‘Scene from The Crown left Philip so upset he contacted his lawyers’,
A ‘disgraceful’ scene from Netflix’s The Crown left Prince Philip so upset he raised it with his legal team, veteran royal biographer Hugo Vickers has claimed on a new episode of the Daily Mail’s Palace Authorised.
Mr Vickers has written on the Royal Family for over 60 years, meeting the late Queen more than 40 times throughout her historic 70-year reign.
His new book, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History, serialised in the Daily Mail, mixes decades of research with his own personal recollections of Britain’s longest-serving monarch.
Speaking to Palace Authorised host Jo Elvin, Mr Vickers said the TV adaptation of the life and reign of Elizabeth and Philip, which first aired in 2016, was a ‘fundamentally dishonest’ depiction of the monarch and her husband.
The most egregious example of the show’s bending of the truth came in season one, Mr Vickers argued, concerning the tragic death of Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip’s sister, in a plane crash in 1937 at the age of 26.
‘They tried to blame Prince Philip for the death of his own sister,’ Mr Vickers claimed.
‘They cooked up a scene at Gordonstoun, where a young Philip punches another boy. As a result, his half-term gets cancelled and his sister flies to Darmstadt, Germany.
‘She is killed in a plane crash and Philip goes to the funeral. There, his father says to him: “I am burying my favourite child because of you.”
‘In reality, there was no punch-up at Gordonstoun. He would never have gone to Darmstadt. Philip’s father actually came to Britain to take him home after the crash.
‘I knew Prince Philip was extremely upset by it. Luckily, I went on the Today Show, Radio 4, and told the true story. He was listening, and felt to some extent that it had been put right.
‘But he did go to his lawyers about it.’
Mr Vickers argued that what makes The Crown ‘such an awful series’ is its showrunners’ constant disregard for historical accuracy.
What makes this dangerous, he said, is that the performances are engaging and the script well-written, meaning millions of viewers have simply taken it as fact.
Should shows based on real people be held to stricter accuracy standards?
Mr Vickers also alleged that the makers of The Crown harboured Republican feeling, nowhere more evident than in the show’s final season, which explores the last years of the Queen’s life.
‘If you want to know what they were up to, just have a look at the last scene,’ the biographer said.
‘You get the Prince Philip figure, played by Jonathan Pryce, talking to Imelda Staunton, in what is meant to be St George’s Chapel. He basically says the game is up, nobody is up to the job, the monarchy is shot through.
‘That is what the creators were trying to say. That is what the whole series was luring people into.
‘Unfortunately, The Crown has become the accepted version of events, which is absolutely disgraceful.’
Hear Hugo Vickers’ full interview with Jo Elvin by searching for Palace Confidential wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube.
