Young Elizabeth and Margaret are seen heading to The Ritz with Porchey and Peter Townsend on VE Day, during flashbacks in The Crown season 6 episode 8.
The final part of The Crown is now available to stream on Netflix, charting the period between 1997 and 2005, including the meeting of William and Kate and the marriage of Charles and Camilla.
The eighth episode in the season also dramatises the decline and death of Princess Margaret, examining her relationship with Elizabeth through the use of flashbacks to a formative moment in their lives.
This is the night of VE Day, when the pair sneak out of the Palace and head to The Ritz, with Margaret saying that this proved how much Elizabeth had sacrificed by taking on her life of duty. But did the pair really sneak out that night?
Read on for everything you need to know about the flashbacks to VE Day in The Crown season 6.
What happens in The Crown season 6 episode 8?
The Crown season 6 episode 8, titled Ritz, tells the story of the decline and death of Princess Margaret, while also flashing back to tell the story of a formative moment for the pair in 1945.
The flashbacks take place on 8th May 1945, VE Day, when the Allies accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender in the Second World War.
In the flashback sequences, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret leave the Palace, accompanied by a young Porchey and Peter Townsend, and head to The Ritz, where they join those partying and celebrating.
Once there, Elizabeth follows a man and heads to the downstairs dance hall, where she dances merrily. On the way back to the Palace in the morning, Elizabeth admits that she kissed a man so as not to be “rude” and was still chewing his gum.
Did Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret really sneak out on VE Day?
In truth, Elizabeth and Margaret did join the crowds and go to The Ritz on VE Day, when the former was 19 and the latter just 14.
They were given permission by the King and Queen to do so, with the King explaining his decision to let them go in a diary entry: “Poor darlings, they have never had any fun yet.”
Rather than just going with Porchey and Peter Townsend, it is understood that they travelled with a group of 16 trusted members of the Royal household.
One of the Queen’s first ladies in waiting, Jean Woodroffe, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme in 2006: “The extraordinary thing was that nobody seemed to take much notice. Then we stood outside Buckingham Palace with the crowd and we all shouted, ‘We want the King’ with everybody else until the King and Queen came out onto the balcony.”
The Queen herself told the BBC in 1985 that she “pulled my uniform cap well down over my eyes” to avoid being noticed.
Margaret Rhodes, first cousin to the Queen who was part of the group, revealed that they went to The Ritz at around 11:30pm.
“For some reason, we decided to go in the front door of the Ritz and do the conga,” she said. “The Ritz has always been so stuffy and formal – we rather electrified the stuffy individuals inside. I don’t think people realised who was among the party – I think they thought it was just a group of drunk young people.
“I remember old ladies looking faintly shocked. As one congaed through, eyebrows were raised.”
Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret ended up in the Royal Parks on their way back to the palace. Jean Woodroffe said that they travelled back through Green Park and St James’s Park, where there was “the usual thing of people kissing and hugging – and even making love”.
Woodroffe said: “I was shocked by it – I hadn’t experienced that sort of thing happening before in public.”
As for whether Elizabeth really kissed someone that night, that seems to have been an invention of the writers, although of course we may never know for certain.
The events of that night were dramatised previously in the 2015 film A Royal Night Out, starring Sarah Gadon and Bel Powley.
The Crown season 6 is available to stream in full on Netflix now. Seasons 1-5 are also available now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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