The Crown: Queen’s friend says Netflix show ‘makes me so angry’

The Crown, a Netflix royal drama, has been criticised by a close friend of the late Queen as being “total fantasy” and “very disrespectful to members of the Royal Family.”

The show “simply makes me so angry,” according to Lady Glenconner, who served as the Queen’s maid of honour at her coronation.

She said, “The problem is that people, especially in America, absolutely believe it.”

In defending the programme, Netflix noted that it “has always been portrayed as a drama based on historical events.”

Lady Glenconner was Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting for more than 30 years and had grown up knowing the Queen.

She stated, “It annoys me.” The Crown just makes me so angry that I no longer watch it. “And the members of the royal family are being treated so unfairly.”

She cited a scene from a Series 2 episode in which it was implied that the Duke of Edinburgh was responsible for his sister Cecilie taking the flight that led to her death in a 1937 plane crash.

Princess Margaret and US President Lyndon B. Johnson competed to write filthy limericks in 1965, as depicted in the third season. Of course, she would never do that, she said. “Well, I mean.”

The Crown features Lady Glenconner herself, and in another scene from season three, she and the late princess are shown debating the virtues of other men. Naturally, that has never occurred, I suppose.

The Crown has always been portrayed as a drama with historical events as its foundation, according to Netflix.

According to the streaming behemoth, in all press materials, cast and crew interviews, on social media, and the show’s main page on the platform, the programme is referred to as a fictional drama based on real events.

Following speculations that Camilla, the Queen Consort, may end the tradition, Lady Glenconner stated that she believed there was still a place for royal ladies-in-waiting.

The reason for the ladies in waiting is that, despite the numerous tasks, letters, and other things of the kind that we complete, we are friends, she remarked. When travelling abroad and having a very, very busy day, I used to go up to Princess Margaret’s sitting room in the evening. There, we would share a drink, laugh, and chat.