The Crown is a new drama from Netflix which is focused on Queen Elizabeth II. The first series takes a look at a young Elizabeth first getting married to Phillip and then becoming Queen after the death of her father. Having to balance her new role and her marriage is the key thing we are looking at in this series.
Baring in mind this was available on Netflix from last Friday I have totally flown through the 10 episodes in a few days. I found myself getting lost within it and very impressed with the performances. I will admit that I was wondering how much is based on truth or possible truth, and did have a few Google searches to try and find out a little bit more information. It’s compelling and engaging from start to finish, although I do think that you have to at least be slightly interested in the Royal Family. I am not going to deny it I love the Queen and Royal Family and think they do a lot for England and the United Kingdom, I know a lot of people don’t agree with that but my own thoughts and views from growing up with a Mam and Nanna who loved her too!
We get plenty of characters to follow over the ten episodes, obviously the most important being a young Elizabeth who we first see as a Princess and getting married having two young children. Then thrust into the power of becoming Queen, resented by her husband who cannot really come to terms with her being his job now. It does not put Prince Phillip across in a good way and plenty of hints that he was cheating on Elizabeth a lot, something that I guess is rather difficult to watch and makes you wonder if that has actually happened.
I thought the most interesting of characters so far is Princess Margaret the younger sister and pretty much wild Royal who does not want to play by any of the proper rules. Falling in love with Peter Townsend who worked for the family. I actually thought it was a pretty incredible love affair considering the many factors and people that are trying to stop them from being together.
A pretty good way for the series to start especially when Margaret is shown to be jealous of her sister and that they don’t get on all the time, mainly because of her sudden rise to power. The problem was though that decisions were not just The Queen’s to be made she had to take advice from other sources.
Performance wise I thought Claire Foy was outstanding as Elizabeth, her manner and accent were totally spot on. The struggle to show emotions and the scenes with Matt Smith really did work so well. He was great as Phillip and I am certainly looking forward to seeing more series in this groundbreaking show for Netflix. I have never known a Netflix Original to have as much publicity as this one, TV Adverts as well as on websites! The only casting choice that left me a little unsure and I thought was strange was John Lithgow as Winston Churchill, just seems to be a very odd choice as I don’t think he quite managed to pull it off in all honesty.
I was certainly hooked on this very quickly and flew through the first season. I was very excited to read that the second season had already been commissioned. I just hope that it really does get a huge audience as I really want to see the plan of the six seasons and therefore sixty years be completed as I think it will really be something else.