LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� When after a two-year absence, the splintering marriage of Charles and Diana and more woes for Queen Elizabeth II are in the drama鈥檚 elegant but intrusive spotlight.
There鈥檚 swirling off-stage drama as well for the Netflix series that began with Elizabeth鈥檚 marriage in the late 1940s and, in takes on the British royal family鈥檚 turbulent 1990s. The queen famously labeled one stretch her 鈥渁nnus horribilis鈥� 鈥� Latin for 鈥渉orrible year.鈥�
The safe distance of history is gone in the 10 new episodes set within recent memory for many and whose stories, sight unseen, have been denounced. in September adds an uneasy dimension: We speculate freely about the famous before and after they're gone, but is more owed a ?
Among the prominent critics is Judi Dench, an Oscar-winner for her role as Elizabeth I in 鈥淪hakespeare in Love.鈥� In a , the actor blasted elements of the drama as 鈥渃ruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.鈥�
She called for each episode to carry a disclaimer labeling it as fiction. It's a demand that Netflix has heard before and , framing the series as drama inspired by historical events. Series creator Peter Morgan was unavailable for comment, Netflix said.
Dench is not amused by the streaming service's intransigence.
鈥淭he time has come for Netflix to reconsider 鈥� for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years,鈥� she wrote.
Her plea followed a rebuke of the series from former Prime Minister John Major, shown in the new season being lobbied by Prince Charles 鈥� 鈥� to help maneuver the queen鈥檚 abdication. A spokesman for Major labeled the scene as false and malicious.
Cast members including Jonathan Pryce, who plays Elizabeth鈥檚 stalwart husband beg to differ with the series' detractors.
鈥淭he queen is in no danger from 鈥楾he Crown,鈥欌�� Pryce told The Associated Press. He said critics are lambasting the new season despite ignorance of it, reminding him of what the British once termed 鈥渢he Mary Whitehouse effect.鈥�
Whitehouse had 鈥渁 huge following and she criticized programs she鈥檇 never seen,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think a lot of the protests this time, people haven鈥檛 seen this series. They don鈥檛 know how these issues are treated. I have to say they鈥檙e treated with a great deal of integrity and a great deal of sensitivity.鈥�
Imelda Staunton, stepping in as the latest actor to play Elizabeth, defended the series, its award-winning creator and its viewers.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 underestimating the audience,鈥� Staunton told AP. 鈥漈here have been four seasons where people know it鈥檚 been written by Peter Morgan and his team of writers.鈥�
Morgan, writer of the movie 鈥淭he Queen鈥� and play 鈥淭he Audience,鈥� both starring the Oscar- and Tony-winning Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II, has made royals a specialty. The recent criticism may suggest his winter of discontent is ahead, but Morgan has it easier than another writer who feasted on the British monarchs as material: William Shakespeare, who dramatized the reigns of seven kings.
All were in the past, with Shakespeare treading lightly around the rulers of his time, Elizabeth I and James I.
鈥淲e all imagine it being sort of sweetness and light, and we've all seen 鈥楽hakespeare in Love鈥� and everyone's sitting around drinking. Actually, it was like Stalinist Russia in many ways," Shakespearean expert Andrew Dickson said of the rigidly controlled society in which the bard worked circa 1585 to 1613.
Plays were approved by the master of the revels, a sort of civil servant with the power of censorship, said Dickson, author of 鈥淲orlds Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe鈥� and 鈥淭he Globe Guide to Shakespeare.鈥� Authors could and were imprisoned, or worse, for transgressions, he said.
鈥淗is very few representations of royals recent to his time were pretty flattering, and and early audiences even called them patriotic,鈥� said Harvard teacher-scholar Jeffrey R. Wilson, author of 鈥淪hakespeare and Trump鈥� and 鈥淩ichard III鈥檚 Bodies." Theater in general was viewed as illusory and deceptive, he said.
鈥淗e told this politicized version that was flattering to the powers that were in his time,鈥� Wilson said. It became the "dominant framework for telling English royal history all the way through the 18th and 19th centuries. It's now called the 'Tudor myth,鈥欌�� he said, a reference to the House of Tudor that ruled for more than a century.
It's problematic if people similarly begin recounting the Netflix show's "fictionalized version of history as fact,鈥� he said.
Lesley Manville, who plays the queen鈥檚 sibling Princess Margaret this season, said she defers to those in charge of 鈥淭he Crown鈥� on whether a disclaimer is or isn't warranted.
鈥淔or my part, I can only be crystal clear that what I鈥檓 doing is a drama," Manville said. "We鈥檝e never supported it to be anything other than a drama about a real family, a very world famous family.鈥�
Staunton said she's grateful that the season addresses a period that was 鈥渜uite tumultuous, and therefore that creates quite a good drama." She traced the recent protests about the series directly to the queen's death.
鈥淭here's no doubt that if we were releasing the series two years ago there wouldn't be this amount of sensitivity, which again is absolutely understandable,鈥� Staunton said. She found herself deeply affected by the queen's death, which she learned of after a day of taping on the show's sixth season.
鈥�'Why am I feeling so distraught?'" she recalled asking herself. "But of course I'd been living with her for two and a half years" of preparation and production.
For Pryce, working on the series has provided a better understanding of the royal family.
鈥淭hey've always been a part of society and it looks like they're going to continue for some time,鈥� he said. 鈥淚'm looking forward to King Charles' reign, and seeing what he can do to change things.鈥�
Lynn Elber, The Associated Press
