A final sixth season, taking the narrative into the 21st century, was originally on \u2013 then off \u2013 then on again. It is now being shown in two separate chunks; and rightly so, because although the first four episodes are about the crown and its putative future, in personal terms they are all about Diana, Princess of Wales.<\/p>\n
Even the evocative poster image shows Elizabeth Debicki\u2019s Diana \u2013 alone but always on view \u2013 perched on the end of the springboard aboard the Al Fayed yacht in the summer of 1997, seemingly contemplating a dive into an uncertain future.<\/p>\n
![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/TheCrownSeason6Image69-513410c.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Elizabeth")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>These first four episodes cover a little more than eight weeks, and with such a tight focus its central performance is all-important. Debicki does not disappoint. Her voice \u2013 that voice we all remember from the real Diana\u2019s Panorama<\/em> interview<\/a> \u2013 is almost spookily right.<\/p>\n Images we all recognise are recreated with astonishing accuracy<\/a> (though the famous landmines walk has been transposed from her Angola visit to her Bosnia one in August 1997).<\/p>\n But in those very memories lies the challenge \u2013 that we\u2019re coming up to, as the New York Times<\/em> put it, \u201cone of the most analyzed periods in recent British history\u201d. And as they watch this season, many viewers (in the UK at least) will have an alternative narrative running simultaneously in their head as they match up the drama with their own recollection.<\/p>\n The Diana of Debicki and writer\/creator Peter Morgan is a woman coping with the chaotic circumstances around her \u2013though nods are made to reports which described, instead, a woman adrift, vibrating distractedly between her anti-landmine crusade and a life of luxury.<\/p>\n Much in the first two episodes seems almost too much like the story we already knew; though Morgan imaginatively explores also the relationship between Diana and Dodi Fayed (appealingly played by Khalid Abdalla). Dodi\u2019s father Mohamed (Salim Daw) is cast as the ambitious fixer \u2013 something of a deus ex machina<\/em>, indeed \u2013 portrayed as pushing his son towards Diana.<\/p>\n It\u2019s in episode three that things really get inventive. At the Ritz in Paris, just hours before their death, Diana and Dodi are shown having a profound, insightful conversation which allows them each to recognise past mistakes, and resolve on a path ahead.<\/p>\n As promised, the fatal crash is not seen on screen, though heard nonetheless. But it\u2019s in episode four \u2013 \u2018Aftermath\u2019\u2013 that the controversial question of good taste presents itself most clearly.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When Peter Morgan first gave us his take on these events, in his feature film, The Queen<\/em><\/a>, 17 years ago, William and Harry (played here by Rufus Kampa and Fflyn Edwards) were kept discretely out of view. Now, by contrast, we see Prince Charles<\/a> (Dominic West) coming in to tell his sons of their mother\u2019s death, and the boys\u2019 reaction. It makes seriously uncomfortable viewing even for us \u2013 and excruciating, surely, for anyone who had actually been there.<\/p>\n Diana does indeed, as already reported, appear as a ghost to both her former husband and her mother-in-law (Imelda Staunton, once again). With Charles, Diana\u2019s tone is rueful but affectionate; with the Queen, instructive. Elizabeth II had always, Diana tells her, shown the nation \u201cwhat it meant to be British\u201d. Now is the moment to prove she could be also \u201ca mother to the nation\u201d as Charles had phrased it, lamenting that the Queen had been unable to be a mother to him.<\/p>\n This season is haunted, in more ways than one. By literal ghosts; by the ghosts of all those other past books, films, documentaries covering these same few weeks; and by the knowledge of what lies ahead (slyly acknowledged from episode one, when the Queen tells Tony Blair \u2013 of Diana\u2019s wish for a continued public role \u2013 that \u201cit\u2019s hard to be half in anything\u201d, giving shades of Harry and Meghan). And haunted, too, by all of our feelings about Diana, and about the monarchy.<\/p>\n The Queen tells the ghostly Diana she has sparked something like revolution. In fact, it proved to be not a revolution, but a much-needed reform. The aftermath of Diana\u2019s death was \u2013 as Charles puts it in the series \u2013 \u201cthe biggest thing that any of us have ever seen\u201d. But lessons were learnt (though the Sussexes have since queried how thoroughly) and history has shown that the popularity of many senior royals bounced back with surprising speed.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In many ways, this final series of The Crown <\/em>is a mission statement for the British monarchy. We have Charles bluntly telling his parents they could no longer have it both ways, \u201cbeing a private family when we want, and a public one when it suits us\u201d. It\u2019s true, and it\u2019s their tragedy.<\/p>\n Gyles Brandreth once complained that The Crown<\/em> was turning the royal family into a soap opera<\/a>. The easy retort is that they did that to themselves. But that is to ignore the real vulnerable people behind the stories just as surely as did the paparazzi, shown here in all their remorseless brutality.<\/p>\n A further six episodes, covering Charles and Camilla\u2019s wedding, and William\u2019s first encounters with Kate, will be released on 14 December (with talk of a prequel to follow). Will this last season help or hurt the reputation of the real monarchy?<\/p>\n Andrew Marr suggested in the Sunday Times<\/em> that its members should ultimately be grateful to The Crown<\/em>, for keeping their profile high in ever-less-reverential days. But that is on what one might call a professional level, not a personal one. Dodi\u2019s ghost tells his father we can only heal if we tell the truth.<\/p>\n On the evidence so far, it\u2019s debatable whether Peter Morgan\u2019s truth will do anything to heal still-open wounds within today\u2019s divided royal family.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n Historian Sarah Gristwood reviews the first episodes of the royal drama\u2019s final season. Centring on the final months of Diana, Princess of Wales, part one invokes an eerie blend of memory and invention, and plays with our knowledge of what lies ahead\u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":30824,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"7"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/11\/haunted-in-more-ways-than-one-a-historians-review-of-the-crown-s6-part-1.png",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/11\/haunted-in-more-ways-than-one-a-historians-review-of-the-crown-s6-part-1-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/11\/haunted-in-more-ways-than-one-a-historians-review-of-the-crown-s6-part-1-300x200.png",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/11\/haunted-in-more-ways-than-one-a-historians-review-of-the-crown-s6-part-1.png",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/11\/haunted-in-more-ways-than-one-a-historians-review-of-the-crown-s6-part-1.png",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/11\/haunted-in-more-ways-than-one-a-historians-review-of-the-crown-s6-part-1.png",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/11\/haunted-in-more-ways-than-one-a-historians-review-of-the-crown-s6-part-1.png",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Historian Sarah Gristwood reviews the first episodes of the royal drama\u2019s final season. Centring on the final months of Diana, Princess of Wales, part one invokes an eerie blend of memory and invention, and plays with our knowledge of what lies ahead\u2026","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/30823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![\"Diana's](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/TheCrownSeason6Image57-4809b35.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Diana's")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cUncomfortable viewing\u201d<\/h2>\n
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![\"Debicki's](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/ThCrownTrailerImages15-60e7137.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Debicki's")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\u201cA mission statement for the British monarchy\u201d<\/h2>\n
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Catch up on the real the history behind each episode of<\/strong>\u00a0The Crown<\/em>\u00a0season 5, with our episode guides:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"