The end of ‘The Crown’ does not include the end of the reign of Elizabeth II: it ends much earlier, in 2005, year of the wedding of then (and for almost another two decades) Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. What we witness by watching these six episodes is another possible ending, that of series designed to last and to shine in luxury, without budget restrictions or digital landscapes where something more tactile should be. You have to savor these last hours and get the most out of them.
If the first part of this sixth season focused, above all, on the development and sad end of the romance between Diana and Dodi, the second has a greater variety of protagonistsstarting with the unknown Guillermo Ed McVey, harassed by the same kind of attention suffered by his mother in the episode ‘Pasión por Guillermo’. Instead of slowing down and processing the loss, he returns to Eton as soon as he can. He wants everything to be normal again. But nothing will ever be that way again: young admirers from around the world empathize with his sadness and want to cure it at all costs. Next to him, Enrique (Luther Forda revelation as the black sheep of the clan) looks at him with envy and makes a bold statement: “In the history of humanity, no one has screamed for a redhead”. Don’t you remember Rick Astley?
Guillermo’s real drama, whatever it may be, is not the accumulation of fan letters, but his distancing from his father Carlos (Dominic West), whom he points out as guilty in the first instance of Diana’s death. The essential conflict of the series is typical and almost exclusive to privileged people: how difficult it is to be a public figure and, at the same time, oneself. But Other concerns are universal, such as paternal-filial gaps or the expectations that our elders place on us, sometimes with destructive effects..
When William met Kate
As during the rest of the series, Morgan allows himself in these chapters to play with different tones and modalities. He draws attention healthy surreal startalmost typical of a Sorrentino, from the episode ‘Ruritania’, in which Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) dreams of the coronation of a new king, not Charles, but Tony (Blair; played by Bertie Carvel), to the rhythm of a national anthem that is now ‘Things can only get better’, D:Ream’s eurodance hit. Obsessed with the popularity and influence of the prime minister (who convinces the United States to have NATO send troops to Kosovo), Isabel asks him for advice on giving a layer of modernity to the monarchy. Another thing is for her to follow them.
On the other hand, ‘Alma Mater’, the episode of the first courtship between William and Kate (an also unknown Meg Bellamy), is a full-fledged university drama, with the usual love triangles. Before conquering the future Princess of Wales, William meets the bohemian Lola Airdale-Cavendish-Kincaid (Honor Swinton Byrne, daughter of Tilda Swinton and star of the diptych ‘The Souvenir’), an apparent transcript of her real Carly Massy-Birch affair. Before deciding on William, Kate spends some time with Rupert Finch (Oli Green), handsome and educated guy, but according to the series not regal enough for a mother, Carole Middleton (Eve Best), with other plans for his daughter.
In the vision of Morgan and his team of screenwriters, almost every love story is crossed by a shadow of interest, a formality, a responsibility. Diana hung out with Charles partly because her father would have liked it; Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Dau) created the ideal circumstances for the birth of an attraction between his son Dodi and Lady Di. In this series of episodes (in ‘The Street of Hope’, to be precise), Al-Fayed ruins the romance between William and Kate, inspiring the London Metropolitan Police to open Operation Paget, which sought (unsuccessfully) some truth behind the conspiracy theories surrounding the Soul Bridge accident.
Dealing with mortality
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Also Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville) has her own episode: ‘Ritz’, in which she remembers the strokes that forced her to change her happy lifestyle. During those days of discouragement, she relies on her memories, especially those of a secret night with her sister on Victory Day in Europe in 1945. Rereading an adventure already discussed in the movie ‘Royal Night’ (of Julian Jarrolda regular on ‘The Crown’), Morgan shows us teenagers Isabel (Viola Prettejohn) and Margaret (Beau Gadsdon) escaping from Buckingham Palace to party at the Ritzwhere Isabel is encouraged to practice the jitterbug with the American soldiers.
The cohesive presence of all the stories is, it could not be otherwise, an Elizabeth II who refuses to stop exerting direct influence on her fellow human beings and subjects. With his sister and his mother dead, and his Golden Jubilee now reached, he begins to seriously worry about his own death and his legacy. Stephen Daldry (‘The Hours’) returns to his duties as director of ‘The Crown’ for a quite daring and appropriately majestic final episode, final attempt to understand the enigma of Elizabeth II: why did she bury her vitality and restlessness to devote herself to tirelessly defending an unnatural system? Or as she says herself: “And the life I put aside? The woman I put aside when I became queen.” The enigma continues.