VIEWERS of the eagerly-awaited new series of royal drama The Crown can get ready for a shocking mix of sex, suicide and spies.
The third season of the Netflix show arrives on November 17. As it moves into the late Sixties and Seventies, the Windsors are rocked by the speed of change in society.
The end of traditional values brings a split in the Queen’s family, particularly the growing rift between her and Prince Charles – who is falling for a girl called Camilla.
Makers have had a field day mixing historical fact with fiction. Here, Rod McPhee looks at the ten most controversial moments of the series.
1. Love quadrangle
A RACY Princess Anne (Erin Doherty) is seen cavorting in sexy underwear with muscly soldier Andrew Parker Bowles, played by Broadchurch star Andrew Buchan.
He is still in a torrid relationship with future wife Camilla (Emerald Fennell) and the princess is just one of a string of women he has cheated with.
To make Andrew jealous, Camilla goes through the regal ranks and in 1970 starts sleeping with the heir to the throne, played by Josh O’Connor.
But while poor Charles falls for Camilla, she is still getting between the sheets with hunky Andrew.
Embarrassingly for the real royals, including Anne, pictured, this tale is true.
2. Queen’s cruelty
HER Majesty is seen cruelly telling Charles no one wants to hear his voice as she gives him a ferocious telling off in 1969.
She has just found out that during his investiture as Prince of Wales, he gave a speech in Welsh. It is claimed he used thinly veiled references to criticise his family relationships.
The language used in the actual speech is open to interpretation but there is nothing concrete to suggest he was targeting his relatives.
Historians also agree that although Charles and his mother never had a cuddly relationship, she would never be cruel to him and that he was intimidated and respectful of her.
3. Mountbatten coup
THE Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle Louis Mountbatten, portrayed on screen by Charles Dance leads a coup to overthrow the Government in 1968.
He is among a collection of establishment figures who fear the country is being run into the ground by a Labour Party led by Harold Wilson (Jason Watkins). He is only talked out of the takeover when an enraged Queen gets wind of the plot.
It was believed Mountbatten was approached to lead a real coup bid but said it would have been “treachery”.
A book about the lord later claimed he laid plans to seize power and had been persuaded to cut his ties with the plotters by Her Majesty.
4. Margaret’s overdose
HIGHLY charged scenes in 1974 show a desperate Princess Margaret, played by Helena Bonham Carter, take an overdose of sedatives.
It follows a vicious bust-up with her husband Lord Snowdon (Ben Daniels). Her toyboy lover Roddy Llewellyn, played by Harry Treadaway, then leaves her in the depths of despair.
This is based on similar events when Llewellyn is said to have left the princess alone and she took an overdose of Mogadon sleeping tablets.
It was brushed off by Margaret, who later claimed: “I was so exhausted because of everything that all I wanted to do was sleep.”
5. Profumo and a spy
PRINCE Philip is seen blackmailed in 1964 by the Queen’s art curator Sir Anthony Blunt, who has just been uncovered as a Russian spy.
He tells the prince (Tobias Menzies) that he may release sketches of the royal which he alleges were made by Stephen Ward, who was at the centre of the 1963 Profumo affair that also involved Christine Keeler.
Blunt’s spy status was covered up and he was allowed to continue as an art historian until 1979 when Margaret Thatcher made it public. He was stripped of his knighthood in minutes and “very seriously” considered suicide. The traitor did remain the Queen’s art curator until 1972, probably to contain the scandal.
6. Wilson has Alzheimer’s
THE Crown shows Harold Wilson resigning as PM in 1976 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
There is no firm evidence this was the case and the Labour leader always maintained he stepped down because he was exhausted after being premier. There is also no way of knowing whether he told the Queen of his condition, as their meetings were highly confidential.
The drama suggests Her Majesty dined with him at Downing Street – an honour she only bestowed on one other PM, Churchill – because she was moved by his confession.
In real life it was more likely a reflection of her genuine affection for him.
7. Princess and President
MARGARET is seen in 1965 saving Britain from financial ruin by getting a £1billion loan from US President Lyndon B Johnson.
After being sent to the White House, Margaret ignores the Queen’s plea to behave. Instead, she plays drinking games and tells dirty limericks with the President.
In fact, Princess Margaret and her husband did visit Johnson at a soiree in 1965. But there is little evidence of her enchanting the President.
As for the loan, Wilson did get a multi-billion pound bail-out to prevent devaluing Sterling. It came from the world’s biggest national banks, including the US.
8. Charles’ role model
THE TV drama suggests the Duke of Windsor and Charles became close in the early Seventies and the prince visited his great uncle in France.
Charles saw himself as being very similar to the duke – modern, independent, trailblazing – despite the fact he caused a constitutional crisis by abdicating as King Edward VIII in 1936.
But experts say Charles always had the shame that the duke caused the family ingrained in him from an early age, so would never have done anything so incendiary.
They point out that although Charles did visit around this time, the Queen also saw him in 1972 as he was dying of cancer.
9. Queen meddler
AFTER professing his love for Camilla and plans to marry her, Charles has his dreams shattered when the Queen Mother and Mountbatten conspire to split them up.
The Queen Mother actually helps set up the marriage of Camilla to Andrew Parker Bowles and Mountbatten gets Charles posted to the Caribbean with the Navy.
But royal experts say that Charles would never have proposed to Camilla and she certainly would not have accepted.
She was always in love with Andrew and their marriage, however rocky, was inevitable. Neither the Queen Mother or her accomplice would have needed to intervene.
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10. Her Majesty regrets
A TERRIBLE tragedy saw 116 children and 28 adults killed when a colliery spoil tip collapsed above the Welsh village of Aberfan in 1966 and engulfed a junior school.
The Prime Minister and other senior royals visited but the Queen took eight days to go to the scene of the disaster.
The Crown suggests the delay in attending is one of the biggest regrets of her reign, and royal biographers have agreed with this.
They also compare this regret with the way she was slow to reflect national feeling over the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. The parallels are obvious.
A darker look at The Firm
The Crown, Episode 1
★★★★
OLIVIA COLMAN’S version of The Queen is best summed up by the first two words we hear her utter: “Old bat”.
Her Majesty isn’t quite a battleaxe in the third series of The Crown, but after taking over the role we see her drastically toughen up.
Oscar-winner Olivia delivers a decent portrayal of a royal adapting to being an established monarch and mature mother of four. But she never quite becomes The Queen.
Both she, and the older woman she’s playing, are just too familiar to us, whereas her predecessor Claire Foy had the advantage of being a little-known actress playing a little- known young royal.
Helena Bonham Carter, on the other hand, is a joy as her sister. The casting seems so inevitable it is as if Helena was born to play Princess Margaret.
She provides the greatest flashes of light relief in a series which seems darker, more sinister and less glamorous than the first two instalments.
When The Queen asks what filthy limericks Princess Margaret told to President Johnson on her US visit, awkward PM Harold Wilson, played perfectly by Jason Watkins, has to recite the obscene lines.
The resulting scene is comedy gold.
Though there are some dazzling moments from the big figures, the real gems in this series are the portrayals of the lesser royals.
Tobias Menzies takes Prince Philip to the next level of grouchiness, while Erin Doherty as Princess Anne is a force of nature quite unlike any other Windsor.
But it’s The Durrells actor Josh O’Connor, who gives a heartbreaking performance as Prince Charles, who comes up as the surprise jewel in The Crown.
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