Notes on "The Crown"

**tomcat** · 31-12-2017, 09:02 AM

...overly dramatized or actually factual?...

Fact-checking ‘The Crown’: Is Prince Philip a total jerk?

Michael S. Rosenwald December 25

A painting of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, set in the Grand Corridor at Windsor Castle. (Ralph Heimans/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

Binge-watching the second season of “The Crown” is in jolly full swing. And Prince Philip is taking a beating.

Lisa Tozzi
✔@lisatozzi

“Thanks for not being a jerk like Prince Phillip!” is something I have been known to say to my husband after an episode of The Crown.

Katie Prejean McGrady@KatiePrejean

“Prince Philip, you jerk! Take that back. She is your QUEEN!”

(Things I just yelled at the television during episode 5 of season 2 of The Crown)

But are these harsh assessments of Queen Elizabeth II’s husband justified?
On the show — which is factually inspired but dramatized for maximum Netflix pleasure — Prince Philip is portrayed as an impolite lout, a womanizer, a whiner, a sore sport and even a potential Nazi. He regularly demeans his wife, the monarchy and the church. He seems genuinely happy only when Princess Margaret, the queen’s black sheep sister, flouts royal convention by, say, baring her shoulders in the tabloids.

The monarchy is a bit of a black box — protective, secretive, manipulative. But here’s what (mostly reliable) news accounts and biographers say about Prince Philip:
No filter: Prince Philip is known for his verbal gaffes and occasional temper. On the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2011, the Independent newspaper compiled 90 of his greatest hits. Visiting China, he said this to a British student: “If you stay here much longer, you will go home with slitty eyes.” To a 13-year-old boy who dreamed of becoming an astronaut: “You could do with losing a little bit of weight.” To a nursing home resident in a wheelchair: “Do people trip over you?” Nevertheless, Prince Philip has been a popular figure among the Brits. They see him as honest, down to earth and funny. During her annual Christmas address on Monday, the Queen noted her husband’s recent retirement from public appearances, but said she knew his “unique sense of humor will remain as strong as ever.”

Reluctant husband of the queen: When Philip and Elizabeth married in 1947, neither of them expected she would be crowned queen anytime soon. Her father, King George VI, was in his early 50s. Philip, named Duke of Edinburgh, intended to continue his career in the navy. But the king died five years into their marriage, and Elizabeth became queen at the early age of 25. Philip was forced to quit his naval career. “The Crown” portrays his resentment. In 1992, he told an interviewer, “I’d much rather have stayed in the navy, frankly.” He later called his resignation “naturally disappointing.” By many accounts, there was real tension in the marriage.

In ‘The Crown,’ Queen Elizabeth II formally makes Philip a prince. (Photo illustration/Robert Viglasky/Netflix)
The Prince as Ladies’ Man: “The Crown” strongly hints that Philip was a serial cheater. Over the years, the prince has been linked to numerous women — including two dancers — but neither he nor the women have ever confirmed any sexual trysts. One of the most gripping moments in the show’s second season is when Philip’s personal secretary and close friend Mike Parker is accused of adultery and sued for divorce in 1958. A massive scandal ensues — on the show and in real life, with the implication that Philip must be a cheater, too. That episode shows Elizabeth making peace with her husband by making him a prince. However, news reports from back then suggested Philip was made a prince so he couldn’t be forced to testify at Parker’s divorce trial, potentially exposing him to uncomfortable and embarrassing questions.
His nickname for his wife: “Cabbage.”

The Nazi question: Season two also shows an Australian reporter pressing him with questions about his family’s connection to the Nazi Party. His sisters were, indeed, married to German noblemen who were members of the Nazi Party and German army. When his sister Cecile died in a 1937 plane crash, Philip, then 16 years old, was photographed marching in a funeral procession with men wearing Nazi uniforms. Another of Philip’s sisters was said to have lunched with Hitler. Philip’s sisters were not invited to his wedding. In the book “Royals and the Reich,” Philip told European history scholar Jonathan Petropoulos that there was jealousy about the success of Jews in his family but he was never “conscious of anybody in the family actually expressing anti-Semitic views.”
Such drama!

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at the start of a garden party at Buckingham Palace in London earlier this year. (Dominic Lipinski/AP)
As Prince Philip withdraws from public life, it’s unclear how the show will impact how people remember him. Whether he knows of this portrayal is anyone’s guess. The queen is reportedly a fan of the show, though that was reported before season two, when Philip’s real demons were explored.
Still, some fans of “The Crown” have not lost hope for the couple. They recently celebrated 70 years of marriage.

