Midmorning With Aundrea - December 15, 2020 (Part 3)

(Part 3 of 4) "The Crown" is one of the most popular shows on Netflix, but how accurate is its portrayal of the royal family?

Mid morning.

"the crown" is o of netflix's most popular shows.

But does anyone in britain who wears a crown, actually watch?

And what does the queen think?

Our reality check comes from mark phillips... 4/phillips/tarnished crown sunmo 13dec20 whitfield/bufano/l udlow mark phillips: 14:35:37 and which part of the palace are we supposed to be in here?

Peter morgan: 14:35:40 this is-- so this is the corridor-- with the royal bedrooms. you can gets pretty good sense of what the inside of buckingham palace might be like when you cruise around the set of the crown with it's creator, peter morgan.

Peter morgan: 14:36:08 there's a another dressing room.

There is the queen's-- mark phillips: 14:36:10 ah, the queen's bath.

Peter morgan: 14:36:11 the queen's bath-- mark phillips: 14:36:12 good-- goodness me.

It's not the real bathroom, of course.

It may not even be an accurate copy, as the private apartments of the royal residences are & private.

It's an imagined bathroom.

And that's the point of the controversy now swirling around this hugely popular show, which is now pulling back the curtain on the period of modern british royal history the family may most want to forget.

This is the imagined story of the doomed marriage of charles and diana - and some important people are very unhappy with the way it has been told.

C - i'm sorry we haven't met, d - we have.

It tells how charles runs into the teen-age diana just when he was being pressured to find a suitably aristocratic, young and innocent bride.

D - diana.

C - yes, yes.

It shows how camilla parker- bowles, charles already-married, long-time love interest, encouraged his search for a convenient mate.

Cpb - like this new one.

C - diana spencer?

Cpb - mightn't she fit the bill.

C - don't say that.

And it revels in how diana nailed her audition with the royals during a weekend at balmoral, their scottish estate.

C - she's a triumph.

In the history of balmoral no one has ever past a test with such flying colours.

Cammy - well, well, well.

C - rave reviews from the whole ghastly politburo.

It's it's very seductive.

You believe that what you're seeing is the real thing.

Except, says penny junor - author of a series of well- sourced books on the royals - the crown isn't the real thing at all.

What is so, so deceptive about it, because we recognize those people and we we know the events happened, some of the events happened.

He he's filling in the dots for us.

It's as though you know we're looking behind the palace doors and seeing what the conversations that took place.

And of course, those conversations didn't take place.

And the characters are not those horrible people that we have, you know, that we see.

I'm so sorry my cat ... it's a time for being catty, penny junor says, because she doesn't buy the producers line that the audience knows it's not watching a history show.

Mp but but you know that, you know, there are the counter arguments that this is drama, that it's billed as drama, that everybody knows it's drama and it's not trying to be history.

What's wrong with that explanation though.

Pj well, yes it is.

It is drama and there's no doubt about that.and that and in some levels, that's fine.

But i think that people will know... people abroad people in america, young people in britain who don't know the history, will very probably regard this as the truth, as a historical record.

And the truth is more complicated.

Some of the show is history& like charles' fateful aside at his and diana's engagement interview.

You both look very much in love.

D - absolutely.

C - whatever in love means.

D - absolutely.

C - whatever in love means.

Diana is painted as a victim and charles and camilla are painted as villains.

They were all victims. diana, yes was a victim, but not of the marriage.

She was a victim of her terribly unhappy childhood.

Charles was a victim of his childhood and his situation.

Unable to marry a woman he loved.

And camilla was a victim, she was locked in a in a marriage with a man who was serially unfaithful to her.

Mp it's a long established history in english literature ... literature everywhere.

Shakespeare dealing... telling stories, his compelling stories involving the british royal family going back 1000 years or so.

Why should this be different?

Pj i don't think in the past, i mean, shakespeare did not have netflix' budget and he was mostly writing about kings that were dead.

It so happens our visit to the crown set with peter morgan took place while this series was being filmed.

And when questions about royal sensitivities were already being asked.

Mark; do they react to what-- do you hear from them, "oh, that' not the way it happened.

Or that-- or whatever"- peter morgan: 14:11:53 look, anecdotally you hear things.

And i'm-- i make-- i-- i-- i've made a habit of not believing a word i'm told.

I-- i've never heard a c-- a conversation-- the only conversation i would trust would be one like this in a private audience with the queen.

And since that's never gonna happen i don't-- i really don't worry about it.

The producers have had cause to worry since.

Not just royal authors, but the royal-friendly press and a government cabinet minister have demanded that the show run a health warning saying it shouldn't be taken as historic fact.

Even one of the actors - helena bonham-carter, who plays the queen's wayward sister, princess margaret - has gone public saying a disclaimer might be a good idea& no matter what the show's declared intention.

And peter's chosen-- it's not a straight-- it's a drama.

It's not a documentary.

It's not like, oh, just regurgitating exactly what happened to them.

There's a lot of license to make a good drama, and each year, each episode is a drama into itself.

Except that now the whole series has become a drama, not just about the royals, but about itself.

When we come wh when we come back, the show must go on.

We'll show you where when mid morning returns.