TOPLINE
Actress Judi Dench on Wednesday became the latest high-profile critic of the upcoming season of The Crown on Netflix, pushing the streaming service to clearly label the show a work of fiction, as worries grow that the series could portray the royal family—and the new king, Charles III—in a poor light after Queen Elizabeth II’s recent death.
KEY FACTS
In an open letter to Netflix published in The Times of London, Dench called out two rumored plotlines in the fifth season—“that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate” and that he “once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence”—as reasons The Crown should consider adding disclaimers at the start of each episode clarifying the show is “fictionalised drama.”
The 87-year-old dame called the plotlines “cruelly unjust,” and said she fears “a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas,” could view them as accurate.
Former U.K. Prime Minister John Major—who is reportedly portrayed in the upcoming season having a conversation with Charles, Elizabeth’s eldest son and the current king, about getting the queen to abdicate the throne in the 1990s—called the alleged plotline “a barrel-load of malicious nonsense” and denied that it happened.
A Netflix spokesperson told reporters the show is a “fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors” during a time period that “has already been scrutinised and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“The time has come for Netflix to reconsider—for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve its reputation with its British subscribers,” Dench wrote.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
The fifth season of The Crown premieres on Netflix on November 9, and will show its version of the royal family living through the 1990s.
KEY BACKGROUND
This is not the first time The Crown has faced calls to add a fiction disclaimer. In 2020, several prominent Britons asked the company to add the warning to its episodes, including U.K. culture secretary Oliver Dowden and Princess Diana’s brother, Charles. Helena Bonham Carter, who played Princess Margaret in the series, said the show has a “moral responsibility” to state that it’s a work of fiction, not fact. In response, Netflix said it has “no plans, and see no need, to add a disclaimer,” as it has always presented The Crown as a drama, and “we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events.” When the fourth season aired two years ago, it depicted the affair between King Charles III and Queen Camilla Parker-Bowles. Some viewers took to the royal’s official Instagram in response and posted comments about Princess Diana on photos of Parker-Bowles, who is now queen, causing Charles’ office to temporarily restrict the ability to leave comments on its Twitter account.
TANGENT
Deadline reported Monday that Netflix delayed its docuseries about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle until 2023, as executives worried about releasing two controversial projects about the royal family so close together, and so close to the queen’s death.
By Marisa Dellatto, Forbes Staff