Last we saw of The Crown before the upcoming season five, Princess Diana (Emma Corrin) and Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) were having the un-merriest of Christmases at Balmoral Castle in Scotland—having tried desperately to appeal to Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) for a separation and salvation from their marital misery. But in the fourth season, neither the queen nor Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) would entertain the thought of a future king divorcing—and both shut down Diana and Charles like they were petulant children. Fast-forward to season five, which premieres November 9 and features an entirely new cast, and viewers will find that Diana and Charles are no longer as insecure and subservient to the royal machine. Played by Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West, the new Diana and Charles are full-blown adults—determined to take their fates into their own hands, even if doing so causes collateral damage like nothing the British monarchy has ever seen. In anticipation of The Crown’s most scandal-rich season yet, we’ve assembled a helpful guide to ensure you’re fully prepared.
Changing of the guard: which actors will now play our favourite royals?
Since The Crown debuted six years ago, the series has completely switched up cast members every two seasons—regularly refreshing the period drama and offering thrilling new interpretations of our favourite royals. (“You can put lines on someone’s face or maybe digitally age them, but you can’t breathe the fatigue and bruises of life into a face,” explained The Crown creator Peter Morgan of the decision. “It’s like a relay race, and you pass the baton.”)
In addition to Debicki and West joining the series as season five and six’s Diana and Charles, venerable Oscar nominees Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) and Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes) assume the roles of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Olivia Williams (Rushmore) doffs a feathered blond wig and prosthetic bodysuit to play Camilla Parker Bowles, future queen consort. Jonny Lee Miller plays the part of former prime minister John Major (who, in real life, does not seem amped about being represented on the show). Lesley Manville will take over for Helena Bonham Carter (and before her, Vanessa Kirby) to play Most Valuable Diva Princess Margaret.
Scandal galore: what happens on The Crown this season?
Season five spans 1991 to 1997, a six-year period that—unfortunately for the queen—was packed with unprecedented high drama for the royal family. Diana and Charles’s marriage was, by then, beyond repair. Diana felt unsupported by the royal family, heartbroken by her cheating husband, and increasingly paranoid about tapped phone lines and duplicitous palace aides, and famously went to spy-level lengths to share her side of the story.
First, she sneakily collaborated with Andrew Morton on a tell-all biography, in which she discussed the extent of her unhappiness as Princess of Wales—her suicide attempts, her struggle with bulimia, and her husband’s ongoing affection for Camilla. And then, she recorded a tell-all Panorama interview with now disgraced journalist Martin Bashir inside her Kensington Palace apartment. During that interview—deemed treacherous by the royal family—the princess had many mic-drop lines, including this, of Charles’s ongoing affair with Camilla: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” (In the years since, a report concluded that Bashir showed Diana fake documents to persuade her to participate in the interview.) The Crown’s season-five trailer suggests that both tell-all story lines will be explored, with a Bashir character (Prasanna Puwanarajah) announcing Diana is “at a breaking point.… She opens her mouth and hand grenades come out.”
But it wasn’t just Diana who wanted to share her side of the story, royal discretion be damned. Charles also gave an explosive interview with Jonathan Dimbleby in 1994, during which he confessed to having cheated on Diana. (The same night the interview aired, Diana wore her infamous “revenge dress.”) So much earth was scorched in this public War of the Wales that the queen apparently had no choice but to approve the divorce she had been so determined to prevent.
As if those bombshells were not enough for the palace press aides to deal with, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s marriage detonated when tabloids published topless photos of “Fergie” having her toes kissed by her financial adviser in the South of France. Princess Anne also divorced—eventually remarrying one of her mother’s former equerries. Additionally, in 1992, a fire erupted at Windsor Castle that caused the queen further heartbreak and more than $40 million worth of damage. The year was so devastating—between the fire, the dissolution of three of her children’s marriages, and the constant tabloid coverage—that the queen famously called 1992 her “annus horribilis.”
In recent weeks, The Crown has been criticized for numerous reasons—returning so soon after the queen’s death and during a time of monarchial transition, and for showcasing a scandalous time period in the not-so-distant past. In response, series creator Peter Morgan has maintained that the time span is fair game. (Especially now that a disclaimer was added to the season-five trailer clarifying that the series is a fictionalized dramatization of real-life events.)
“I think we must all accept that the 1990s was a difficult time for the royal family, and King Charles will almost certainly have some painful memories of that period,” Morgan told Variety. “But that doesn’t mean that, with the benefit of hindsight, history will be unkind to him, or the monarchy. The show certainly isn’t. I have enormous sympathy for a man in his position—indeed, a family in their position. People are more understanding and compassionate than we expect sometimes.”
