Season six of The Crown – the last-ever return of the blockbuster Netflix show – is finally being released this evening.
The new series starts in the Nineties, one of the most difficult periods of modern British royal history. Season five gave us Diana and Charles' divorce, the Windsor Castle fire, scandalous interviews and tabloid photographs – but season six is set to address everything from Diana's tragic death in 1997 to William's romance with Kate Middleton in the early Noughties.
Based on real events, and real people’s lives, the TV dramatisation has come under fire for blurring the lines between history and fiction – even causing controversy in some quarters about its portrayal of the real people in this recent history.
So which real-life characters will make an appearance in the latest series, and what stories is the show likely to tell? Here’s our guide...
The showdown continues
Prince Charles
Series six begins in 1997, as Diana accepts Mohamed Al-Fayed's invitation to stay with him in his villa in the south of France.
The Nineties had been a scandalous period for the Palace, and Prince Charles was not immune from this. A full transcript, for example, of his 1989 call to Camilla, in which he said he would like to live inside her trousers and would like to come back in another life as “a Tampax” was published by Sunday People in 1993.
By 1997, he had separated from Diana and, although Camilla was wildly unpopular with the public at this time, was continuing his romantic relationship with her. Season six is also set to show the fallout after Diana's accidental death - Charles had to fly to Paris in the royal jet to collect her body, and much of the series will likely focus on his attempts to parent his two boys, William and Harry, after their bereavement.
Diana, Princess of Wales
In the Nineties, Diana’s life spiralled. She tried to break free from the Palace, announcing in 1993 that she planned to retreat from public life. But her withdrawal didn’t last long: in 1995, she took part in the infamous Panorama interview that shook the world. A two-year, loving relationship with surgeon Hasnat Khan ended in 1997, leaving her heartbroken.
Shortly thereafter, she accepted an invitation from billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed to stay at his villa in the south of France, where it is thought she embarked on a relationship with his son Dodi. A few months later, the pair were tragically killed in Paris after the driver of the car they were in lost control while being pursued by paparazzi. Both Diana and Dodi were killed in the collision.
Camilla Parker Bowles
It’s easy to forget just how unpopular Camilla was in the Nineties. As the nation rushed to support Diana in the wake of the revelations about her long relationship with Charles, Parker Bowles was forced to keep a low profile (literally as well as metaphorically – Charles would have to cover her in a blanket in the back seat of his car when she came to visit him).
Camilla has never participated in any tell-all interviews of her own, but the later Nineties saw the start of her slow image rehabilitation: in 1999, she and Charles made their first public appearance together as a couple and in 2005 the pair were finally married.
The New Royals
Prince William
Prince William was born in 1982 and was 15 when his mother died (Harry was 12).
Speaking about her death in the 2017 HBO documentary Diana, Our Mother, William said: “It’s like an earthquake has just run through the house and through your life and everything.” By the looks of it, the young prince will be shown struggling with the aftermath of his mother's death and it’s likely the show-runners will include the heartbreaking moment where the brothers walked behind Diana’s coffin at her funeral.
Stills from the upcoming series have also teased the start of the romance between William and Kate Middleton. The pair met while they were at university in St Andrews - Kate reportedly caught William’s attention in the 2002 fashion show, after wearing a sheer lace dress - and they began seeing each other in 2003.
Media attention was intense - so much so that William had to ask the press to keep their distance - and this may have contributed to the pair’s two break-ups, in 2004 and 2007 (though they reconciled soon after).
Prince Harry
Harry was born in 1984 and was 12 when his mother died. Writing in his book Spare about the period preceding her death, Harry recalled meeting Dodi Fayed - he seemed like a “nice guy” - and having a conversation with William where the pair agreed that as long as their mother was happy, then they were happy for her.
The pair were staying in Balmoral at the time of the accident, and it fell to Prince Charles to tell them about what had happened. Writing about the incident in Spare, Harry remembers that Charles repeatedly called him “my dear son,” but didn’t embrace him: “what I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry. Not a tear. My father did not hug me.”
Harry walked in the funeral procession alongside his brother, something he described later as “a barbarity.” Though it’s not known how he’ll appear in the later episodes of the series, he did start dating Chelsy Davy in 2004 (the pair split in 2009), so there’s a chance that this will also be shown on screen.
Kate Middleton
Season six will see the introduction of Kate Middleton into the royal family’s story. Born in 1982 in Reading, Kate grew up as the eldest of three. She was active and outgoing - by the time she started university in St Andrews, she had taken a gap year in Chile, completed her Duke of Edinburgh’s gold award and helped raise funds for charities that The Lumsden Club (which she was part of) supported.
She met William in 2001, as the pair both lived in St Salvator’s Hall in St Andrews, but didn’t become a couple until 2003. She also underwent a great deal of public scrutiny and was regularly photographed by the paparazzi while dating William.
The old guard
Queen Elizabeth II
In this series, we find the Queen trying to steer the palace through its most tumultuous period in modern history (until Harry and Meghan).
As well as her royal duties, the show will delve into her thoughts on personal matters – the show has the Queen wondering whether she has been a good mother. During this period too, her popularity took a dive due to the public’s sympathy with Diana and the outpouring of grief at her death.
