Well, I was writing a thread about the Crown. But then I fear that whatever one says, will be twisted as 'bashing the Crown'. Last year, I said that the show's portrayal of Qn and Porchie as friends (not affair) was correct, was twisted as 'slamming' the Crown. Not what I said

I honestly think it's madness that in the midst of pandemic, economic chaos, Covid supply corruption and Brexit, our biggest political programme is discussing if it is wrong to have drama about 'real people'.

There have been lots of brilliant points on here by my fellow historians about the nature of historical drama - see @RebeccaRideal @greg_jenner @alexvtunzelmann @Hannah_Greig are all experts on this. I wanted to look a little at the arguments that it is all invented.

The Crown, in their insta stories, have been noting their biographical sources. And what I particularly wanted to note is the point that it is from Diana's POV - and there is a lot of material echoing biographical sources and particularly Morton's Diana Her True Story.

People say the Crown is wrong to say that Diana was unloved, unsupported. The thing is that, as made very clear in Morton, that's how Diana said she felt. She heard a phone call, found the lunch between them stressful, was distressed at the wedding rehearsal. ETC.

She said she felt a 'lamb to the slaughter' before the wedding, felt as if she was seen as a 'problem' afterwards, etc etc, all in the book. Indeed, Crown has not used the most distressing material from the book - including the self-harm.