Royal romances: Charles and Diana’s divorce on The Crown
With so much love lost between the Waleses, there are still a few hopeful romantic moments, judging by the trailer. For one, Princess Margaret—who has been so unlucky in love—reunites with a former flame, Peter Townsend (Timothy Dalton). (According to one report, the ill-fated lovers reunited some 30 years after parting.)
Additionally, Charles and Camilla’s romance appears stronger than ever—as evidenced by their steamy “Tampongate” phone call, which has been confirmed as a season-five story line. West has even spoken about recreating the intimate 1989 phone call, which was made public in 1993.
“I remember thinking it was something so sordid and deeply, deeply embarrassing [at the time],” the actor told Entertainment Weekly. “Looking back on it, and having to play it, what you’re conscious of is that the blame was not with these two people, two lovers, who were having a private conversation. What’s really [clear now] is how invasive and disgusting was the press’s attention to it, that they printed it out verbatim and you could call a number and listen to the actual tape. I think it made me extremely sympathetic towards the two of them and what they’d gone through.”
Though Diana appears to be broken-hearted this season, the season-five cast list reveals that actor Humayun Saeed will play her eventual love interest, Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. The doctor, who shared a two-year romance with Diana in the ’90s, would prove to be “the only [man] who would never use or betray her,” according to Vanity Fair’s 2013 feature, “Diana’s Impossible Dream.”
A new generation
While season-five Charles still has decades until he becomes king, the trailer makes clear that West’s Charles will make his feelings about the family institution heard. “For years I’ve called for a more modern monarchy that reflects the world outside,” the character says in the trailer.
It was during the mid-1990s that Charles—aware that his public image was suffering because of his highly publicized divorce from Diana—began assembling his own court with his own best interests in mind. He hired the spin doctor Mark Bolland, who has been accused of using shrewd media-manipulation tactics to repair Charles and Camilla’s public image, and shared his “thoughts, journals, letters, and his soul to Jonathan Dimbleby, one of Britain’s most respected journalists” for a biography, The Prince of Wales, according to Maclean’s. But Charles’s self-preservation attempt was reportedly not well-received by his parents. Prince Philip was later quoted as saying, “I’ve never discussed private matters and I don’t think the queen has either. I don’t think it’s fair to give my views. I’m just here. That’s all there is to it.” The remark was interpreted as a diss to his soul-baring son.
Charles is not the only future monarch featured in season five. The new episodes make space for story lines showcasing Prince William, who is played in the episodes by Dominic West’s real-life son Senan West. A teenage William enrolled at Eton College in 1995, and, along with his brother, Harry, spent the decade as collateral damage to Diana and Charles’s full-blown war. In Tina Brown’s The Palace Papers, the author revealed how William in particular became enmeshed in his mother’s side of the saga.
William was influenced by other family members as well—such as Queen Elizabeth, who reportedly hosted the prince for weekly teas at Windsor Castle when the teenager was in boarding school miles away at Eton. Explained Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent Katie Nicholl, William “would have one-on-one time with his grandmother to talk about whatever was on his mind. She was there for him to unload on—but those sessions were also an opportunity for her to mentor and teach him, as her grandfather, George V, did with her. They became incredibly close and as his respect for her grew he began to embrace his destiny.”
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Imelda Staunton, who plays Queen Elizabeth, teased that there will be scenes between the monarch and Prince William—the first true sequences showing the queen in a grandmother capacity.
“This is the beginning of seeing her as a grandmother, and with a boy who’s quite delicate,” says the actor. “They had a much more mellow feel about them because there was no issue” with William, like there was with her children at the time. “Also, he’s a future king and to have the past and the future sitting together, that felt quite special.”
What will happen in The Crown season six?
Diana’s tragic 1997 death will not be chronicled in the series until season six, The Crown’s final season, which is currently filming. Dominic West has said, “It’s a hell of a season, because it deals with Diana’s death and appalling scenes, like having to break that news to your sons…. 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.”
The season is expected to chronicle events from 1997 to the early aughts, a time period that also included 9/11; the queen’s Golden Jubilee, marking her 50 years on the throne; and the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mum in 2002. In brighter story lines, the final Crown season is expected to introduce Kate Middleton, who will be played by Meg Bellamy. Prince William, meanwhile, will be played by the actors Rufus Kampa and Ed McVey during different periods of his life.
The Crown was filming its final season this past September when the queen died. At the time, the series paused production in salute to the monarch. Series creator Peter Morgan also issued this statement about his long-running muse: “The Crown is a love letter to her and I’ve nothing to add for now, just silence and respect.”
This article first appeared on vanityfair.com
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