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The Crown season 6

Season of television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Crown season 6
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The sixth and final season of The Crown, which follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Netflix in two volumes. The first volume of four episodes was released on 16 November 2023, and the second, consisting of six episodes, was released on 14 December. The season began production shortly before the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022.

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Premise

The Crown portrays the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, from her wedding in 1947 through to the early 21st century.

The sixth season is set from 1997 to 2005, during the premiership of Tony Blair. Events depicted include the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the deaths of Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, the early relationship of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.[1][2]

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Cast

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Main article: List of The Crown characters

Main

The following actors are credited in the opening titles of episodes in which they play a significant role:

Recurring

Notable guests

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Episodes

See also: List of The Crown episodes
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Production

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Development

Although the series was initially planned to run for six seasons, in January 2020, creator Peter Morgan announced that it would instead conclude with the fifth season.[23] However, in July 2020, Morgan reversed his decision and announced that the series would end with a sixth season as originally planned, saying, "As we started to discuss the storylines for Season 5, it soon became clear that in order to do justice to the richness and complexity of the story we should go back to the original plan and do six seasons. To be clear, Season 6 will not bring us any closer to present-day—it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail."[24]

Casting

In January 2020, Imelda Staunton was announced as succeeding Colman as the Queen in the fifth season, and her role in the final sixth season was reported in July.[25][26] The same month, Lesley Manville was announced as portraying Princess Margaret,[27][26] and the following month, Jonathan Pryce and Elizabeth Debicki were cast as Prince Philip and Diana, Princess of Wales, respectively.[28][29] In October 2020, Dominic West was in talks to play Prince Charles and was officially confirmed as part of the cast in April 2021.[30][31] In June 2021, Olivia Williams announced that she would portray Camilla Parker Bowles.[32][33] In September 2022, Rufus Kampa and Ed McVey were cast as Prince William, while Meg Bellamy was cast as Kate Middleton.[10] Viola Prettejohn was cast as young Elizabeth, while Beau Gadsdon reprised her role as young Margaret, for flashback scenes set on Victory in Europe Day.[12][34]

Filming

Filming for the season began in early September 2022, but was paused following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022.[35][36] On that day, Manville said she filmed an "emotional scene" between her character, Princess Margaret, and the Queen in hospital, and the scene was finished at around 16:00 BST. Two-and-a-half-hours later, the real-life Queen's death was publicly announced.[37]

Production resumed the following week, but was paused again on the day of the Queen's funeral on 19 September 2022.[38] Filming wrapped on 21 April 2023, the day of what would have been the Queen's 97th birthday.[39]

Music

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"Ghost of Diana" controversy

Shortly after releasing the teaser for season 6 on 9 October 2023, Netflix ran into controversy after an insider described a scene in which Diana would appear as a ghost in front of her ex-husband, Charles, and his mother, the Queen. After a backlash, a Netflix spokesperson claimed that: "These sensitive and thoughtful imagined conversations seek to bring to life the depth of emotion that was felt after such a seismic tragedy struck at the heart of the family."[40][41][42] Peter Morgan said of the scenes, "I never imagined it as Diana's 'ghost' in the traditional sense — it was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she has left behind."[43]

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Release

The season was released by the Netflix streaming service in two parts: the first four episodes were released on 16 November 2023, and the remaining six were made available on 14 December 2023.[3][44] The trailer for the first part was released on 26 October 2023,[45] while the trailer for the second part was released on 1 December 2023.[46] The season was then released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2024[47] and worldwide the following day.[48][49]

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Critical response

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According to review aggregator Metacritic, the first volume of the season received "generally favorable" reviews, based on a weighted average score of 61 out 100 from 29 critics' reviews.[50] On Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of 85 reviews are positive and the average rating is 6.1/10. The website's critics consensus states, "Elizabeth Debicki's haunting portrayal does right by the Princess of Wales, but The Crown's final season often feels like a reign extended past its prime."[51] The BBC reported that the first four episodes "have split critics, but many have given [them] the thumbs down" in the UK,[52] while French reviews largely praised them.[53] The cast's performances, especially those of Debicki, Staunton, and West, were widely praised, including by critics who reviewed the season more negatively.[b]

In a top-marked review for Newsday, Verne Gay praised the four episodes, presenting "a cohesive and deeply moving picture" of the last hours of Diana and Dodi, with particular commendation for a humane rather than a more vilified depiction of Dodi.[60] Writing for Variety, Aramide Tinubu contended that by portraying Diana's relationship as "a comforting friendship that had only started to blossom", the show prompts viewers to reflect on the British royal family's choices, juxtaposed against the reigning monarch's stoicism and adherence to tradition, which, according to the reviewer, has led to the monarchy being perceived as "relic-like".[54] Carol Midgley of The Times wrote that, despite some "gauche imaginings" of characters, the majority of performances were "excellent" and the show was still "a compelling piece of television with very high production values that makes you want to see more".[61] Entertainment Weekly's Kristen Baldwin thought Diana and Dodi's romance and their deaths in Paris were depicted with a "wistful, careful, and restrained approach".[62] Lacy Baugher from Paste gave the first part of the season a score of 7.2 out of 10 and considered it to be an "excellent Diana miniseries", but questioned its suitability as the final season, which initially had broader scope and bigger ambitions, due to its perceived simplicity or its potential bias to portray Charles in a "wildly friendly" way.[63] In a mixed review for The Independent, Nick Hilton similarly opined that the series left little to say "about what it means to be British" as it nears its conclusion.[57]

