English actress Judi Dench, shown here attending the 74th Venice Film Festival on the Lido in Venice on August 31, 2017, has penned a harsh criticism of Netflix's show "The Crown" over its depiction of the royal family. File Photo by Paul Treadway/UPI |
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Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Dame Judi Dench is the latest prominent Briton to criticize the Netflix series The Crown for its depiction of the British royal family, calling for a disclaimer to be shown at the beginning of each episode clarifying the fictional nature of the program.
The series, which for five seasons has depicted the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II from 1947 onward, has received a barrage of criticism for alleged sensationalism and fictionalized depictions of interactions between public figures and the royal family.
In a letter, Dench accused the show of playing fast and loose with historical facts, saying Netflix "seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism."
Dench, who is close friends with King Charles III, said, "the time has come for Netflix to reconsider -- for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve its reputation in the eyes of its British subscribers."
Former British Prime Minister John Major also criticized The Crown for portraying a conversation between himself and Prince Charles during which Major is shown advocating for Elizabeth II to abdicate the throne. Major dismissed the portrayal, telling the Mail on Sunday that it was "a barrel-load of malicious nonsense," adding "not one of the scenes you depict are accurate in any way whatsoever. They are fiction, pure and simple."
The show has inflamed further controversy as it follows the timeline of the royal family through the tumultuous 1990s, during which then-Prince Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, now queen consort, was revealed in the press. The subsequent separation and divorce between Charles and his then-wife Princess Diana was a tabloid sensation, in Britain and globally, drawing the royals into an unwanted media firestorm that culminated with the 1996 car crash that killed Diana and her then-partner Dodi Al Fayed.
Netflix has dismissed the criticism, claiming The Crown is "presented as a drama based on historical events." In a statement released to the British tabloid The Sun, Netflix clarified that they would not be depicting the 1996 car crash that killed Diana and Al Fayed on screen when Season 6 arrives, "the exact moment of the crash impact will not be shown."
A Netflix spokesperson previously commented on the show's depiction of the royals during the 1990s, saying, "Series 5 is a fictional dramatization, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family -- one that has already been scrutinized and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians."
In an interview last year, Prince Harry told James Corden: "They don't pretend to be news. It's fictional. But it's loosely based on the truth. Of course, it's not strictly accurate, of course not, but loosely it gives you a rough idea about what the lifestyle, the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that."
