English actress Dame Judi Dench has some things to say about Netflix’s The crown. In an open letter to The Times UKthe Academy Award-winning actress criticized the series for its “cruelly unjust” portrayal of the British royal family.
Dame Judi Dench made her name in the film by playing one of Britain’s most famous queens in Shakespeare in love, Queen Elizabeth I, a role for which she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Now, just before The crown‘s fifth season debut on Netflix in November, the actress has written an open letter to The Times UK saying the show’s portrayal of the British Royal Family is “cruelly unjust” and should include a disclaimer to viewers that the show is a fictionalized account of historical events (although Princess Di’s wedding dress was pretty accurate). The fifth season of the series will cover the 1990s, a period that includes some of the royal family’s hottest tabloids, including the bitter divorce between Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki).
“The closer the drama gets to our present time, the freer it seems as if it wants to blur the lines between historical accuracy and gross sensationalism,” Dench’s letter reads. “Given some of the hurtful suggestions apparently in the new series — that King Charles, for example, plotted to abdicate his mother, or once suggested that his mother’s upbringing was so flawed that she might have deserved a prison sentence — it’s a good idea.” this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent. No one believes in artistic freedom more than I do, but this cannot go unchallenged.”
“Despite it being publicly stated this week that The crown has always been a ‘fictional drama’, the program makers have resisted all calls to put a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode,” Dench continues. a nation so recently bereft, as a mark of respect for a sovereign who has served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve their own reputation in the eyes of their British subscribers.”
This is what to watch if you can’t get enough of the British Royal Family
Netflix’s The Crown Disclaimer Debate
Netflix currently does not have a disclaimer with every episode of The crown, and the streamer has long maintained that the series is “presented as a drama based on historical events.” However, in November 2020, UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden spoke out about the need for Netflix to add a disclaimer to show so people would know it was a fictional work.
“It’s a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions Netflix should be very clear at the outset, it’s just that. Without it, I’m afraid a generation of viewers who haven’t experienced these events will see fiction.” for facts,” Dowden said as the show’s fourth season aired (you can read more about the debate here; it’s a doozy and maybe Britain should care more about the actual portrayal of transgender people than the actual portrayal of the British royal drama).
Since Dowden’s statement, fans have been talking about whether a disclaimer is needed. With the fifth season airing soon and the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II, the debate has recently reached new heights and Dench has the latest celebrity to comment on it.