**tomcat** · 31-12-2017, 09:13 AM

...and some additional commentary on the rather weak (imo) Kennedy episode:

Fact checking ‘The Crown’: Jackie Kennedy vs. Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace

By Michael S. Rosenwald (wapo)

Queen Elizabeth and President John F. Kennedy with first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Prince Phillip before a Buckingham Palace dinner on June 5, 1961. (AP)
In the early summer of 1961, Queen Elizabeth sits down on a couch at a country castle to share a TV dinner with her mother.
On the plates: macaroni and cheese. On the TV: Jackie Kennedy dazzling Paris.
“She’s so young,” the queen mother says. “I always thought she was the same age as you.”
The queen replies, “She is.”
The moment is striking.
In a few days, Jackie Kennedy will leave France and arrive with her husband at Buckingham Palace for dinner. Already, the queen is slowly boiling over with jealousy. Her mother simply cannot stop talking about Jackie.
The moment is also not real.
It comes at the beginning of episode 8 of the second season of the hit Netflix show “The Crown,” which depicts the life of Queen Elizabeth II after she takes the throne following the early death of her father, King George.
The show follows the queen’s life as she navigates family troubles and weighty world events. As a historical document, it’s certainly not a dissertation. The spirit is there, even if the macaroni and cheese is made up. (Though it did look rather delicious.)

In the arc of the show, the Kennedys’ visit to Buckingham Palace comes at the climax of the season, using the visit — and all its tension — to depict a queen coming to accept her personal limitations (dowdy, unsexy, not well read) but also firmly grasping the crown’s power.
Britain did indeed go positively mad for Jackie when she arrived. The queen wasn’t pleased.
“The queen’s resentment was real,” Kitty Kelley wrote in “The Royals.”
The show depicts that displeasure in the on-screen queen’s reaction to the Kennedys’ arrival at Buckingham Palace, when her staff of normally stiff butlers and even Prince Phillip jockey to see the first lady emerging from the motorcade.

“It’s mad hysteria,” the on-screen queen says. “Extraordinary behavior.”
“C’mon,” her husband says. “It’s like royalty.”
“Very funny,” the on-screen queen says, not having much fun.
In reality, according to news accounts and biographies of Jackie and Queen Elizabeth, there was a real tension to the visit beyond beauty and star power, a behind-the-scenes, passive-aggressive catfight left out of the episode.

Jackie, in reality, insisted on inviting to the dinner her sister and brother-in-law, a Polish prince who had been divorced twice. One divorce back then was too many for the queen and the monarchy. The queen objected. The first lady objected to the objection.
A tense negotiation among diplomats ended favorably for Jackie — until she saw the full guest list. Left off the queen’s list was her own more fashionable and risqué sister, Princess Margaret, and their aunt Princess Marina. The queen knew the first lady wanted to be photographed with them.

Queen Elizabeth II and President John F. Kennedy at Buckingham Palace in London. (AP)

“No Margaret, no Marina, no one except every Commonwealth minister of agriculture they could find,” Jackie reportedly told her friend Gore Vidal, a writer with loose lips. Zing!
[JFK’s last birthday: Gifts, champagne and wandering hands on the presidential yacht]
In the episode, the first lady is also overheard saying really, really mean things about the queen. Without spoiling the entirety of insults for those who haven’t yet made it to episode 8, here is but one word Jackie used to describe her host: “Unremarkable.” Zing zing!

Jackie wasn’t a fan in reality either.
“The queen was pretty heavy-going,” she told Vidal, according to numerous Jackie biographies. “Phillip was nice, but nervous. One felt absolutely no relationship between them.”
The show and reality do converge on several topics.
For one thing, the meal was not a state dinner. The Brits were sensitive about upstaging the French, who had just fallen all over themselves to welcome the Kennedys. And after all, the president had been in office only seven months. A state dinner could come later.
It never did.

**Maanaam** · 31-12-2017, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by tomcat

Such drama!

Indeed!

**SKkin** · 31-12-2017, 05:39 PM

Originally Posted by tomcat

His nickname for his wife: “Cabbage.”

How about "SauerKraut" instead?

**wasabi** · 31-12-2017, 11:22 PM

Thank god Lady Diana is dead, otherwise he would be obsessively posting gay icon shit about her.

**sabang** · 01-01-2018, 01:06 AM

I kinda like phil the greek actually. A blokey bloke (which means, yeh, a bit of a wad).

