Why should you watch The Crown?
The Crown Season 3 (2020) The poster art copyright belongs to the distributor of the programme, Netflix, the publisher, Netflix, or the graphic artist.
The Crown is one of Netflix’s most talked about shows, it follows the lives of the British royal family. You might be thinking you have to be a fan of the monarchy to enjoy The Crown, but I’m here to tell you it’s about so much more than the petty dramas of The Queen and family.
Starting in 1947, with Phillip and Elizabeth’s marriage and eventually finishing in present day, you see a broad range of British history.
I think the beauty of The Crown is although you see the glamour and the high society lifestyle, you also see the real issues and realise that money and power doesn’t make the family happy. But you also see they face the same issues as us, who hasn’t had someone overshadow you? Awkward conversations with parents? Relationship issues or having to deal with a partner’s difficult ex (Camilla Parker-Bowles here’s looking at you for the award for worst ex ever!) The Crown shows us the royal family and those surrounding it, are (almost) ordinary humans (yet hideously rich monsters at the same time) and I think that’s why people love it.
I love the way the series presents the issue of the day, and how The Crown dealt with it. Yes Charles might be fighting with Diana but at the same time we are seeing the Falklands war was going on, highlighting how the family were a distraction for the masses and that most of their drama was so insignificant to what was actually going on in the world.
Episodes I love for interesting history content are:
Aberfan (Series 3, Episode 3)
This episode shows The Crowns response to The Aberfan disaster, it’s probably one of my favourite Crown episodes. The Aberfan disaster happened in 1966, when a coal tip full of coal slurry slipped down the hillside leading to the death of 144 people, 116 of these were children. The local primary school was one of the main places crushed by coal slurry which led to many of the deaths. In this episode it shows the Queen waiting to go and visit the village, despite the media frenzy on the village and the fact her brother in law Tony Armstrong-Jones rushes straight to the site to offer his help. The Queen also sends Prince Phillip to pay respects, but people want to see her there.
This episode was so harrowing. Although I’ve heard of Aberfan I didn’t know the true extent of the disaster and it really hit me when watching this episode, just how horrific it was. It was also interesting to see the Queens perspective on it, she was nervous to pay her respects as she didn’t want to overshadow the disaster, and with someone with 4 children she also probably felt distressed by this disaster considering mainly children died. I loved learning about the history and the acting of Olivia Coleman was brilliant in this episode too. Well worth a watch.
Dear Mrs Kennedy (Series 2, Episode 8)
This episode was enlightening for me. I know very little about American history and all I know about the Kennedy’s is that JFK was assassinated. So, I enjoyed this lesson in American history. I loved seeing the dynamic between the Queen and Jackie Kennedy. This episode was brilliant, it contrasted the Queen who feared she was ageing and boring with the young and popular First Lady. I loved this contrast; The Queen was so insecure even getting paranoid when Philip was flirting with her (which let’s be honest at this point in the Crown he flirted with everyone!) and almost longed to be more like Jackie who was the life and soul of the party. But yet Jackie almost wanted to be more like The Queen, after reports of Jackie calling the Queen boring, she has a private meeting with her. Jackie tells the Queen about The Kennedys health issues which they took lots of pills and injections to pick themselves up and deal with public life. In a way you feel as if Jackie would rather be the Queen and not want to rely on the drugs to get her through life in the public eye, despite her ‘boringness’ The Queen seems to deal with public life exceptionally. I also enjoyed the touching moment when The Queen reaches out to Jackie after her Husband's assassination despite the rockiness of their meetings. It was a lovely touch to the episode.
Tywysog Cymru (Series 3, Episode 6)
This episode follows Prince Charles’ term studying in Wales. The Crown wants to make the Welsh like the royal family more so they ship off the future Prince of Wales to make sure he is accepted. I mean firstly you feel so sorry for Charles, everyone HATES him in Wales and he was having such a good time at Cambridge but in the end, you realise the stroke of genius of The Crown to send him there. The part I loved about this episode was the relationship between Charles and his professor Edward Millward, an anti-royalist who teaches him Welsh. The way they end up liking each other is heart-warming, and the shock of Edward's wife when the future Prince of Wales comes for tea is brilliant. Despite Edward himself not even wanting to like Charles, it all turns out well. Charles becomes Prince of Wales and reads his speech in Welsh, but he gets Edward to change it so he can speak directly to the Welsh without his mother knowing. It’s evident she does know, but this little act of defiance shows Charles devotion to his subjects that he’d be willing to annoy the actual Queen to say something meaningful. I found this episode really interesting and did a lot of background research after watching it as I found out about different things that I never knew about. A really great episode and Josh O’Connor who plays Charles is amazing as Charles in this series.
So, if you want to learn some more British history of the more recent kind, then watch The Crown. As well as being an exciting dramatization of the royal family’s lives, there is so much more to get your teeth stuck in too.
What’s your favourite Crown episode?
By Rosie Maggs | History with Rosie
@historywithrosie | www.historywithrosie.blogspot.com
Thanks for reading
All image credit: NETFLIX