There is growing disquiet in the UK government over the depiction of facts in the current Season 4 of The Crown, Netflix‘s sensational show on Queen Elizabeth’s life and times and her extended British Royal Family. The Crown creator Peter Morgan has been accused of over dramatizing factual occurrences, giving a different colour to most events, especially those concerning Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s largely unhappy marriage. The rising discomfort has prompted Britain’s Culture Secretary to state in no uncertain terms that The Crown should be accompanied with a ‘health warning’ or disclaimer, making it clear that the show is fiction.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said in a statement to The Mail, “I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact.”
“It’s a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that,” He added.
Mr Dowden plans to write to Netflix this week, stating the aforementioned, and expressing his concerns regarding the heightened drama added to everyday events of the Royal household.
Though Netflix hasn’t released any statement regarding concerns about the depiction of the Royal family members in The Crown, creator Peter Morgan has said his show is “an act of creative imagination”. The Crown Season 4 is centred on the period from the mid 1970s to the 1980s, tracing the delicate relationship between then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth. More significantly, this season of the show has caused a flutter with its chronicling of the breakdown of the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Even late Lady Diana’s brother Charles Spencer has voiced concerns regarding the show and its alleged distortion of events. In a statement to a media publication, he said, “It is very hard, there is a lot of conjecture and a lot of invention, isn’t there? You can hang it on fact but the bits in between are not fact.”
The Crown Season 4 has attracted even more attention owing to Emma Corrin’s uncanny likeness to and portrayal of Princess Diana. Viewers are hooked to the goings-on on screen. Close to 29 million people have watched The Crown S4 since its premiere on November 15.
Stay tuned to Binged.com for further news on Netflix’s The Crown.