- Imelda Staunton plays Queen Elizabeth in the fifth season of “The Crown”.
- Previous roles include “Vera Drake” and the “Downton Abbey” and “Harry Potter” films.
- Some royal analysts have expressed alarm about the show’s potential impact on Prince Charles’ reign.
Imelda Staunton is the latest actor to portray Queen Elizabeth in the smash Netflix drama “The Crown,” whose new season has been criticized for depicting a tough time for the British royal family so soon after the demise of the monarch.
The award-winning stage and screen actress, whose previous roles include “Vera Drake” and the “Downton Abbey” and “Harry Potter” films, leads a new ensemble for the fifth season of the royal drama centered on Elizabeth’s reign, which is set in the 1990s.
Elizabeth herself referred to 1992, the late monarch’s 40th year on the reign, as her “annus horribilis” due to familial marital discord, public discontent, and the fire at Windsor Castle.
“This time in the royal family’s life was very tumultuous and the writers didn’t shy away from any difficult issues,” Staunton said in an interview.
The fifth season premieres on November 9, two months after Elizabeth’s death and her son’s ascension to the throne.
The divorce of then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana is a major plot point. Some royal analysts have expressed alarm about the show’s potential impact on the beginning of Charles’ reign.
Others, like Dame Judi Dench, have demanded that Netflix add a notice criticizing fictionalized sequences and dialogues.
The 87-year-old Dench stated in a letter to London’s Times newspaper last month that the closer the award-winning production got to the present, “the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.”
According to Netflix, “The Crown” is a “fictional drama” inspired by real events.
“I think the idea that there is a need for a disclaimer is a little bit patronising. After four seasons, I think people around the world are well aware that this is a drama based on real events,” actor Jonathan Pryce, who plays Prince Philip, said.
“I think the proximity of the queen’s death…Nerve-endings are still raw, and people are feeling very protective,” Staunton said. “If this was coming out two years ago I don’t think any of this would be going on. And it’s understandable, of course it is.”
Pryce, who portrayed Pope Francis in “The Two Popes,” stated that he developed a deeper knowledge of Elizabeth and Philip via his work on the series.
“And far from being hurtful or damaging, I think the audience will discover, as we discovered as actors, how compassionate this show is towards the problems that the royal family had at the time,” he said.
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