In Season 6 of The Crown, the show finally got to the most dreaded part of the modern Royals history: the death of Princess Diana. How did they do? Uproxx’s Kimberly Ricci thought they handled it with “impressive grace.” Those depicted on the show, though, understandably disagree. Indeed, one insider is already torching their depiction of the history-altering event.
Deadline spoke with Dickie Arbiter, Queen Elizabeth II’s former press secretary, who slammed the way the show’s writers depicted the events in Season 6 as ““dramatic license gone bonkers.” Arbiter took umbrage with one scene in particular.
“The sequence of Charles telling his sons of their mother’s death was so insensitive, it was so unnecessary,” Arbiter said. “The scenes between Charles and his mother, in which he blurted out that she wanted Diana to come back in a Harrod’s van were absolute nonsense. It just didn’t happen like that. Of course an aircraft was going to be made available [to bring her body home from France]. The Queen was the first one to agree to that.”
Abriter also debunked the way The Crown depicted the planning of Diana’s funeral. The show claims the Queen decided to make it public, not private. Arbiter said it was actually her brother, Charles Spencer, who did that.
“I was in charge and media arrangements for that week,” Arbiter explained. “Spencer thought that because Diana was a public figure, because she was very popular and people adored her, that it should be something handled by the royal family to make it a public event rather than a private family event.”
As for that divisive ghost business, Arbiter wrote that off as mere “desperation.”
As The Crown‘s slithered its way towards Diana’s death, there’s been plenty of anxiety over how they would handle it. The show’s staff has said they tried to handle it sensitively, though it’s such a powder keg event that it was bound to ruffle some feathers. Surely others in and around the Royal Family will be speaking up…or simply damning it with silence.
(Via Deadline)
