The first part of the season focuses precisely on Lady Di’s last days. In their first summer as a divorced couple, Prince Charles and Princess Diana share a very different vacation with their children. The Fayeds welcome Diana to the south of France, making the young princes enjoy luxury yachts, video games and movie nights. Meanwhile, Charles clings to tradition at Balmoral Castle. The press, fed by the paparazzi and part of the royal press team, begins to play with comparisons between both couples.
As life on the yacht and constant media scrutiny lose its appeal, Diana longs to return to see her children, who are at Balmoral. A trip to Paris brings her to a breaking point, against the backdrop of an increasingly aggressive media persecution.
Part two follows Prince William as he tries to integrate back into his life at Eton following the death of his mother, while the royal family faces public opinion. Arriving at her Golden Jubilee, the queen reflects on the future of the monarchy with Elizabeth Debicki’s wedding reprising her role as Princess Diana alongside Dominic West as Prince Charles. Imelda Staunton continues her reign as Elizabeth II alongside Jonathan Pryce (Prince Philip) and Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret). Also returning are Salim Daw (Mohamed Al Fayed) and Khalid Abdalla (Dodi). Among the new additions are Rufus Kampa and Flyn Edwards, who play Princes William and Harry in the first half of the season. In their teenage version they will be played by Ed McVey and Luther Ford. Joining them will be Meg Bellamy in the role of Kate Middleton. They will be the first roles of these five actors.
This sixth and final season of the series spans from 1997 to 2005, during the tenure of Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel). Among the confirmed events that will appear on screen are the death of Lady Di, the wedding between Carlos and Camilla and the beginnings of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s romance. The now King Charles III married on April 9, 2005 in a civil ceremony that took place at the Windsor Guildhall.
But what will happen with the death of Isabel II, the great protagonist of the series, who died on September 8, 2022? Andy Harries, producer of the series, said that when the queen died, filming on the final season had already begun and the scripts were written. “I think the death of Her Majesty has affected us all. And Peter Morgan in particular. This fact did not change history fundamentally, but it did in a certain sense. When you see it I think you will know what I mean,” he commented.
Peter Morgan expanded on this information in an interview with Variety magazine. “Given how deeply everyone must have felt it, I had to find a way for the final episode to address the death of her character, even though she hadn’t died in the series yet,” he explained.
What is known is that the sixth season of “The Crown” will pay tribute to Elizabeth II through new scenes filmed by Claire Foy, Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton, the actresses who have played her at different stages of her life. with the addition of Viola Prettejohn, who will play Princess Elizabeth in her adolescence.
Since production began on the final season of the series, the British media have been on the hunt for images or any leak of information that could fuel the controversy. Part of the press has accused “The Crown” of “insensitive”, “exploitative” and “sadistic” for showing images of Lady Di’s death.
The executive producers of the fiction, Andy Harries and Suzanne Mackie, have assured that they filmed the accident scene in Paris with “enormous sensitivity.” “The series may be big and loud, but not us,” they said, noting how careful they have been in capturing the tragic accident. “We are thoughtful people,” Mackie said. “The public will judge it in the end, but I think it has been recreated with sensitivity and consideration,” she said.
In an interview for Netflix, Elizabeth Debicki recounted what it was like to put herself in Lady Di’s shoes just before the fatal accident. “Recreating Diana’s last hours in Paris, harassed by paparazzi, was difficult. It’s horrendous to have so many people yelling at you and wanting something. No one should ever have to experience the feeling of trying to get from one place to another and having that swarm around you. You feel very trapped. It is a really unpleasant experience,” she noted.
