a reference to the Acts of the Apostles: ‘For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody.’ Churchill made it clear that the Queen could not sanction the marriage. So Townsend was sent away to Brussels, where he stayed for two years. By the time he returned in 1955, when the British public were agog to know whether the marriage would take place, the path of love had completely run its course. This is the main theme of Episode 10.

Minor mistakes: The costume department gave Townsend his CVO, but failed to give the actor playing Lascelles any medals or Orders (by 1953 he was entitled to a GCVO, CMG, MC and various other medals); in Rhodesia, there was a Governor-type figure in a Guards tunic with a GCB, but only bar ribbons for medals. At one point we see the telephone switchboard, which includes Highgrove House. This is the house that the Duchy of Cornwall bought for Prince Charles in 1980, so it would not have been on the switchboard in the 1950s.

Series one, episode seven: Scientia Potentia Est

It is 1940 and the Princesses are with their French governess. Princess Elizabeth goes to Eton College to be instructed by the Provost, Sir Henry Marten (not Vice-Provost as stated in the series). This leads to the Queen wishing to be better educated – knowledge is power - and as the story moves on into 1953, one of the themes is that she wants a tutor to help expand her general knowledge. Martin Charteris such a figure called Professor Hodge, but he is a completely fictitious character. The Queen did not seek a tutor to help her and nor would she ever have taken advice over constitutional matters from a figure outside the Palace system.

Retirement, or rather non-retirement, is in the air. Churchill is getting old and rather desperate, but refusing to go. The Anthony Eden character is ill in Boston, rather luridly so, taking injections, the implication being that he was almost a drug addict (a theme which gets worse in subsequent episodes). Then Churchill has two strokes. Evidently the Queen is not informed and so the fictitious Hodge urges her to summon Churchill and Lord Salisbury to tick them off like recalcitrant schoolboys. The Crown plays out the two wiggings. Symbolically this is to demonstrate that the Queen is getting on top of her role as an assured constitutional monarch.

Tommy Lascelles is also about to retire. In this series, the Queen wants her former Private Secretary, Martin Charteris, to take over and even offers him the job. He and his wife (Gay in real life, but here carelessly called Mary - the name of his daughter), go to look at the Private Secretary’s new home at St James’s Palace and have a tree trimmed outside it. They even say the house will be good for ‘the girls’. (In real life they had the one daughter and two sons). Michael Adeane hears about this, is aggrieved, and complains to Lascelles, who engineers that he does succeed him and not Charteris. Once again Lascelles proves himself more dominant and the Queen’s private wishes are set aside.

This is inaccurate. It is traditional that the monarch’s serving Private Secretary stays on for a few months at the beginning of a new reign to help with the transition as did Lascelles until after the Coronation, retiring at the age of sixty-six on the last day of 1953. Michael Adeane and Martin Charteris were working as a team (along with Edward Ford, who is not portrayed in the series). Michael Adeane was always the natural successor, and there was no fuss. He took over.

In this episode, the film-makers have put a 1972 story into a 1953 context, presumably so that they could use the Lascelles figure. There was a fuss over Adeane’s successor when he retired. At that time Charteris was the natural successor but Lord Cobbold, a former Governor of the Bank of England, wanted to sweep away the Guards officer Old Etonian types who held sway in the Palace and replace them with more meritocratic types. He tried to reject Charteris in favour of Philip Moore. But Charteris went to see the Queen and asked to take over. She immediately agreed, and he proved to be an inspired Private Secretary, who succeeded perhaps better than any other Private Secretary in presenting her to the world as she really is. He served until 1977.

The message that emerges from this episode is that the Queen is conscientious, prepared to do her homework and research, with a knack for discovering the truth when it is kept from her – as, for example, with Churchill’s two strokes (though Lord Salisbury is unlikely to have been willfully withholding this information from her).

Lascelles is well played in the series, though his older daughter (now 94) has said that his hair parting is wrong and his moustache too big. By curious misfortune, the actor playing Michael Adeane looks more like the real life Martin Charteris.

Series one, episode eight: Pride and Joy

The King used to say of his two daughters: ‘Lilibet is my pride, and Margaret my joy.’ (This is something first published by me in my biography of the Queen Mother and therefore explains the title of this episode). Here there is a complete jumble of the real life facts. The episode starts with a scene where the Queen unveils a statue to King George VI in the Mall. This was in fact unveiled on 6 October 1955. But suddenly plans are being made for the Commonwealth tour of 1953 and 1954, so the story moves back in time.

There is particular discussion about Gibraltar as a place that could be dangerous. This was quite true. There were threats from the Spanish and for a visit of less than two days, there were detectives from Scotland Yard operating under cover there for several months. There are some scenes from the Commonwealth tour demonstrating the Queen’s determination to undertake it all, and the strain this put on her. At one point the press see the Queen and Prince Philip emerging from a house after a row. Rightly, they stress the success of the tour.

