This week I was lucky to enjoy a sneak preview of the new series of The Crown, as a guest at several removes of Netflix. Season 4 arrives at a sensitive time. The drama is catching up with the late 1980s, Diana Spencer and Margaret Thatcher, in the very month that sees the silver anniversary of that interview between the Princess of Wales and Martin Bashir.Intriguingly all the main terrestrial channels – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – have marked the occasion with documentaries, except for the BBC, which actually screened it.
This season of The Crown keeps up the sumptuous production values viewers have come to expect with a budget untroubled by recreating Her Majesty (now played by Olivia Coleman) riding out of Buckingham Palace with the Life Guards or deer stalking at Balmoral. As the story moves closer to our time the verisimilitude is a reminder of the extraordinary privilege and luxury which the British royal family still enjoys.
