‘The Crown’ depiction of Queen Mother left courtiers ‘horrified’

Netflix series The Crown has been receiving criticism for the ‘humourless’ depiction of the Queen Mother.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Royal Beat, royal historian and author Gareth Russell said some courtiers were left “horrified” by the portrayal of the much-loved royal figure.

“The Crown presented the Queen Mother as so unrelentingly dour and humourless,” he said.

“Some of the people I spoke to, they were quite upset, particularly the Marion Bailey portrayal in season three and four.

“I think a lot of people who had known the Queen Mother were fairly horrified by how she was presented,” Gareth added.

“Maybe this is a wider conversation about The Crown, but season one they didn’t think was too far off the mark, season two they were starting to worry, season three they were worried, season four they were horrified.

“That was sort of the progression. One of them said, ‘By season four, anything The Queen Mother does on screen you can assume the real one did the opposite’,” he added.