Dame Judi Dench slams "crude" and "cruel" new season of The Crown
Dame Judi Dench has defended the royal family against the latest season of The Crown, calling it "crude" and "cruel" in the wake of Queen Elizabeth's death.
The actress penned an open letter to Netflix in The Times UK, complaining that 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”.
Dench called on Netflix to issue a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode of the highly anticipated new season of the show, reminding audiences that The Crown is a fictionalised drama.
Dench, who was made a dame by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1988, said she was concerned that viewers would take The Crown’s account as historically accurate.
She continued in her letter, “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 program 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.”
Dench said she was not asked by any members of the royal family to pen the letter and did so of her own volition.
The upcoming fifth season of The Crown has has stirred consternation in royal, aristocratic and political circles, as the season is expected to focus on the acrimonious breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage, which was played out publicly at the time under intense media scrutiny.
Image credits: Getty Images