The Crown

 

Yesterday, 11/11, was Veteran’s Day, but I’ve already blogged about World War I, the global conflict which ended on that day in 1918.  And recently I watched Matthew McConaughey’s relatively recent film, “The Beach Bum”, though I’m pairing that up with the “The Big Lebowski” spinoff film, “The Jesus Rolls”, on its way from Netflix.  As it is, I recently finished watching season 4 of The Crown, the Netflix series about Queen Elizabeth II.  So I’ll comment about that.

The United Kingdom (UK = “Great Britain (England, Wales & Scotland) + Northern Ireland”) is a constitutional monarchy.  Nominally it has a King or Queen, plus various princes and princesses, but “supreme executive authority” does indeed derive from a “mandate from the masses”, so the real chief executive of the country is the Prime Minister, who is the head of whichever political party holds a majority in the House of Commons.  Right now that’s Boris Johnson, with the comically bad haircut – though it still beats Marc Davis, the owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. 

Anyhow.  The current royal family dates back to George I (1714-1727), the first king of the House of Hanover.  He is followed by George II (1727-1760), George III (1760-1820) (king during the American Revolution), George IV (1820-1830) (portrayed by Hugh Laurie in “The Black Adder”), William IV (1830-1837), Queen Victoria (1837-1901) (played by Jenna Coleman in the three season PBS series), Edward VII (1901-1910), George V (1910-1936), Edward VIII (1936-1936) (abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson (no, no relation to Homer), lived in the Bois de Boulogne outside Paris), George VI (1936-52), and now Queen Elizabeth II (1952-present).   Note that Edward VIII did not have any children with Wallis.

George VI was Edward VIII’s younger brother.  As such, he would have been expecting Edward VIII to take over as king from their father, George V, when he died, and Edward VIII’s children to inherit the throne after that.  E8’s abdication took G6 by surprise, he had no expectation or preparation for it.  He’s famously portrayed by Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”.  In this series he’s played by Richard “Camelot” Harris’ son Jared, who these days is in “Foundation” (on Apple TV+).   Speaking of "The King's Speech", two actors from "The Crown" appear in that film, in different roles:  Helena Bonham Carter plays Queen Elizabeth herself, and Derek Jacobi plays the Archbishop of York.

The Crown starts off with G6 as King and Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret as young girls.  They were old enough to experience World War II, and Elizabeth had to have a fairly quick training program to prepare her to be queen, as G6 smoked heavily and was in poor health, not expected to have the kind of long reign Queen Victoria had – and which E2 has now surpassed.  Claire Foy plays Elizabeth first as princess then as queen for the first two seasons, Matt Smith (of Dr. Who) plays Prince Philip in the first two seasons. 

Who’s who?

Well, first is Princess/Queen Elizabeth (S1/2: Claire Foy; S3/4 Olivia Colman).  Easily the star of the show.  She is conscientious about being a good Queen and knows her proper position relative to whoever happens to be Prime Minister at the time.  She also has to manage her younger sister Margaret, somewhat of a loose cannon, her relationship with Prince Philip, and later her sons Charles, Andrew and Edward, and daughter Anne.  Periodically the Prime Minister – mostly Harold Wilson – comes to ask her for advice.  Later, the PM is none other than Margaret Thatcher, so she finally has a female PM to face off against.  Thatcher is played by “X Files” veteran Gillian Anderson. 

Prince Philip (S1/2 Matt Smith; S3/4 Tobias Menzies) is the Queen’s Consort.  He’s her husband but somehow isn’t King despite being the husband of a Queen (apparently he was asked about this countless times).  I found the Matt Smith version to be kind of a cheating asshole and the later Tobias Menzies variant to be better at not playing the field and toning down the arrogance.  Since I knew Prince Philip only recently died, whatever else happened on the show, he would not be having any fatal accidents.

PP’s ancestry is half Greek, half German.  To makes matters more bizarre, his sister was a Nazi, and he grew up as a boy during the 1930s (S2/E9 Paterfamilias).  When she died in a plane crash, he had to attend her funeral in Nazi era Darmstadt, with all the pomp and arrogance the ever-evil Nazis could muster.  However, unlike his uncle-in-law Edward VIII, young Prince Philip did not fall under the spell of the Nazis and remained fairly normal.

Princess Margaret (S1/2 Vanessa Kirby; S3/4 Helena Bonham Carter).  Not in line to be Queen under any circumstances, that should have freed her up to do as she pleased, but if there is ONE lesson “The Crown” wants us to understand, it’s that the Royals have all sorts of seemingly arbitrary restrictions on what they can and cannot do, yet not being in actual control of the country don’t seem to enjoy nearly as many benefits as you would imagine.  In practice this worked out to vetoing her relationship with Peter Townsend – confusingly, NOT the guitarist for The Who – a dashing but married RAF officer.  She had to settle for a cynical and bisexual photographer, Lord Snowden (Ben Daniels), a relationship which crashed and burned in the 1970s.  In the first two seasons she’s played by the relatively babacious Vanessa Kirby, and in season 3 abruptly morphs into Helena Bonham Carter, an actress who bears zero resemblance to Kirby and is already well known in her own right.

