Casting the Crown

I’ve watched all 10 episodes of the Netflix series, The Crown, now and a number of things become apparent. First, the casting is appalling. Yes, Imelda Staunton looked a bit like the Queen, but she just didn’t give a very convincing performance. She seemed a little too smug. It’s almost as if there’s a coterie of actors who feel it’s their turn to play Queen Elizabeth. This was hers, and she was determined to make her mark – not as the Queen, but as a better “Queen” than, say, Olivia Colman.

Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip really isn’t convincing. I covered a couple of royal tours and I can say that Pryce bears precious little resemblance to the Duke of Edinburgh. Philip was tall and elegant and even well into his 80s you could see what an attractive and handsome man he was.

Marcia Warren as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother I thought bore no resemblance to the Queen Mum and it took me a while to figure out who the old lady on the couch was.

I know others have had difficulty finding Elizabeth Debicki convincing as Diana, the Princess of Wales. I thought she actually did a rather good job. She didn’t quite have Diana’s looks – then again who does? – but she seemed to have studied the late princess’s mannerisms and her speech patters and gave what I thought was a rather convincing performance. The best representation of Diana I’ve seen was Kristen Stewart in Spencer. She seemed to have captured something of Diana’s wistful air and her other-worldliness.