Reviewing the first volume for The Guardian, Lucy Mangan gave it one out of five, describing the "Diana-obsessed series" as "the very definition of bad writing", despite the "brilliant performances from the entire cast". She particularly criticised scenes featuring "Ghost Diana", which is "all of a piece with what is now simply a crass, by-numbers piece of film-making, with a script that barely aspires to craft, let alone art, any more".[59] Caryn James, writing for BBC Culture, said that the series has "failed to right the terrible flaws of the last season", scoring it at two out of five.[64]

In her review of the second volume for Variety, Alison Herman noted that there was a vacuum left by Diana's departure, but that similar to earlier seasons the focus shifted towards the Queen and the final moments were "an articulate expression of why ritual, stasis and pageantry matter".[65] Writing for The New York Times, Mike Hale also noted that by moving past Diana's storyline the show was "back inside the parlors, bedrooms and country houses of Elizabeth and the other Windsors" and was again "in its comfort zone".[66] In her review for The Independent, Katie Rosseinsky gave the second volume two out of five and concluded that "Morgan's drama is haunted by the ghost of past glories" and the people depicted "exist less as characters, more as vessels for exposition and knowing nods to present-day royal in-fighting".[67] Anita Singh of The Telegraph also gave the second volume two out of five and believed that "Morgan had clearly run out of steam", adding that the story of William and Kate's relationship was "sweet but dull".[68]

Accolades

See also: List of awards and nominations received by The Crown
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Historical accuracy

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Episode 1 shows Princess Margaret attending Camilla's 50th birthday party in 1997, though she was not present at the event.[75] The Queen is also keen for Camilla to not be viewed as "wicked", but there were reports that she once referred to her as "that wicked woman" in front of Charles.[76]

In episode 2, Mohamed Al-Fayed hires Italian paparazzo Mario Brenna to take photos of his son Dodi and Diana during their trip in the south of France; however, there is no evidence that Al-Fayed was behind this and Diana's biographer Tina Brown suggests that it was Diana herself who notified Brenna.[75][76] The episode also suggests that news of Diana's relationship with Dodi broke during her trip to Bosnia and she was disturbed by the media enquiring about them, but in reality, the photos of them did not appear in the papers until a few days after the trip was over.[75]

Episode 3 features a scene during which Diana and Dodi are forced into the Repossi jewellery store in Monte Carlo while trying to escape a group of fans.[75] In reality, Dodi visited the Paris branch of Repossi quietly and purchased a ring which he kept at his apartment, rather than at the Ritz hotel where he and Diana were staying, making the scene showing his proposal fictitious.[75][76]

Episode 4 focuses on the row within the royal family about whether or not Diana should have a public funeral, which Buckingham Palace denied ever happened.[75] Another fictional plot involves Prince William going missing in Scotland for fourteen hours shortly after his mother's death.[75][76]

Episode 7 depicts Catherine Middleton and her mother Carole buying a copy of The Big Issue from Prince William and his mother Diana on the street in December 1996; Diana and William never sold any copies of the magazine together. Catherine made it clear that she never met William's mother, Diana, in her 2010 engagement interview. In real life, the two Princesses of Wales never met, making the whole scene of Diana meeting her future daughter-in-law fictional. However, it is likely William and Catherine's paths did cross at one or two school social events.[77] Another plotline involves William dating a fictional character named Lola Airdale-Cavendish-Kincaid, but William did have a real girlfriend before Catherine.[77] The episode also relates William's initial dissatisfaction with St Andrews to his supposed sense of loneliness whereas according to his biographers he was mainly unimpressed with how small and provincial the school was.[77] William does make this point himself in the episode.

Episode 8 correctly shows Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret taking part in VE Day celebrations at The Ritz, though Elizabeth herself reports it was in a party of about 16 people, and there is no record of the sisters visiting the hotel's basement bar the Pink Sink and dancing jitterbug.[77][78] The episode shows the Queen attending Margaret's 70th birthday accompanied by her childhood friend Porchey rather than Philip who actually attended, and Porchey is depicted as having been part of the group visiting The Ritz in 1945. Both Porchey and Margaret die seemingly not long after as depicted in the episode, in reality within a couple of years.[77]

Episode 9 shows Prince William and Catherine Middleton starting to date after she walks on the stage at a charity fashion show on the day the Queen Mother died. However, the show took place four days before her demise.[77] Both are also shown to spend time together as a couple during the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, but they reportedly did not start dating until 2003.[77] The episode shows Sir John Stevens, who led Operation Paget, publicly refuting Mohamed Al-Fayed's conspiracies about Diana and Dodi's deaths, but no set-piece public speech was delivered by Stevens on the matter.[77] Contrary to what the episode shows Al-Fayed also never left Britain.[77] There were also no credible polls published in the 2000s that suggested more than 50% of the public believed Diana was murdered.[77] The scenes showing William and Harry's relationship falling apart as early as 2002 were also fictional.[77]

Episode 10 features a fictional plotline in which the Queen is shown to self-debate the idea of abdication in favour of her son Charles in the days leading up to his wedding to Camilla.[77]

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Notes

  1. Interpreted as an allusion to the Queen's eventual death on 8 September 2022.[20][21][22]
  2. Attributed to multiple references:[54][55][56][57][58][59]
  3. The nominees are Staunton, Debicki, West, Manville, Daw, Abdalla, Pryce, Blunt, Carvel, Ford, Harrison, McVey, Murray, Warren, and Williams.

References

External links

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