The Crown

Women are constantly looking for role models to look up to. We barely have enough women in places of power and when we do, - EVERYBODY wants to bring her down.

My review isn’t an account of, how dare she say - “Or they might get silly ideas of getting independence,” or fume over Prince Philip’s family’s association with the Nazi or Winston Churchill’s policies and outlook towards the commonwealth. These are all events in history. They did happen. They haven’t embellished or sugar coated it and have in several episodes “quoted” every historically accurate verbal discourse of various views on varying topics of the common wealth. As long as one remembers that these are all events from the “Past” and not how the world is today, we can actually praise the makers of the show for the portrayal of the Crown.

Claire Foy has done a stellar job of portraying the young princess who marries Duke of Edinburgh at 21. For us born in the 80’s, we’ve only seen the “grey queen” with no smile on her face. Seeing Claire Foy on screen, I had to remind myself that the Queen was once young and like you and I, had absolutely(well not entirely) no worries. The moment King George VI takes ill and things gradually fall on her shoulders we see her becoming the Queen.

As a Head of the State she has done a LOT of unconventional things. She isn’t as narrow minded as I thought and she has spirit and spunk.

I had never actively looked for books or series or newspaper clippings with stories of the Royal Family. I had on the other hand tried to avoid reading about them since the death of Princess Diana and to this day I think it was the paparazzi that killed her. Back then I thought if people stopped reading such news maybe the paparazzi will go out of business. Clearly my naiveté shows.

As Season 1 of the series came to a close and Season 2 began we see how the media covered her personal life and on the other hand when Churchill is more worried about Prince Philip flying instead of the crisis at hand we see how cunningly Winston Churchill turned the entire event in his favour whilst using the press as his pawn.

The Queen triumphs in Ghana and manages to steer them from Russia and it is reported all over the world, thanks to the press. In the very same episode we see Jackie Kennedy’s clothes stained with her husband’s blood and we hear the queen gasp and say, “That is deliberate.” I don’t know if it is just me or if others noticed the gradual progress of how aggressive the journalists become. I believe it is something to look forward to as seasons 3 and 4 will have the Queen dealing with Margaret Thatcher and Princess Diana.

I can’t wait for the new season!

My rating:4.2/5

Recommend: If you love history but aren’t into reading, watch this series. If you love history and love reading, join me in tsk-ing every time a certain bit is exaggerated.