As Netflix prepares to launch its fifth season of big-budget royal drama The Crown, it has dismissed criticism of the latest season after former prime minister Sir John Major described it as “nonsense of nonsense”.
Major’s comments came after concerns were raised that a hit show story could damage King Charles’ reputation.
The scathing attack from the former Tory prime minister came after reports suggested the show’s fifth series will depict Charles, when he was the Prince of Wales, plotting to overthrow the Queen.
It will reportedly include imagined conversations in which he pressures Major in an effort to force his mother’s abdication. It will be released on November 9, nine weeks after the Queen’s death.
The fourth series of the hit series was also criticized for factual inaccuracy. This prompted Oliver Dowden, the then culture secretary, to call for a “health warning” to be played before the show to make it clear that it is fictional, but Netflix refused.
On Sunday, the US streaming company hit back at the latest criticism, saying the show has “always been presented as a drama based on historical events”.
“Series five is a fictional dramatization, imagining what might have happened behind closed doors during a momentous decade for the royal family, one that has already been scrutinized and well documented by journalists, biographers and historians,” a spokesman said. .
There was further criticism from broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby and royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith.
Dimbleby said The Crown “is full of nonsense, but this is nonsense on stilts”, while Smith said the show was “doing significant damage to people’s perception of history and their perception of the royal family”.
“It has been full of malicious lies from the beginning, but this level of abuse is now beyond the pale,” he told the Mail on Sunday.
The upcoming series will cover some of the worst years for the British monarchy, including Queen Elizabeth’s “annus horribilis” in 1992, when three of her four children were separated from their partners and a major fire broke out at the castle of Windsor. It is said to include Princess Diana’s Panorama interview with Martin Bashir following the breakdown of her marriage.
One episode reportedly depicts Charles, then Prince of Wales, summoning Major, who was prime minister from 1990 to 1997, to a secret meeting at Highgrove. Charles, played by Dominic West, hints that he wants to replace his mother by bringing up the ousting of Margaret Thatcher by the Tory party a year earlier.
“What makes the conservative party successful? His instinct for renewal and his willingness to make way for someone younger. For almost 60 years, my great-grandfather Edward VII was kept waiting in the wings. He longed to be given responsibilities, but his mother refused. And yet when his time came, he proved the doubters wrong and his reign was a triumph,” Charles tells Major, who is played by Trainspotting star Jonny Lee Miller, according to the Sunday Times.
It also includes scenes where Major speaks of the royal family in derogatory terms.
Major, 79, hit back at the claims on Saturday with a spokesperson saying he has “not cooperated in any way with The Crown. Nor have they ever been approached to check any script material for this or any other series “.
“There was never any discussion between Sir John and the then Prince of Wales about a possible abdication of the late Queen Elizabeth II, nor did the then Prince of Wales (or Sir John) raise such an issue improbable and inappropriate. Neither Sir John nor Dame Norma have spoken of the monarchy remotely in these terms,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman also condemned the program for depicting an imaginary dialogue between the Major and the Queen, saying: “As you will know, discussions between the monarch and the prime minister are entirely private and, for Sir John, will always remain so… They are fiction, pure and simple.”
They said the scenes “must be seen as something other than harmful and malicious fiction. A load of nonsense put in for no other reason than to provide maximum – and completely false – dramatic impact.”
The Crown, created and written by Peter Morgan, has been a hit for Netflix since it first premiered in 2016. But royal courtiers are reportedly nervous about how Charles will be portrayed so soon after the his access to the throne.