The monarchy's response to the tragedy (keeping the princes in Balmoral and not flying the Buckingham Palace flag at half-mast) was deemed 'cold' and out of touch, prompting the Queen to travel down to London and make an emergency broadcast on September 5, the day before Diana’s funeral. In it, she praised Diana, calling her an “exceptional and gifted human being”; as a result, much of the public hostility dissipated.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip is set to take more of a back seat in the latest series of The Crown, but he also had a role to play at the time of Diana’s death. He and the queen sheltered William and Harry at Balmoral, intending to give them privacy to grieve after she passed away.
Philip also played a part in Harry and William’s decision to walk behind their mother’s coffin. In an interview with the Evening Standard, a former government relations director remembered a conference call held with the Duke before the funeral. “We hadn’t heard from him before, but he was really anguished. ‘It’s about the boys,’ he cried, ‘They’ve lost their mother.’”
As Princess Anne told ITV later, “I seem to remember them saying that, in fact, it was a question of, ‘If you’ll do it, I’ll do it,'” she said. “That was him as a grandfather. … ‘If that’s what you want to do and if you want me to be there, I will be there.'”
Princess Margaret
The Queen’s younger sibling, Princess Margaret, was in her 60s during the decade series six covers. She had been a socialite in her heyday and fell in love with Peter Townsend, though they were prohibited from marrying – he died in 1995. Margaret had been married to photographer and filmmaker Antony Armstrong-Jones (played by Matthew Goode in seasons 3 and 4), but the couple divorced in 1978 and Margaret did not remarry.
Princess Margaret was a heavy smoker (like her father) and subsequently suffered a series of health issues in her later life. She had a lung operation in 1985, suffered from a terrible bout of pneumonia in 1993, and then had three strokes between 1998 and 2001.
Princess Anne
The Princess Royal, the Queen’s only daughter, divorced Olympian equestrian Mark Phillips in 1992. Both had been romantically linked to other people before they even announced their separation in 1989.
Just months later, Princess Anne married Sir Timothy Laurence, a retired naval officer who was a senior royal attendant to the Queen in the Eighties. Their relationship apparently began several years before – in 1989, The Sun published a piece on the existence of their private letters - and by the start of season six, the pair had been married for five years.
Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother
The Queen’s mother, Elizabeth, had entered deep old age by the Nineties, having been born in 1900. She was widowed in 1952 when her husband King George VI died and never remarried.
She remained a popular member of the royal family and died in 2002 at the ripe old age of 101 (having overcome both breast cancer and colon cancer in the Sixties and Eighties respectively). Sadly she even outlived her youngest daughter Margaret, who died seven weeks before her.
Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York
Before Andrew became the royal persona non grata, he was very much involved in both public and palace life. In the Nineties, it was the end of his marriage with Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson that kept him in the headlines.
Andrew and Fergie met in 1985, married in 1986, separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. After their separation, the Queen released a statement saying that she would not repay Fergie’s debts (which reportedly added up to more than £4 million). It was also announced that Fergie would no longer represent the Queen at public events.
Then the same year the Daily Mirror published photos of an American financier kissing Ferguson’s toes as she sunbathed topless.
Prince Edward
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip’s youngest child, Edward has remained relatively drama-free. He married public relations agent Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999 and the couple remains together today. They have two children – Louise, born in 2003 and James, born in 2007.
The rest
Robert Fellowes
Robert Fellowes is likely to crop up a lot in the forthcoming series. He was the private secretary to Queen Elizabeth from 1990 to 1999, meaning he was involved in many of the Queen and the Palace’s difficult decisions over those troubled years. He was also the brother-in-law of Princess Diana – he married Cynthia Jane Spencer, Diana’s older sister, in 1978.
The Al-Fayeds
Series five stopped short of Princess Diana’s death, but season six is set to address it full-on, as well as her relationship with Dodi Fayed and Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Dodi Fayed was born in Alexandria, was educated in Switzerland and briefly attended Sandhurst. At one point he worked as an attaché at the United Arab Emirates Embassy in London, but later turned to film production. In July 1997, he became romantically linked to Diana – just weeks before their fatal car accident.
The show focuses on the Al-Fayed family’s alleged desire to secure their legitimacy and trying to gain acceptance in British high society. According to the series, the relationship between Dodi and Diana is seen to have been orchestrated somewhat by Mohamed, who invited Diana and her sons to stay with him in the South of France - where she struck up her romance with Dodi.
The Politicians
John Major took over from Margaret Thatcher in 1990 and stayed in office for a remarkable seven years. The Conservative MP for Huntingdon oversaw a rocky period in Britain (such as the Liberation of Kuwait, strange weather events, ‘Black Wednesday’ and IRA bombings) and that was without all the drama in the Palace.
His wife, Norma, a former saleswoman who was given a damehood for her services to charity work, and who published two books during her husband’s premiership, also has a role in the new season.
There are other clues about the forthcoming story in the cast list, too. Tony Blair, who replaced John Major in 1997, is set to have a role, as is his wife Cherie Blair - indeed, it was Blair who coined the term "the people's princess" to describe Diana in the wake of her death.
Hasnat Khan
Dr Hasnat Khan, a British-Pakistani heart and lung surgeon who dated Princess Diana between 1995 and 1997, will undoubtedly make an appearance at the start of season six.
There are few details about how Princess Diana and Khan met, as the doctor has remained tight-lipped about the relationship. All accounts do, however, say that the two were very much in love – she called him Mr Wonderful – and there was apparently talk of a future together before he found the press attention too much.