Prince Charles (S3&4 Josh O’Connor).  Up until season 3, he’s just a boy.  There’s an episode where his schooling is at issue, Prince Philip wanting to send him up to a gloomy school in the Scottish highlands, Gordonstoun (S2/E9 Paterfamilias), where he himself went to school as boy during the 1930s, kind of a boot camp atmosphere so dreary and depressing that Prince Charles, as a father, made certain that his own boys William and Harry did not have to suffer the same fate.  By season 3 he’s more grown up, and learns Welsh to take his investiture in Wales, a part of Great Britain eager for some form of independence – at this point played by Josh O’Connor (S3/E6 Tywysog Cymru).

The biggest issue with Charles is his difficult relationship with Lady Diana (Emma Corrin) and Camilla Shand, later Parker-Bowles (Emerald Fennell).  Here’s where some critics take issue with the narrative presented by the show, claiming it pushes too much blame for the Charles-Diana issues on Charles and overstates his ongoing relationship with CPB.  What no one seems to deny is that Charles had some prior romantic relationship with CPB and she was his clear favorite – had he had his way, he would have married her and not Diana.  Moreover, the show acknowledges that Diana herself had a slew of lovers, and on the Australian tour could be extremely difficult herself – e.g. insisting they bring William, still a baby, along on the trip with them.  Regardless of how much effort each put into making the marriage work, it seems it was doomed from the start.

In fact, what with conspiracy theorist abundant everywhere about almost anything, there are a few convenient accidents which somehow didn’t occur.  Margaret couldn’t marry Townsend because his ex-wife was still alive.  Wouldn’t it have been convenient if that woman had an unfortunate accident?  Likewise, CPB remained a distraction, even after marrying Andrew Parker-Bowles – who himself was a part-time lover to Princess Anne (!!!).  If there was ever a woman with an obvious target on her back, it was Camilla.  As it is, she’s married to Charles today.  This is why conspiracy theories about the Royals being behind Diana's death in Paris in 1997 - after Charles and Diana had already divorced - are so implausible (as most conspiracy theories, by their nature, are).      

Princess Anne.  Of E2’s four children, the only girl.  She seems very much like her aunt Margaret, and of the four, the least spoiled and most realistic – at least as portrayed in the series by Erin Doherty.

Lord Mountbatten.  One of the more interesting characters in Season 3 was Lord Mountbatten, played by none other than Game of Thrones archvillain Charles “Tywin Lannister” Dance.  Were it not for the fact that Tywin Lannister was fully fleshed out in five novels before HBO began the series, I might suspect that Tywin Lannister, as portrayed by Dance, derives from Mountbatten.  Of course the reverse timing also throws this completely out of plausibility.   More likely is that Dance simply channeled the same arrogance and depth he brought to the Lannister role, to his portrayal of Lord Mountbatten.  Mountbatten is the brother of Princess Alice, the mother of Prince Philip, i.e. Prince Philip’s uncle. 

Edward VIII (S2 Alex Jennings, S3 Derek Jacobi).   The controversial 10 month king.  My father told me a lot about him, though I’m not sure why.  Maybe it was because he (E8, not my father), and Wallis Simpson lived in the Bois de Boulogne, which was close by to the US Embassy compound in Neuilly where we were living – though we arrived there in 1979, seven years after E8 died.  My own inclination would have been to cast Tim Curry as E8.    

By the way.  As noted, E8 did not have children.  So far as I understand, this means that if he had not abdicated in 1936 and remained king, but died as he did in 1972, Queen Elizabeth would still become queen, just in 1972 rather than 1952 – twenty years later.  Well then – that’s a topic for another alternate history novel….

Prime Ministers.  As Season 4 ends, Margaret Thatcher has thoroughly alienated everyone in Parliament and the general public as to lose her position as Prime Minister.  Again, critics claim the show overstates her unpopularity, but no one can deny that, regardless of the circumstances, Thatcher did leave office in 1990. 

At the time of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1952 the Prime Minister was Winston Churchill, the famous wartime leader, played in the show by John Lithgow.  His successor was Anthony Eden (Conservative) (1955-57) (played by Jeremy Northam), Harold MacMillan (Conservative) (1957-63) (played by Anton Lessser), Harold Wilson (Labour) (1964-1970) (played by Jason Watkins), Edward Heath (Conservative) (1970-74) (played by Michael Maloney). Harold Wilson (Labour) (1974-1976), James Callaghan (Labour) (1976-1979), and then Thatcher in 1979.  As noted last week, this system of government often results in prime ministers serving multiple nonconsecutive terms as the parties’ relative fortunes at the polls and scandals push them in and out.  In our own country, Grover Cleveland (1884-88 and 1892-96) enjoys the distinction of being the only president serving multiple nonconsecutive terms.  We’ll see if Trump runs again in 2024.  Down here in Virginia, Terry MacAuliffe failed to win re-election – Virginia allows governors to serve unlimited nonconsecutive terms.  I’ve yet to see a pair of candidates rotate in and out to take advantage of that.    

