Thursday 13 October 2022

The Crown - Season 4 (2020 Peter Morgan)

Good opening episode with great scene in which Mountbatten's murder is artfully cross-cut between Charles fishing, the Queen deer-stalking and er, Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) ironing, or something, and the various emissaries arriving with the bad news. Diana (Emma Corrin) makes appearance as tree-creature.

Not much pressure for Anderson or Corrin, then. (Only as much as all the others playing living people, I suppose.)

Amazing music in Balmoral sequence in episode two - harps and dark strings.

"We never show affection in this family. We're no different to anyone else" is a telling line. Makes me think of the episode when Charles is studying in Wales and is amazed when his tutor and wife take their son up to bed to say good night - something that had never happened to him.

Amazing editing of scene in Charles-Diana-Australia episode which cross-cuts Diana's bulimia against a Maori display (Lucia Zucchetti, editor of Boy A); but followed by a really cheesy montage typical of 30s British cinema (think Bernard Vorhaus) where an aerial shot of an umbrella dissolves into a round pond (director Julian Jarrold getting somewhat carried away here).

Olivia great in episode featuring Palace break-in, with Tom Brooke, and when sparring with the vile Thatcher. But ultimately rather tragic, as the Queen just will not hear from Charles and Diana that - both miserably unhappy - they no longer wish to be together.

Jonathan Wilson is the 'senior staff writer' - which suggests there's a writer's room which never seems to get any credit.

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