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The famous Netflix series “The Crown,” which chronicles Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, concludes on Thursday, focusing on a subject that is still immensely sensitive to the British royalty – Princess Diana’s death.
The sixth and final season of Peter Morgan’s award-winning but frequently panned show is being released in two parts.
The first five episodes will air on Thursday, followed by the last five on December 14, bringing the 60-hour tale that began in 2016 to a close.
The drama follows the late Queen Elizabeth II from her 1947 marriage to Prince Philip to the introduction of Kate Middleton, the present Princess of Wales, in the early 2000s.
This season recounts Princess Diana’s final weeks after her painful divorce from the now-King Charles III, leading up to her untimely death on August 31, 1997.
The BMW carrying Diana and her lover Dodi Al-Fayed was pursued by paparazzi and crashed at high speed into a pillar in Paris’ Alma tunnel, killing her, Fayed, and driver Henri Paul.
After being chastised for their reaction to Diana’s death, which Tony Blair famously termed “the people’s princess,” the royal family took years to heal.
“It’s a very sensitive subject because it was such a significant event in the life of the monarchy and the royal family, and because people related to Diana are still very much alive, most notably her now-adult sons William and Harry,” royal historian Ed Owens told AFP.
“It’s the seminal moment that the series has been building up to since series one. The question remains whether Peter Morgan is a friend or an enemy of the monarchy.
“This series will give us a fuller understanding of whether he thinks it is an institution that has made big mistakes and which needs to modernise. Or whether it’s an institution that has managed to modernise successfully since 1997.”
The last season, in particular, recreates Queen Elizabeth’s rare live televised statement from Buckingham Palace on September 5, 1997, in which she paid respect to Diana and addressed the widespread national sadness.
Imelda Staunton, who has played the monarch in the previous two seasons after Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, stated that she feels “a massive responsibility” for this sequence.
“It was an incredibly powerful address to the nation which many people remember,” the actress said.
“The significance of that was not taken lightly by anyone involved, and I spent a lot of time listening to recordings of the real speech, as I needed to be as accurate as I could be with the extremely sensitive subject matter.”
Diana, a media character and celebrity friend, rose to global prominence by demonstrating empathy for the less poor.
She is still held in high regard outside of the UK, casting a pall over the image of Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, who has battled to shake her reputation as a marital wrecker.
Those close to royalty are nervously anticipating the season — the family has never spoken on the series — and early discoveries about Lady Di’s portrayal as a ghost have already generated allegations of disrespect.
This isn’t the first time “The Crown” has been chastised, particularly given its attraction to Netflix’s younger audience, many of whom are learning about historical events for the first time.
It has been accused throughout the seasons of implying infidelity by the queen and Prince Philip, presenting the current monarch as an unfaithful spouse, and even implying Charles’ wish for his mother’s abdication in the 1990s.
Netflix added a notice last year to indicate that the show was a work of fiction.
In an interview with The New York Times, Annie Sulzberger, who oversaw the documentary research for the series, understood the sensitivity surrounding Diana.
“People who lived through Diana’s death feel a sense of ownership over that history, a sense of participation, which can colour their perception of it,” she said.
“With recent history, you’re constantly battling with people’s intimate and personal perspectives.”
