Top 10 Facts The Crown Season 4 Got Right & Wrong
#10: Lord Mountbatten’s Death Right
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Episode one shows the shocking assassination of Lord Mountbatten during the August Bank Holiday of 1979. The Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for the attack, which also killed one of his 14-year-old grandsons and 15-year-old boat boy, Paul Maxwell, among others. The depiction of this horrifying incident is quite accurate - except that Lord Mountbatten was found alive and only died after being brought ashore. In the wake of the horrible news, we see Prince Charles receive a final letter from his great-uncle. While it’s true that the pair shared a close bond, unfortunately, there is no evidence that such a letter exists.
#9: The Balmoral Test Right
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This tradition, reportedly started by Queen Victoria, still exists today, with anyone from potential spouses to other esteemed guests being put through a sort of initiation. Visitors are expected to know royal protocol, join in with the family’s leisurely activities, and NOT sit in Queen Victoria’s chair. We see two vastly different experiences in season 4, with Diana nailing her visit while Thatcher struggles to keep up. It’s true that Diana impressed the family in real life, but her taking of the test was not her first time meeting them. While we don’t really know much about how the Prime Minister fared, it seems that this whole experience was not her cup of tea.
#8: Diana Roller-Skates in Buckingham Palace Right
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Season four highlights Diana’s love for the arts, and believe it or not, that performance of “Uptown Girl” at the Royal Opera House was very real, as were the reactions to it. Though Diana was a fan of “The Phantom of the Opera,” her rendition of “All I Ask of You” was arguably fictional. It’s certainly true that Diana enjoyed music - and roller-blades. “The Crown” producer, Oona O'Beirn insists that she brought this hobby indoors and perhaps even cycled down the Palace hallways too. Ultimately the inclusion of this scene was to remind audiences that Diana was only 20 when she married the heir apparent to the British throne.
#7: Prince Charles & Diana’s First Meeting Wrong
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While dating your sibling’s ex might be considered a faux-pas, it’s true that Diana first met the Prince while he was dating her older sister, Lady Sarah Spencer in 1977. Diana was indeed 16 when they first met in a “plowed field” outside the Spencer family’s home but, we can pretty much guarantee that she was not dressed as a tree. The costume was likely the idea of creator Peter Morgan and “The Crown”’s writers, and reportedly included as a reference to Diana’s love of the performing arts. It was in 1980 when the pair met again and Charles first saw the potential for a promising royal wife.
#6: Princess Margaret Tries to Call Off the Wedding Wrong
When Princess Margaret spots a familiar expression on her nephew’s face during his wedding rehearsal, old feelings come flooding back. She pleads with her mother and sister to call off the wedding, asking how many times can they make the same mistake when it comes to forcing some marriages and denying others. While it would be fair to believe that Princess Margaret could have objected to the marriage, given her own history, it’s actress Helena Bonham Carter who takes credit for coming up with this idea. Sadly though, the family ignores her warnings, and the rest, as they say, is history.
#5: Camilla Invites Diana to Lunch Right
It may surprise you that this lunch date at the aptly named, “Ménage à trois” actually happened. There are conflicts about the exact timing of its occurrence, however. Some sources, like royal biographer Penny Junor, claim it occurred after Diana and Charles were already married, while others place it when they were newly engaged - like what the show suggests. In “The Crown,” Camilla asserts her importance in Charles’ life through a rather awkward exchange as Diana grows increasingly agitated. But while the show suggests that Diana knew about Camilla and Charles’ relationship, in reality, it was this lunch-date, according to Royal writer Andrew Morton, that first fueled her suspicions that Camilla was more than just a close friend, which her husband had initially described her as.
#4: The Queen & Margaret Thatcher’s Turbulent Relationship Right
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While the British stiff-upper-lip prevented any public admission of a frosty relationship, the evidence speaks for itself. With significantly different backgrounds and starkly opposing views, the pair often struggled to see eye-to-eye. The Queen reportedly didn’t like Thatcher’s treatment of The Commonwealth, the ever-growing unrest in the country, or that the Prime Minister acted like The Head of State. It didn’t help either that The Sunday Times published an article in 1986 stating that The Queen had called Thatcher, “uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive”. Nevertheless, almost two weeks after Thatcher’s resignation, The Queen awarded her The Order of Merit.
#3: The Queen Faces an Intruder Wrong
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This unbelievable security breach did actually happen - twice! While there are definitely elements of the truth in “The Crown’s” version of events, Michael Fagan’s unreliable accounts left the writers heavily reliant on creative license to fill in the gaps. As you can imagine, The Queen was hardly going to have a chat with an intruder in her bedroom, but it’s true that it took time until she was able to summon help. Finding a common thread throughout Fagan’s varied accounts, the writers used the opportunity to highlight the ever-growing problem of unemployment in Britain at the time.
#2: Nerissa & Katherine Bowes-Lyon Right
In one of the most devastating revelations of season four, Margaret discovers that cousins she believed to have died, were, in fact, very much alive. Although Margaret’s involvement is fictional, it’s sadly true that the sisters, who had severe learning disabilities, were admitted into a mental health institution by their mother and essentially left there. It’s also correct that they were falsely recorded as dead in the 1963 Burke’s Peerage records. It wasn’t until a year after Nerissa’s death in 1986 that their story made headlines. We don’t know how much the Royals actually knew, as they refused to provide comments. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Princess Diana’s Engagement Ring - Right Diana Really Was Presented with a Tray of Rings to Choose From Princess Diana’s 1989 Solo Trip to New York - Right From Her Concorde Flight to Her Visit to Harlem Hospital, They Nailed This Historic Trip Prince Andrew Dated Koo Stark - Right This Pairing Certainly Would Have Been Considered Scandalous Mark Thatcher Goes Missing as the Falklands Are Invaded - Wrong While He Did Go Missing, It Was Not Around the Same Time as the Invasion of the Falkland Islands Prince Charles Was Feared Dead After an Avalanche - Wrong While the Royals Were Fine, Prince Charles Did Lose His Close Friend, Major Hugh Lindsay
#1: Diana & Charles’ Troubled Relationship Right
It’s hardly a secret that the Prince and Princess of Wales’s marriage was anything but a fairytale. After a proposal that seemed to set the tone for their marriage, we see loneliness and unhappiness take their toll on Diana. Their incompatibility, numerous affairs, and perhaps also some envy over “The People’s Princess” status led to irreconcilable differences - not to mention, as Diana famously said [“There were three of us in this marriage”]. She barely had a confidant among The Royal family either, with former ally, Prince Philip allegedly insisting by letter that she remain in her unhappy marriage. After four years of separation, they finally divorced in 1996.