**Switch** · 01-01-2018, 08:09 AM

Her sister was an indulgent selfish bitch. Phil took some time to bend over, but he got there in the end.

When Liz looks at the state of the country today, she must be thinking to herself: Was it fookin worth all the bloody trouble.

Having said that, the monarchy has adapted to the principles of contemporary civic duty much better than any political genre.

**VocalNeal** · 01-01-2018, 11:12 AM

Philip realizes that out of the public eye (and sometimes in) he can say what the hell he pleases. He is her husband , she loves him and he makes her laugh. Unless one has met or knows him anything else is speculation.

**tomcat** · 01-01-2018, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

Unless one has met or knows him anything else is speculation

...like much of the dialogue on The Crown: other people's imaginations...

**Maanaam** · 01-01-2018, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by sabang

I kinda like phil the greek actually. A blokey bloke (which means, yeh, a bit of a wad).

Makes a lot of gaffes. The latest yesterday.

As he walked with Princess Anne, he pointed at the gentleman, who had long, ginger facial hair, he asked a bodyguard: "Is that a terrorist?"

**wasabi** · 01-01-2018, 06:31 PM

"The Crown" is a hotel in BKK I've stayed at.

**tomcat** · 01-01-2018, 06:34 PM

...^fascinating...

**Crestofawave** · 01-01-2018, 08:35 PM

Did George VI really make that bad joke with the c word?
I guess he must have done otherwise they wouldn't have put in in the script.
In which case who did the script writers get it from?

**SKkin** · 01-01-2018, 08:44 PM

Too bad there's not a show about the Crown Corporation...

**cyrille** · 01-01-2018, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by Crestofawave

Did George VI really make that bad joke with the c word?
I guess he must have done otherwise they wouldn't have put in in the script.

You're kidding, right?

**Crestofawave** · 01-01-2018, 10:05 PM

Originally Posted by cyrille

You're kidding, right?

No, why?

**cyrille** · 01-01-2018, 10:15 PM

You think that if something is in the script of a tv series then it must be true?

**Crestofawave** · 02-01-2018, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by cyrille

You think that if something is in the script of a tv series then it must be true?

Of course not, but I read the Queen liked the first series and I'd have thought we are not amused would have been more of her reaction to that tasteless joke uttered by
Bertie.
Another thing- great acting all round but from photos I've seen George VI looked a lot better in real life than the actor playing him. Hard to capture that bone structure and eyes I guess.
Notes on "The Crown"-king-george-vi-jared-harris-jpg

Notes on "The Crown"-king-george-vi-jared-harris-jpg

**cyrille** · 02-01-2018, 09:13 AM

OK that doesn't come close to explaining why something that happens in a highly fictionalised account of real events must, in your opinion, have gone down that way in real life.

No wonder so many people struggled with 'War of the Worlds'

**Crestofawave** · 02-01-2018, 10:03 AM

Not highly fictionalized it seems. The King apparently was fond of dirty limericks in all male company
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...-to-meet-queen

**cyrille** · 02-01-2018, 10:07 AM

Something with a basis in fact can still be highly fictionalised.

**terry57** · 02-01-2018, 10:14 AM

^

Phil is Brilliant, makes heaps of fuk ups.

That stuff can only be good.

Him and Trump are mates, both great upstanding and strait shooting punters.

**cyrille** · 02-01-2018, 10:22 AM

...who would probably hate each other.

**Looper** · 30-01-2018, 01:31 AM

Just finished season 2.

Epic TV. Lovin it.

Jackie Kennedy was my favourite episode and the scene where she arrives for her apology luncheon was my favourite scene.

'Lets make it Windsor Castle shall we. Sometimes only a fortress will do'

'MAKE WAY FOR THE QUEENS GUARD!!!'

Originally Posted by tomcat

...overly dramatized or actually factual?...

Very heavily dramatised I have no doubt but when TV is this this good who cares.

Only 11 months to wait for another season.

**Crestofawave** · 30-01-2018, 09:40 PM

An excellent series so far, superb acting, scenes and dialogue. Growing up in the UK in the 60s I always thought the Queen was simply dull, she seemed to have no personality. It was only when I heard a radio prank broadcast from some Canadian DJ pretending to be the Canadian PM and the Queen's response to him that I realised how knowledgable the Queen actually was about world affairs.
There are some great scenes- personally I feel sorry for Margaret that she couldn't marry Townsend, after all even Eden was divorced, but a classic line is when Elizabeth says something slong the lines of, 'it was you (Margaret) who wanred the privileges and respect, I just wanted a normal life.'

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