The film-makers decided that while the Queen was away on her Commonwealth tour, the country would be run by Princess Margaret, rather than the Queen Mother, enabling them to use her as a modernizer breaking all the rules and introducing a spontaneous and touchy-feely (quasi Diana, Princess of Wales) approach to being Head of State which, not surprisingly, upsets everyone. She rewrites a speech, suiting her wayward personality and introducing more colour into it, and delivers this at an Ambassadors’ reception (curiously British Ambassadors serving overseas, in Washington and Athens, who appear to have flown in for this occasion). She gets the guests laughing. The point they seek to make is that Princess Margaret thinks she would make a better Queen than her sister, more in tune with the changing times. The Charteris figure gets more and more worried as she chats to miners, gives spontaneous interviews to the media in which she mentions her affection for Townsend and takes a dig at the Queen. She gets ticked off by Churchill who begins to detect a crisis arising, akin to the Abdication. When the Queen comes back, Churchill alerts her to Princess Margaret’s behaviour.

None of the above happened and is ultimately tabloid invention. Nor do I subscribe to the idea that there was bitter jealousy between Princess Margaret and the Queen. Princess Margaret always supported her sister.

To achieve this, they blur the dates and have the Queen Mother out of the way, buying Barrogill Castle (later renamed the Castle of Mey) in Scotland, something which actually happened a whole year earlier, in 1952. Lascelles (who would by then have retired) tells the Queen Mother what her duties will be, but she tells him she wants to be away. The episode twists history by suggesting the Queen Mother was prepared to shirk all her responsibilities.

In reality the Queen Mother was very much in London while the Queen was away, not least looking after Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who stayed with her at Royal Lodge most weekends (when she was not away racing) and at Sandringham for a long Christmas holiday. She was the senior Counsellor of State during the Queen’s absence. Counsellors act in tandem and Princess Margaret usually assisted her. But Churchill had the same kind of audiences with the Queen Mother as he would have done with the Queen, but not so regularly. The film also has Princess Margaret being advised by Martin Charteris, when in real life, he was travelling with the Queen and Prince Philip.

As to the Castle of Mey scenes, the Queen Mother did not ride horses after the early 1930s, so to see her cantering along the beaches is somewhat strange. Nor is it likely that the castle’s funny old owner, Captain Imbert-Terry, would not have recognised her. While she stays with the Vyners, she addresses the issues of her early widowhood. As this is meant to be late 1953, and not 1952, this does not convince – even with dramatic licence.

Minor mistakes: At a fitting they dress Prince Philip in the naval uniform which he wore but once – at the Coronation, an outdated uniform with epaulettes; later, he wears a Garter riband and bar medals, which is incorrect. The Caribbean Governor in white is wearing what might be a curious interpretation of a military GBE riband along with a huge GCMG star. When Princess Margaret gives her speech, the guests are wearing Orders, but she is not.

Series one, episode nine: Assassins

In London in 1954 Jean Wallop, a private person still very much alive, arrives in a restaurant to dine with Lord Porchester (later 7th Earl of Carnarvon). He proposes to her. She accepts on one condition – that he does not still hold a torch for ‘her’ – i.e. the Queen. I have it on impeccable authority that the future Lady Carnarvon did not even know that he knew the Queen when she met him. The outcome of this scene is that he tells her that for the Queen there was only ever Prince Philip, and she (his bride to be) is the only one for him. The Porchesters were married in January 1956.

The Crown suggests that Porchester was the man many wanted the Queen to marry, and they hint that she would have been happier with him than with Prince Philip. For the record, the Queen Mother originally wanted Princess Elizabeth to marry a Grenadier Guards officer. The late Duke of Grafton springs to mind. But from very early on, she set her heart on the good looking Prince Philip. Soon after he returned from war, they were engaged. The Queen Mother told Sir Arthur Penn: ‘Won’t the Grenadier Guards be disappointed?’ They were and at first refused to have Prince Philip as their Colonel.

The episode depicts Porchester ringing the Queen late at night, with a certain number of double entendres, his wife-to-be coming through from the bathroom. The Queen’s love of racing is emphasized as is Prince Philip’s boredom with it. This theme is rather dropped as the episode goes on, though in one scene, the Queen and Prince Philip watch a mare being covered, with Lord Porchester observing from afar and with some predictably cheap lines. Afterwards Prince Philip jumps out of the Land Rover in a rage. This is followed by a scene back home with a declaration of love by the Queen for Prince Philip.

Lord Carnarvon was a close adviser to the Queen as her racing manager and she often stayed with him and his wife to visit studs in the Berkshire area. Both she and Prince Philip flew down from Balmoral to attend his funeral in 2001.

