STACK #239 September 2024

MOVIE FEATURE

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The Crown , one of Netflix’s most successful shows, comes to an end in the highly anticipated final season. Words Gill Pringle

S panning six seasons across almost six decades, the award winning series began shortly before the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten in 1947, ending with the 2005 marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. Switching up the principal cast every two seasons, the first Elizabeth and Philip were portrayed by Claire Foy and Doctor Who ’s Matt Smith. Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies would take the reins for seasons three and four, finishing up with Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce. Dubbed TV’s best soap opera, many viewers were excited to see how Princess Diana would be portrayed - and they were not disappointed with Emma Corrin’s shy, youthful

audience of people. That just wasn’t being done back then, and watching those speeches, and then, of course, towards the end, we have everything she did for AIDS and for landmines. ”So, in researching season six, I learned just how little of the world’s attention was on those subjects, and she just absolutely grabbed that spotlight and shone it right on there. And she put her body on the line too, and that was just remarkable to me.” Certainly, award-winning actor Jonathan Pryce had the advantage in his portrayal of Prince Philip. ”I’ve

Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana

grown up practically all my life with the royal couple. I was six years old when the coronation happened. So, I grew up with that family, always aware of them - you’d see them on newsreels and on TV, especially at Christmas with the Queen’s broadcast,” he recalls. Pryce even met Dodi Fayed, Diana’s lover who died alongside her in a chauffeur-driven car in Paris on August 31, 1997. ”I met Dodi in 1979, when he co-financed a film I did, prior to Chariots of Fire , and he was charming, enigmatic, and sensitive,” he says of the late son of Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who had been a perpetual thorn in the royal family’s side, despite his efforts to woo them. ”And I also met Diana a few

DYK?

Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II and Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip

According to the International Dogs Registry, popularity in Pembroke Welsh

Diana, followed by Elizabeth Debicki’s haunted yet more assertive version, portraying

Corgi dogs rose by 22% after the second season of The Crown aired.

her struggles within an unhappy marriage and subsequent divorce. And whilst Australia’s Debicki has moved on to other roles, she says she

the performance.’ And the other

thing that really surprised me - and I say this just out of my own

will never forget having had the opportunity to play Princess Diana, nor everything she learned about the late princess in the process. ”The one thing that people felt very strongly to impart to me was the joy in this human; her playfulness and her humour was so, so important to them. Their fondest memories were the snatches of this cheekiness and very quick humour - sort of self-deprecating, very self-aware, very savvy,” says the actress, who played Diana through to her dying moments. ”I remember thinking, ’It’s so important that I thread this emotional intelligence through

ignorance - was the extent of her humanitarian work. I understood the basics, but I think the way that Princess Diana used her platform was so progressive at the time, just to stand up and be so brave. ”The amount of vulnerability that she must have experienced in discussing mental health issues that pertained to her, knowing that she could touch an enormous

times,” continues Pryce. ”And I have to say that in all my 51 years of experience of acting, Elizabeth’s performance as Diana is an

absolute treasure. It’s a performance that contains honesty and integrity. I cannot see it being done any better. She was absolutely wonderful.”

• The Crown: The Complete Final Season is out Sep 18

56 SEPTEMBER 2024

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