The Crown is crude & cruel – it must carry factual disclaimer as mark of respect to Queen Elizabeth II, says Judi Dench
DAME Judi Dench has demanded Netflix place a factual disclaimer on the new series of The Crown “as a mark of respect” to Queen Elizabeth II.
The outspoken Oscar-winning actress launched a blistering attack branding storylines in the new series as “cruelly unjust” to the late Queen and monarchy.
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Furious Dame Judi, 87, accused Netflix of presenting an “inaccurate and hurtful” account of history and blasted the hit royal series as “crude sensationalism”.
Her attacks have heaped huge pressure on the streaming giants to add a disclaimer to its new series to inform millions of worldwide viewers some of the storylines are factual dramatisations.
It comes days after fuming Sir John Major called out “malicious nonsense” over scenes in the new series wrongly claiming Charles begged the then-PM to help oust the Queen.
There has already been a massive outcry over a storyline showing the Duke of Edinburgh pursuing an affair with Penny Knatchbull, the Countess of Burma, and fury has also been raised over Netflix plans to film Princess Diana’s final moments in Paris.
William is expected to be angry over scenes recreating the hugely discredited interview with Diana and Martin Bashir’s BBC Panorama while friends of King Charles believe the show to be “trolling on a Hollywood budget” and slammed “fiction presented as fact”.
In a letter to The Times today, the respected actress Dame Judi wrote: “Sir, John Major is not alone in his concerns that the latest series of The Crown will present an inaccurate and hurtful account of history.
“Indeed, the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.
“While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true.
“ Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series — that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence — this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.
“No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged.
“Despite this week stating publicly that The Crown has always been a “fictionalised drama” the programme makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode.
“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 their own reputation in the eyes of their British subscribers.”
Netflix has refused to add a disclaimer despite rows over inaccuracies during the previous four series.
This week they defended their work saying: “Series five is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the the royal family.”
Buckingham Palace is refusing to speak publicly or privately about the show.
Insiders say the palace has not engaged with Netflix or put any pressure on the TV firm.
But William, 40, is expected to be angry if The Crown recreated large chunks of the discredited Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana in 1995 – which is set to appear in one episode.
The Prince of Wales says the interview no longer holds any credibility after a probe revealed his mother had been duped into giving the interview and asked for it never to be broadcast.
And friends of The King, 73, have previously spoken out blasting The Crown saying it “hijacked and exploited” members of the Royal Family and other characters who have been dramatised.
The new series which hits the screens on November 9 is billed as the War of the Wales’s and follow the Charles and Diana’s bitter break-up.
Harry and William have been cast in the series which is set to end before Diana’s Paris car crash.
The new series is set to include Sarah Ferguson Duchess of York’s infamous ‘toe-sucking affair.
In one scene, Charles also tells his mother: “If we were an ordinary family and social services came to visit, they would have thrown us into care and you into jail.”
Another episode will feature intimate conversations between Charles and Camilla said to be more embarrassing than the ‘Tampongate’ scandal in which phone calls heard the future King tell his now-wife he could be reincarnated as a tampon to live inside her forever.
And in a laughably silly scene Diana is shown voting on a telly show to axe the monarchy.
Previous storylines that have been blasted as fake include far-fetched claims the Duke of Edinburgh had an affair with a Russian ballet dancer.
The Queen is said to have been “particularly annoyed” at a series two where young Charles was shown in tears after dad Philip called him “bloody weak”.
Other factual inaccuracies include Lord Mountbatten writing to Charles the day before his assassination, Princess Diana throwing a tantrum on a tour of Australia and and Charles calling Camilla every day early in his marriage to Di.
While the Queen’s private secretary Martin Charteris appears in episodes right up till 1990 despite retiring in 1977.
Members of the Royal Family have been tight-lipped but friends of Charles are furious about the portrayal of his treatment of Diana.
There are fears that younger audiences will treat storylines about Charles and Camilla’s affair in The Crown as fact.
Harry and Meghan have signed a £112million deal with the streaming giants who only yesterday announced the number of subscribers had soared this year by 2.4million.
Dame Judi, 87, perhaps best known as head of MI6 ‘M’ in the James Bond franchise, has appeared on screen as Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth I.
She has been nominated for eight Oscars and won the gong for best supporting actress for Shakespeare in Love in 1998.
Queen Elizabeth II gave her a Damehood in 1988 after her 1970 OBE.
Last year Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden called on Netflix to add a disclaimer but the pleas were ignored.
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