The Queen took a policy of not publicly praising or criticizing the Prime Minister.  As a practical matter, the show seems to indicate that her personal favorites were Churchill and Harold Wilson.  It seems to show her as neutral towards Thatcher, with critics noting that the relationship was a bit warmer than portrayed.  Or it may be that Thatcher’s portrayal by Anderson was a bit harsh – similar to complaints about Prince Charles.  Perhaps so, but in neither case do the unfair portrayals work to improve the Queen’s image. 

The US.  Normally, the responsibility for dealing with foreign countries rests with the Prime Minister.  One exception is “The Commonwealth”, the loose aggregate of the UK’s closely associated countries, mainly Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and numerous other former colonies which are now independent, sovereign countries.  Of these, the United States is NOT part of the Commonwealth.  We had a brief war in 1812-1815, the UK remained neutral during our own Civil War (1861-65), alternate history novels to the contrary notwithstanding, and we were on the same side in WWI (1914-18) and WWII (1939-45).  My own subjective inclinations are to be highly favorable to all the English speaking countries, especially our buddies to the north, Canada, the UK & Ireland, and Australia/New Zealand.  But hey – your mileage may vary. 

However, when it came time to sending troops to Vietnam in 1965, the Labour government under Harold Wilson was NOT cooperative in approving of our adventure, much to the anger and resentment of US President Lyndon Johnson, my mom’s former boss.  SO when the UK needed a bailout, LBJ (played by Clancy Brown) was very unsympathetic.  It was left to Princess Margaret (S3/E2 Margaretology) to do what Harold Wilson and his Minions could not:  charm LBJ into loosening the purse strings and help out our buddies across the Atlantic – via exchanging naughty limericks with LBJ, a somewhat earthy endeavor well out of the Queen’s comfort zone.  FYI, only Australia sent troops to Vietnam to help us out. 

Game of Thrones.  I’ve noticed a few Game of Thrones actors in here.  There’s a brief episode where the Queen, who loves horses, visits Kentucky to research the state of the art in horsebreeding and equine technology (S3/E4 Coup), and one of the characters is played by Julian Glover, aka Maester Pycelle.  I’ve mentioned Charles Dance already, as Lord Mountbatten.  And Prince Philip, in seasons 3 and 4, is played by Tobias Menzies, better known to GOT fans as Edmure Tully. 

Overall the show does a remarkable job of portraying not only Queen Elizabeth II herself, as she grows into the role of Queen and all the issues it involves, but also the royal family.  As noted in my prior blog, for all their wealth and prestige, living in castles and not having to hold down real jobs – apparently the royalty is actually supported with taxes levied on ordinary UK taxpayers – the royalty often have to deal with a whole range of serious restrictions on their freedom which these same ordinary UK taxpayers don’t have to worry about.  Prince Charles and Princess Margaret were both bludgeoned into unhappy marriages, and even the Queen had to work at her own relationship with Prince Philip.  On the other hand, with the PM exercising real control over the country, the actual power wielded by the Queen and her family is highly attenuated – to the point where their lives are rarely in any actual danger.  Lord Mountbatten’s death by an IRA bomb on his boat seems to be the exception which proves the rule.  Even the disgruntled, unemployed man, Fagan, who broke into Buckingham Palace not once, but TWICE, only wanted to talk to the Queen, as he was well aware that she was not directly responsible for his misfortune; his local MP was Conservative and highly unsympathetic to his plight. 

Update 5/18/23:

Season 5.   The narrative continues from 1991-1997.  Cast changes aplenty:  Imelda "Dolores Umbridge" Staunton as QE2, Jonathan "High Sparrow" (Game of Thrones) Pryce as Prince Philip, Dominic West (McNulty on "The Wire") takes over as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Lady Diana, and Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker-Bowles.  In addition we get Johnny Lee Miller (from "Trainspotting" and more recently playing Sherlock Holmes with Lucy Liu) as John Major, the PM who replaced Margaret Thatcher, and both Mohamed (father) and Dodi (son) Fayed entering the picture for Diana.  

Here the narrative focuses on the drama between Charles and Diana, especially when Diana goes public with all her bitching about the royal family.   West does a good job of making Charles more likable than he was in prior seasons.  However, the narrative stops short of Diana's fatal crash in Paris, so I imagine that will come up in Season 6.    

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