In the final episode of s4, we leave the royal family as Charles and Diana's marriage is about to break and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher leaves office after 11 years in power.

The next season will be set in the Nineties, a turbulent time for the royal family which saw three marriages fail, the publication of Diana's biography, and a fire at Windsor Castle. The decade ended in further pain with the car accident that killed Princess Diana in 1997.

With the present looming ever nearer and series creator, Peter Morgan's "20-year rule", it will be interesting to see whether the focus falls on the lesser-known moments rather than the headlines we all remember.

1. The many failed marriages:
In '92 the marriages of Charles, Anne and Andrew publicly crumbled one after another. As we saw in 'Favourites', the episode in which the Queen summoned each of her children, perhaps these failed marriages will be fused into one (miserable!) episode.

2. A new era of openness:
In '93 the Queen announced that Buckingham Palace would open to the public. 'The Crown' has previously highlighted these moments of modernisation, with its focus on the televising of the Queen's wedding. This may feature as a marker of changing times.

3. The last days of John Major:
One consistent motif in s4 has been the conversations between PM and Queen. 'The Crown' is an adaption from Morgan's play 'The Audience', which actually begins with Major in crisis, so we may see a similar scenario unfold next time.

4. Diana's Panorama interview:
The footage from Diana's 1995 tell-all interview is now so famous that it may be foolish to try and recreate it, but the interview is certainly an unavoidable tipping point that subsequently led to Charles and Diana's divorce.

5. The Dunblane Massacre:
The 1996 tragedy where a man shot 16 children and one teacher dead rocked the nation. Just as the Queen visiting Aberfan following the 1966 disaster made for a moving episode in s3, this event may offer a similar moment.

6. New Labour:
Tony Blair's win generated another Prime Ministerial relationship for the Queen. This time she's 71 and had seen a lot of change, reportedly saying, "You are my tenth Prime Minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born."

It's a line we can see Imelda Staunton delivering as the next Queen.

7. The handover of Hong Kong:
The colonial rule of Britain's last major overseas territory ended in 1997. Given that it is often considered as the definitive end of the British Empire it is a fascinating moment for a monarch who has watched this empire slowly shrink.

8. Diana's death
If the series does cover the car accident that killed Diana and Dodi Al Fayad, don't be surprised if they avoid recreating it as they did with Charles and Diana's wedding, and choose to fill in the gaps around the tragedy instead.