The new season of The Crown will be released following a difficult period for some of the royal family.
It has been an almost two year wait for Netflix fans, but The Crown will finally return to our screens just in time for the winter television viewing season. The third instalment, which will be released on November 17th, will focus on the swinging 60s and carry through to the end of the 70s.
The series has had a tremendous amount of success but not without huge costs. It was reported by BBC News that both seasons cost in the range of $6.5 to $13 million per episode.
This is a staggering amount of money, but viewers have been enthralled by the lavish surroundings and the accents that the show exudes. The cast have been changed in order to age up the characters. The brilliant Claire Foy has left behind her tiara and has passed the mantle onto Olivia Coleman who is a recent Oscar winner for another monarch role. It seems the Norfolk actress consistently rises to the royal occasion.
But the show will be released following a huge amount of criticism of the family at the programmes centre. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle or the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have come under scrutiny in the last few weeks, with their frequent use of private jets being criticised. The Duke released a statement at the beginning of the month detailing his frustration and concern with the media coverage of the pair.
“Put simply, it is bullying, which scares and silences people,” he said. He finished on quite an emotional note, mentioning his late and much adored mother Diana, Princess of Wales. “I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”
The upcoming season will look at the relationship between Charles, Prince of Wales, played by Josh O’Connor, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, played by Emerald Fennell. The series will also examine an ageing Prince Philip and his struggles during the period, along with a more in depth look at his mother who viewers saw briefly during seasons one and two.
The royal family are in the unique position of being loved by the British public while also facing a huge level of intrusion into their every movement. They are, after all, a family who experience periods of difficulty, the same as anyone else.
The negative press of the royal family has not hampered the demand for the show and the excitement for the new season is evident both in Britain and Ireland.