Show Notes
After the news breaks of Diana and Dodi’s fatal car accident, Charles and Fayed fly separately to Paris to supervise arrangements. The tragedy generates a vast outpouring of public grief, which catches the Queen off-guard. While she remains at Balmoral, popular anger builds about her absence from London and the perceived callousness of the Royal Family. Charles, recognising the precariousness of their position, urges the Queen to depart from rigid protocol and make herself visible to the public. At the same time as Diana’s death sends shockwaves through the Palace, Fayed processes the loss of his cherished son. Hoping that the news will bring him and the Royal Family together in shared grief, he instead finds himself increasingly shunned.
Edith Bowman speaks with Writer and Creator Peter Morgan, Executive Producer Suzanne Mackie, Dominic West who plays Prince Charles, and Salim Daw who plays Mohamed Al Fayed. Head of Research Annie Sulzberger also introduces Nada Atieh-Williscroft and Nourhan Tewfik.
The Crown: The Official Podcast is produced by Netflix and Sony Music Entertainment, in association with Left Bank Pictures.
Host: Edith Bowman Guests: Peter Morgan, Suzanne Mackie, Dominic West, Salim Daw, Annie Sulzberger, Nada Atieh-Williscroft, Nourhan Tewfik.
More from The Crown: The Official Podcast
After thirty years together, Charles decides the time has come to propose to Camilla but can’t do so without his mother’s permission. The Queen seeks the approval of the church, state, and Charles’s sons before giving her sign off to the marriage but having been unsettled by discussions surrounding her own funeral planning, the Queen starts to consider her reign and ultimately her legacy.
In the aftermath of Princess Margaret’s death, the Queen approaches her Golden Jubilee with more trepidation than ever before. With her mother’s health in decline, she finds herself vulnerable to the attacks of Mohamed Al Fayed who pursues a high-profile campaign to prove responsibility for Diana’s death lies with the Royal Family. Meanwhile, between his blossoming romance with Kate and the re-opened case surrounding his mother’s death, William seeks to lead as normal a life as possible while he still can.
Whilst holidaying in Mustique, Princess Margaret suffers a stroke and is suddenly forced to reassess her lifestyle. Margaret is keen to recover in anticipation of her seventieth birthday, but the Queen remains concerned that her party-loving sister will not be able to kick the habits of a lifetime in order to heal. As Margaret’s health continues to decline, she finds herself slipping back into her memories, back to her secret night out with her sister during the biggest party in history: VE Day 1945. The memories from that evening, and what it taught her about her older sister, comfort her in her final days.
As Prince William takes up his place at St Andrews University to study art history, after a gap year in Africa and South and Central America, he struggles to balance the traditional undergraduate rites of passage with the constraints of his position and constant presence of personal protection officers. His perseverance is tested when he develops a crush on one of the most desired students on campus: a woman by the name of Kate Middleton.
Two years into his premiership, Tony Blair continues to ride a wave of unprecedented popularity. This unnerves the Queen who worries that the Royal Family’s own popularity does not match up. When she commissions a wide-ranging poll, the results are sobering, leading the Queen to reflect on what she - and the Palace - could be doing differently. After Blair’s reputation is further cemented by his successful humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, the Queen asks him what he would do to modernise the monarchy. His ideas and suggestions force the Queen to confront just how much change she would be prepared to accept.