Finally watched the whole of The Crown Season 4. So here's my takes on it...

Let's call it "A country haunted by twin ghosts, Maggie & Diana"

Also

"Why Charles should be worried about this show, whilst Camilla should be thrilled"

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#TheCrown

It's been nearly a quarter of a century since Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash in Paris & over 15 years since Mrs Thatcher made her final public speaking appearance (at the funeral of her great ally Ronald Reagan), over 7 years since she died.

Yet the...(2)

... public's fascination with both women, good & bad, at home & abroad, remains huge & was the hook with which Netflix's lush drama/royal soap opera, The Crown, drew in the audience & the press intrigue, for it's latest season, covering roughly 1979-1991.

How would they...(3)

... find actresses capable of carrying off playing such recognisable & unique women? How would writers choose to play out their stories & reflect quite the colossal impact they left on British society?

Because have no doubt, the Britain of today was both shaped... (4)

... heavily by the policies, the images, the words & the behaviours of both these women, more than almost any other individuals in the second half of the 20th Century.

Thatcher uprooted the economy & replanted it, destroyed the power of unions, reshaped her Tory &... (5)

..., more importantly, the opposition Labour Party, challenged Europe, poured foul scorn on the old establishment, promoted a more individualistic (some would argue, crueler) society &, most importantly, changed what we expect a Prime Minister to be, in gender (of course)...(6)

... but more importantly in tone, image &, most importantly, Power! Her politics continue to reverberate around Britain, like the aftershocks of an apocalyptic earthquake, to this day.

Diana (despite, one imagines, not probably being a fan of Thatcherism) was very key...(7)

... in this seismic shockwave. The brilliant quality of her 'star power' shone so bright that she first bleached out the background stars of the other royals, before running so hot & so bright, she began to supernovae & incinerate them all. She developed that most... (8)

... powerful type of 'celebrity' &, in her own way, 'politician', the cult of personality. The British Royal Family hadn't seen one of those properly since Elizabeth I &, of course, childless, unmarried & last of her line, Lizzie Tudor didn't have a host of competing royals...(9)

... who's jealousies she'd have to contend with. Diana too would uproot the establishment order, change what it meant to be 'royal', alter public expectations of their Queen, change social attitudes on a host of issues from mental health problems to AIDS & encourage a...(10)

... society that was less 'stiff upper lip' & more 'talk, share, learn & understand'. She was Britain's Eva Peron, Elvis Presley & Oprah Winfrey, rolled into one & her power extended, in the end, far beyond Britain's shores.

That's a near impossible order for any actor...(11)

... to appropriately portray or for any writers to cram in too even the most well-funded 10 hours of TV screen time.

So it's no surprise, in places, it comes up short. Emma Corrin does by far the best job I've seen from any actress of capturing Diana, both in looks
... (12)

... voice, physicality & ability to balance the portrayal of both the Princess' immeasurable strength & all too human weakness. But it can never, rightly, measure up to the real thing. You can't perfectly recreate a demigod, it's impossible. The writers however... (13)

... don't always lend enough time, or scenes, to allowing Emma to try. You only get the smidgeon of a hint of what the real Diana was capable of.

Gillian Anderson too, does a stirling job of recreating the Iron Lady. The physicality is almost creepy in the gait of...(14)

... the walk, the slightly stooped shoulder & the reptilian-esque side eye stares of contempt. The voice is a choice, one that occasionally lets Anderson down, but does enough to recreate that odd, artificial, tone of Thatcher. A voice created to be of no class, no region... (15)

... no femininity or masculinity, just authority, that the real PM had. Where Anderson is let down is, once again, in the writers room. There isn't enough done to explain (especially to a non-British audience) quite how terrifying or mesmerising Maggie Thatcher was...(16)

... At one point Tobias Menzies' (perfectly excellent) Prince Philip describes her as 'Julia Ceaser' & that's very apt, she was a Ceaser, in shoulder pads & strawberry-blonde helmet hair. It's a shame the writers didn't emphasise that a bit more. Instead we get odd... (17)