The Graham Sutherland story is well told. Sutherland was commissioned to paint Churchill’s portrait to be presented to him in Westminster Hall for his 80th birthday on 30 November 1954. Peter Morgan is on firm ground here as it is within the political domain. Intermingled with this is the theme that Churchill should stand down. There is a fictional scene where Eden visits Churchill at Chartwell and bids him to give way in a histrionic, hysterical way – presaging the recurring theme that he was some kind of junkie. As to the portrait itself, it was revealed after her death in 1977 that Lady Churchill had destroyed it. In 1957 she described Churchill’s reaction to the painting in a letter to Lord Beaverbrook: ‘it wounded him deeply that this brilliant … painter with whom he had made friends while sitting for him should see him as a gross & cruel monster.’

There is a partly fictitious version of the speech he gave in Westminster Hall in which he teases the audience that he is about to retire and that his successor, Anthony Eden, is to hand. It appears that he then promptly resigns and with the brutality of the political system, as he leaves the Palace, Eden’s car draws up. The Queen’s speech at Churchill’s farewell dinner was taken from a private letter from the Queen to Churchill after his resignation and not delivered as such on the night. As we listen to it, we see another scene – Lady Churchill presiding over the burning of the Sutherland portrait.

In reality Churchill did not resign immediately after his 80th birthday in November 1954. He hung on in office until April 1955.

Series one, episode ten: Gloriana

The episode reprises the events of December 1936. Edward VIII agrees to see his brother, the Duke of York, but not the Duchess (there is no evidence for that). Then the new King informs his daughters that their uncle has put love before duty. He tells them never to let each other down thus introducing the theme that there could be tension between them later on.

A Royal Standard is hoisted over Balmoral. It is Princess Margaret’s 25th birthday (21 August 1955) and she declares she still feels the same way about Group Captain Townsend. It seems possible that she can now marry him. But the Queen discusses the Royal Marriages Act with Michael Adeane. He invokes a different version of the situation. He mentions that both Houses of Parliament need to approve and the need to wait for 12 months. Still under the illusion that she is free to marry, Princess Margaret wants to announce it.

Another scene shows Prince Philip teaching Prince Charles to fish so that we realise that he is quite tough on the boy. The Queen Mother voices the opinion that Prince Philip is taking it out on Charles due to the frustrations of his life. The Crown likes to think that the Queen Mother is very thick with Lascelles, in his retirement. She relied on him a bit after the King’s death but Lascelles took a dim view of her philosophy of life, considering it was best summed up in the hymn: ‘the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate’. But it gives them the idea that Prince Philip was sent by the Queen to open the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia in November 1956 to get him out of the way, to get him away from bullying his son and in the hope, as expressed clearly in this episode, that he would come back ‘changed’. But this all happens in August 1955 and he did not undertake the voyage until October 1956.

The second and final round in the Princess Margaret – Peter Townsend drama is played out. We see headlines speculating as to whether or not she is going to marry the Group Captain.

Apparently Prince Philip is somewhat in league with Princess Margaret over the marriage question. Townsend returns and they run together in a passionate embrace. Then come the problems, the involvement of the Attorney-General, the threat that Lord Salisbury will resign if the marriage takes place, the Queen saying she will support her in any way she can, but then that she would be deprived of money and titles, and have to live abroad for several years as Mrs Peter Townsend. Princess Margaret claims the country is on her side. The invented words of their father about mutual support are repeated by the Queen.

Then it all gets worse, with the Cabinet advising against the marriage, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other Bishops reminding the Queen that she is Defender of the Faith and of the oath made at the Coronation, and finally the Queen seeking advice from the Duke of Windsor in France. He tells her ‘You must protect the kingdom’. And so, in this episode, the Queen’s line is that Princess Margaret cannot marry Townsend and remain part of the family.

In reality, Eden did advise the Queen at Balmoral, but there was no involvement from the Archbishop, and the Duke of Windsor was in no position to pontificate about the role as sister and Queen, and duty to the realm.

The film-makers maintain that Princess Margaret broke off from Townsend because she had been forbidden to marry him. Furthermore, she tells him she will never marry anyone else. And then Townsend makes a public statement, in fact reading much of the written statement that in reality Princess Margaret issued to the press. He then returns to Brussels.

In truth, the decision was a mutual one between Princess Margaret and the Group Captain, largely based on the fact that Lascelles’s separation plan had worked and the love between them had died.

None of the characters are happy at the end of this episode. Princess Margaret is seen depressed at parties, and Peter Townsend sitting forlornly alone in his apartment in Brussels. Prince Philip is angry at being sent away on the long tour.

The situation with Nasser in Egypt is flagged up during this episode, meetings with Eden, more pills being taken and in the end, Anthony Eden slumped in front of burning cine-film of Nasser, having just stuck a needle full of drugs into his arm – followed by an image of the Queen posing in tiara and evening dress, next to the Crown Jewels which have been brought to the Palace for effect. She is shown as an assured and confident young monarch while the ever-frustrated Prince Philip drives off down the Mall in his open care, all alone, looking distinctly fed up.

I should be grateful that it is Cecil Beaton who gets the last word in both this series and Series two, extolling the virtues of monarchy with Shakespearean lines. Nevertheless Claire Foy’s Queen looks ominously sad.