After Judi Dench slammed ‘The Crown’ for being ‘cruelly unjust’ in its depiction of royals, Netflix clarifies it is ‘fictional dramatisation’

Los Angeles, October 21

Streaming giant Netflix has clarified that ‘The Crown’ is a fictional dramatisation for viewers by adding a logline to its YouTube trailer for Season 5, which is set to launch on November 9.

In the description for the trailer, posted by the official Netflix account, the logline reads: “Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign.”

Watch the trailer:

A spokesperson for Netflix told Variety: “‘The Crown’ has always been presented as a drama based on historical events. Series five is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the Royal Family – one that has already been scrutinised and well documented by journalists, biographers and historians.”

The addition of the logline follows much discussion in the UK over whether viewers will perceive events in “The Crown” as absolute re-enactions of real events. The British press has reported that sources within Buckingham Palace are particularly worried about the show’s depiction of King Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles while married to Diana, Princess of Wales, especially given that he has just acceded to the throne.

Following Diana’s death (which is set to be depicted in the sixth and final season of the series), Charles married Camilla. When he acceded to the throne last month, following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, she became Queen Consort.

Earlier this week Judi Dench wrote to The Times of London to complain that ‘The Crown’ should carry a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode, calling the series “cruelly unjust” to the Royal Family.

In her letter to The Times UK, Dench wrote that “no one is a greater believer in artistic freedom” than her but “this cannot go unchallenged.” She stressed, “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,” reports aceshowbiz.com.

The actress, who portrayed Queen Victoria in the 1997 film ‘Mrs. Brown’ as well as 2017’s ‘Victoria & Abdul’ and played Queen Elizabeth in 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love”, also penned that “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,” Dench added.

She continued: “Despite this week stating publicly that ‘The Crown’ has always been a ‘fictionalized 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.”

Prior to this, UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden also urged Netflix to put a disclaimer to the series since it’s a work of fiction. The show was airing its fourth season at the time. “It’s a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that,” Dowden said back in 2020. “Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact.” In response to that, Netflix released a statement in which the streaming giant refused to add the disclaimer. “We have always presented ‘The Crown’ as a drama – and we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events. As a result we have no plans – and see no need – to add a disclaimer,” the statement read.

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