... uses of screen time. Like trying to explore the 'gender politics' of the Thatcher household & the differing relationship Mrs T' had with her twin children Mark & Carol (neither of whom really needed to be in the series at all). Don't get me wrong, if you're doing...(18)

... a 10 part series biography on Thatcher alone, you'd definitely explore that, but here it's unnecessary & badly handled. The decision to imply Mark Thatcher's disappearance in the Paris-Dakar rally some how influenced his mother's decision to go to war in the... (19)

... Falklands (events that actually took place months apart) is farcical, as well as smacking of lazy sexism...

"those women hey, so caught up in their emotions & motherhood they'd start a military conflict & send 100's of men to their deaths if allowed real power"
...(20)

... But, thankfully, there is still plenty of good stuff as well. The exceptionally devoted recreation of 'The Australia Tour' is wonderful & gives Emma Corrin & Josh O'connor lots of room to show what they can do. Thatcher vs Queen at the Nassau Commonwealth conference...(21)

... where both women did genuinely haggle (& quite badly fall out) over the appropriate response to apartheid in South Africa, was also excellently handled. It nicely portrays how the hard political power, of a politician like Thatcher, can be overcome by the soft power...(22)

... of an, internationally respected, diplomatic figurehead, like the Queen.

And speaking of the Queen, Olivia Coleman does stirling work here. She looks totally comfortable in the role this season & the writing for her is much better.

She captures the Queen at... (23)

... was a difficult time in her reign. No longer the glamorous national daughter, not yet the beloved national grandma. Instead a slightly out-of-touch, stoic, rather frumpy, somewhat unloved, sour mummy. The 80's was a tough period for the Queen (the 90's even worse)... (24)

... & Coleman captures this sentiment well without the writers feeling the need to shove it down your throat. She is squeezed out by the twin colossi of Diana & Thatcher...

The other Margaret, the Princess, is relegated to side role in this season. Thats apt, as we...(25)

... are entering the era when the Queen's sister began to withdraw herself increasingly from public life and into self-imposed exile, mainly in her palatial villa in Mustique.

I was pleased to see the writers highlight one important role Margaret did adopt later in life...(26)

... as greatest defender & closest family confidant too her nephew. The scenes between Helena Bonham Carter & Josh O'connor, together at Margaret's Caribbean outpost, are some of the warmest of the series.

There's also a few great Coleman-Bonham Carter scenes... (27)

... the funniest of which has to be Coleman's Queen gently explaining to her sister that her new love interest 'Dazzle' might just be (as the Queen puts it) "a friend of Dorothy".

It did stop & make me wonder if the real Queen would ever use the term "gay"... (28)

... I came to the conclusion she probably would, given the number of gay men that have been present in her life, as well as her mother & sisters.

If the scenes between Prince Charles & Margaret are warm, the rest of the season is not so flattering to the heir to the throne..(29)

... He's portrayed as increasingly petty, jealous, whiny, cold & callous, stringing Diana along & increasingly deluded about his infatuation for Camilla.

Josh O'Connor does great work & is definitely a rising star of British stage & screen.

Though I did have to... (30)

... occasionally remind myself that if I disliked Josh's Charles, I'd have despised the real thing, who has neither O'Connor's height nor good looks or puppy dog eyes to make up for being an emotional shrew.

All this has led to calls from Charles' supporters wanting...(31)

... 'title cards' at the beginning of episodes, pointing out it's a work of fiction or 'fact checks' at the end. That tells me the writers, actually, probably hit close to the mark!

Meanwhile Camilla, the other member of this love triangle, should be very happy... (32)

... with what The Crown writers did with the (also excellent) portrayal of her by Emerald Fennell.

Here we have a truth about Camilla that the British public, I think, increasingly accepts (& some Americans could do with having explained)

Camilla is not the villain!... (33)