Good to see that this has not dipped in quality. Great to see everyone again, especially Olivia Colman (great scenes with Thatcher) and Helena Bonham Carter and the splendid Josh O'Connor. (Looking forward to Mothering Sunday, in post-production with Olivia and Josh - and Colin Firth.) No changes in main personnel in front of or behind camera.
Recalling my previous review I thought it was all getting too recent, so staggered to learn there will be two more series.
Opens slowly, thoughtfully, with 'Gold Stick', in which we meet Diana (Emma Corrin). Then the shocking murder of Mountbatten, artfully executed. We're under the boat they're on, you see a fish being discarded and start to sink, then the clouds of explosion.. then we go to above and the bomb blast(s). Good editing too, Frances Parker. Thatcher is Gillian Anderson (she's rather good).
'The Balmoral Test' has Thatcher invited there, made to feel silly. Result: she returns to London early and gets rid of any of the Cabinet who she sees as privileged toffs. Interesting line drawn there, the personal to the political. Then Diana is invited and everyone loves her (her face at the end when being photographed by the paps, I mean we actually remember that, but she looks shy and crafty and naive at the same time). Unpleasant backstory involves wounded stag, a beautiful creature (glad to say that's now illegal), one who has figured in Morgan's own feature The Crown, where the monarch has one in her sights but decides not to shoot.
Diana then learns what it's like to be a neglected wife (Emerald Fennell getting lots of good screen time as Camilla), whilst the Queen surveys her children, including Edward (Angus Imrie, son of Celia) and Andrew (Tom Byrne), and finds them all wanting. "We have never shown affection in this family - we're just like everyone else" a telling line. Meanwhile Thatcher's distress over her son Freddie Fox missing in the Sahara at first blinds her to what's going on in the Falklands, then makes her overreact, against ministerial advice. Stephen Boxer is Denis, Rebecca Humphries plays Carol.
An episode focuses solely on Michael Fagan and the two break-ins - he's played convincingly by Tom Brooke, who we probably know from Sherlock, Bodyguard, Restless, The Death of Stalin and The Boat That Rocked. Then we're in Australia, where the relationship between Charles and Diana seems to be improving, until she steals the limelight. Then, seemingly unaccountably, we're in a mental institution (the cross-cutting between the patients and Edward's 21st birthday party is disconcertingly effective, editing by Morten Højbjerg, who also worked on Trust). Margaret, who's been to see a psychiatrist, uncovers the truth about hidden away relatives - echoes of The Lost Prince.
Thatcher is the only member of the Commonwealth not to oppose apartheid - she and the monarch fall out. And then the focus on the last two episodes is the continuing deterioration of the Charles-Diana relationship - the Queen tells them there will be no divorce - and thus condemns them to unhappiness. It's something of an anticlimactic ending.
Adriano Goldman shot the first five, 7 and last two were by Ben Wilson, 6 & 8 by Stuart Howell. Good ASC interview with Goldman here.
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| Lovely shot by Ben Wilson |
There's lots of CGI of course. The entrance to Buckingham Palace and Downing Street (ground floor only) are on the same lot at Elstree with green screen all around.
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