Yep, I, too, thought the Mohamed Al-Fayed episode was the best one.
That's not my only unoriginal reaction to season five of The Crown. Did I notice that this season was overall kinder to the British royal family than the last two seasons? Yes I did. Was I appalled that Peter Morgan used the death of a child – a real-life tragedy – as the starting point of a questionable, speculative plot-line? Yes, I was. Was I surprised at how sympathetically "tampon-gate" was handled? Yes, pleasantly surprised even – it was nice to hear someone make the point that private conversations between lovers often are embarrassing and idiotic, though I have a hard time imagining this sentiment coming from Princess Anne. Did I gape over the effrontery of adding lines to the Queen's "Annus Horribilis" speech (though I admit I don't remember much of it, so you could have fooled me) and inventing a cringey conversation between John Major and Prince Charles where the latter tries to convince the former that the Queen has had her day? Yes... well, you get the picture by now.
This is only a handful of the sentiments expressed in more than one review of The Crown with which I am in agreement. So what remains to be said? Is there anything I can add as someone who hasn't had the same feeling of disenchantment as the series became increasingly anti-monarchist as many others, seeing I wasn't that into it in the first place?
Well, the fact that I'm not the only one who thought "Mou Mou" was by far the most fascinating episode (and I may have a slight ruthless-capitalist-patriarch bias) does raise a tentative question. Can it be that Peter Morgan is losing interest in the protagonists of the show, and the main theme of the series (whether all those sacrifices to royal duty Are Really Worth It)? The Waleses' marriage is such a train wreck it's hard not to get sucked in, as in the previous season, but otherwise Morgan has few new points to make about the royals themselves. It's always a treat to see Timothy Dalton, but did we really need a retread of Princess Margaret's grievances in connection with her old amour Peter Townsend? I love Jonathan Pryce, but his main storyline as Prince Philip is his friendship with Penny Knatchbull and how their closeness supposedly makes the Queen jealous. Cases of "emotional infidelity", when a man or woman doesn't betray their partner sexually but romantically moons over another person, deserve to be addressed more often in drama, but my goodness, not like this. If the real Prince Philip offered any solace to a grieving mother at a time when most others would actively have avoided her company, then more power to him. Such an act of kindness doesn't deserve to be cheapened and cast in a doubtful light.
As for the Queen herself, Imelda Staunton puts in a great performance as always, but she feels strangely wasted in the part. Her Queen is softer than Olivia Colman's tough bird, but we don't learn a lot about her personality-wise, and the parallel to the ageing royal yacht Britannia is really laboured. There's something wrong when you suspect that an actor got to flex their acting muscles more in the Harry Potter films than in a relatively high-prestige affair (though not as high-prestige as it once was) like The Crown.
In contrast, the drama feels more inspired when it concerns characters outside the royal family. Al-Fayed's relationship to his valet Sydney Johnson, which develops into a friendship after an inauspicious start (Al-Fayed gets Johnson fired from the Ritz for implied racist reasons, but makes a U-turn when he realises Johnson is the Duke of Windsor's former valet) could be a subject of its own film. Dr Khan, the surgeon who catches Princess Diana's eye, is portrayed as a real sweetie – you understand what Diana sees in him. The conflict between two BBC bosses, if a little forced, is refreshing as Morgan shows more sympathy for the old traditionalist who lost his leg as a war prisoner than the slick moderniser. In the episode where Charles and Diana finally divorce, we see scenes between other divorcing couples which I for one found engaging: here we had ministories about marriage breakdowns which sometimes made me go "Aw, give it another try" and sometimes "Yeah, you two should never have got married".
I can't help wondering whether Peter Morgan regrets having signed up for six seasons of The Crown. He still seems genuinely interested in the Charles and Diana breakup, which is evenhandedly portrayed insofar as the protagonists take turns in behaving really badly. But apart from that, royal affairs don't seem to interest him the way they once did. Maybe he'd rather make a series or film about something else, like the rise of a hard-headed Egyptian businessman and social climber.
