Reuters, London, October 20 – Judi Dench, a British actress, has joined a chorus of voices criticizing the fictionalized plots of the Netflix royal drama “The Crown” and asked the streaming service to add a disclaimer. The 87-year-old veteran said in a letter to The Times on Thursday that as the award-winning program got closer to the present, “the more freely it seems eager to blur the lines between historical authenticity and vulgar sensationalism.”
While many people would recognize The Crown for the excellent but fictionalized portrayal of events that it is, Dench said, “I fear that a considerable proportion of viewers, particularly overseas, may regard its interpretation of history as being fully accurate. Along with James Bond’s employer “M,” Dench has portrayed historical monarchs Queen Victoria and Elizabeth I in cinema. According to Netflix, “The Crown,” which chronicles the late Queen Elizabeth’s reign over several decades, is a “fictional dramatization” that was motivated by actual events.
On Nov. 9, two months after King Charles came to the throne, it will debut its fifth season, which will have a fresh cast portraying the royal family in the 1990s. No one believes in artistic freedom more than I do, but this cannot continue uncontested. The producers of the show have defied requests for them to carry a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode “The moment has come for Netflix to change its mind—for the sake of a family and a nation who have recently suffered a tragedy, as a sign of respect for a queen who has dutifully served her people for the past 70 years and to preserve its image among British subscribers,” said the statement.
Dench’s letter comes in the wake of other criticism, such as a statement to the Daily Mail from the office of former Prime Minister John Major, who called a new scene a “barrel full of crap.” The tabloid claims that the image depicts Charles speaking to Major as part of a scheme to persuade the queen to abdicate. The office of Major denied having such a chat.
Regarding the scenario, Dench stated that it was “both unfair to the individuals and detrimental to the organization they represent.” Some royal critics have expressed worry about the show’s potential effects at the beginning of Charles’ reign. Requests for a response from a Netflix official were not immediately fulfilled.
The series creator, Peter Morgan, told Entertainment Weekly this week that “I believe we must all acknowledge that the 1990s were a tough time for the royal family, and King Charles will almost definitely have some sad recollections of that period.”
