New Delhi
Peter Morgan, the creator of Netflix's royal drama 'The Crown', and stars Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West, have responded to the claims that the show is "unkind" to the royal family. The forthcoming fifth season of the show will explore the decade of 1990s, which were some of the most contentious years of late Queen Elizabeth II's monarchy, including the divorce between Prince (now King) Charles and Princess Diana, and the latter's death. UK conservative publication The Daily Telegraph ran an article titled 'The Crownâs decision to show âall-outâ war between Charles and Diana raises concerns at Palace' recently in which a friend of the King said the series is "exploitative".
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Morgan was speaking with Variety when he responded to these allegations. He said, "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. But that doesnât mean that, with the benefit of hindsight, history will be unkind to him, or the monarchy. The show certainly isnât. I have enormous sympathy for a man in his position â indeed, a family in their position. People are more understanding and compassionate than we expect sometimes.â
Debicki, who takes over the role of Diana from Emma Corrin, chimed in, "Peter and the entire crew of this job do their utmost to really handle everything with such sensitivity and truth and complexity, as do actors.mThe amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewerâs perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice, is just immense. From that very first meeting [with] Peter, I knew that Iâd entered into this space where this was taken seriously [in] a deeply caring way.â
West, who similarly replaces Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles, added, "Itâs a hell of a season, because it deals with Dianaâs death and appalling scenes, like having to break that news to your sons. Iâve got two boys of that age and so itâs a heavy, heavy responsibility to get it right and something I think we all take pretty seriously.â
'The Crown', a lavish production with stratospheric production values, has won acclaim for its set design, scripts, performances, and so on. While it centres around the life and monarchy of the Queen, it also explores the life of the Windsors in general, their struggles in modern world, the increasing irrelevance of monarchy, and so on.
Queen Elizabeth II died on the evening of September 8 at Balmoral Castle. Earlier that day, the doctors had expressed concerns over her health and were keeping her under medical supervision. Her reign lasted for 70 years. She passed away as the longest-serving monarch in Britain's history.