The King’s ‘rival court’ & Anne’s remarriage – inside The Crown’s most sensational storylines as Netflix drama returns
WITH just hours to go before it drops on Netflix, the series five of The Crown is one of the most anticipated in the royal drama’s history.
That’s mainly down to several controversial storylines, but the ten-parter also contains other fascinating and funny stories.
As revealed in this Windsor family photo posed up by the cast, it touches on the lives of many in The Firm.
Rod McPhee is our man in the know . . .
Prince William and Prince Harry
AS Princess Diana is shown revealing all in her controversial Panorama interview, William (Rufus Kampa) takes more of a central role, pleading with his mother to refrain from publicly discussing her private life.
And when she fails to heed her son’s protestations, Wills is clearly dismayed while pictured with school-friends at Eton.
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Meanwhile he and younger brother Harry, depicted by Will Powell, are caught up in their parents’ troubles as they holiday with Charles and Diana in Italy and are forced to attempt to comfort her after their father leaves her in tears, again.
Prince Charles
THE future king, played by Dominic West, gets arguably the most attention in series five – largely where he’s being mean to his wife.
But there is also fascinating insight into how he effectively set up a “rival court” to the Queen, decades before she died.
This is a storyline likely to cause even more royal tension and be branded disrespectful.
PRINCESS DIANA
THE Princess of Wales (actress Elizabeth Debicki) is often portrayed as shallow and dim, Including when she accompanies a friend to hospital where her husband just had heart surgery, which has failed.
When the surgeon comes out to deliver the bad news, Di flirts with him and gushes over his good looks, to the dismay of her pal.
Queen Elizabeth
A WEARY Queen (Imelda Staunton) battles her Annus Horribilis in 1992 – a year of woes including the Windsor Castle fire.
But The Crown continues to cast doubt on her relationship with Prince Philip, suggesting they grew further apart as they aged.
Prince Philip
HE grows close to beauty Penny Knatchbull and there is more pain for the Queen as Philip (Jonathan Pryce) supplies a DNA sample to identify remains of his Romanov relatives, killed by the Bolsheviks, and slams his wife’s family for failing to rescue them.
Princess Anne
THE QUEEN’s daughter (Claudia Harrison) bolshily tells Her Maj she will remarry – to Timothy Laurence – against the principles of the Church of England that her mum heads.
Anne defies the monarch’s protestations, and is even seen ogling her future husband in her presence.
Prince Andrew
HER MAJESTY’s favourite son, played by James Murray, is seen getting preferential treatment from the woman he still calls Mummy – much to the annoyance of big brother Charles.
Andrew is also seen in talking with the Queen about his marriage to Sarah Ferguson – crumbling after she was caught having her toes sucked by Texan millionaire lover John Bryan.
In a sly reference to Andrew’s disastrous interview with Emily Maitlis, the prince says: “And people say I put my foot in it . . . ”
Princess Margaret
THE sister of the Queen is channelled by Lesley Manville as a lonely figure wrestling with the ghosts of her past – one of whom comes back into her life.
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Margaret is seen being reunited with true love Peter Townsend, who has terminal cancer.
Heartbroken, she confronts Her Majesty, laying into her for refusing to let her marry Peter because he was divorced, while allowing Princess Anne to remarry after divorcing.