Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith said the show was “doing significant damage to people’s perception of history and their perception of the royal family” and was “packed full of malicious lies”.

One person’s “malicious lies” are another’s compelling drama,and it is amazing that the Palace PR machine,reputedly so ruthless and endlessly vigilant,has managed to create so much publicity for a show that is on its fifth season,and somewhat tired.

It depicts the royal family’s troubled 1990s,when the marriages of the Queen’s children collapsed in ways that grew ever more messy and tragic. It was also the period when the Queen’s beloved Windsor Castle burned down and her own popularity lagged. Then,of course,there was Diana’s death in 1997,and it must be painful for her sons to have that served up as entertainment (again).

ButThe Crown’s dirty secret has always been that it is more hagiography than hatchet-job;far more humanising than it is objectifying. Elizabeth II’s old world-dilemma – the tension between her duty as monarch and her obligations as a mother/sister/wife – is elucidated beautifully in every season. External,historical events constantly threaten the structural integrity of the monarchy,and yet,they must be responded to.

The public justifies her existence,yet intrudes upon her,and her children seem to cause Liz more worry as they age,not less.

In the second episode of the new series,titledThe System,Prince Philip explains to a mutinous,unhappy Diana that she has not married into a family,but a system. That system grinds down everyone who exists within it,and takes away some of their humanity – in that sense,The Crown is likeThe Wire,except with more Scottish castles.

The show is very respectful when it comes to certain subjects close to the Queen – notably,the rumours of her husband’s infidelity,which are alluded to,but never depicted.

In one of the least-relatable storylines,Philip takes up high-speed horse-and-carriage-riding as a hobby because he’s bored as the Queen’s husband. I suppose it’s like jet-skiing for the posh. And the scenery he rollicks through is magnificent,so I’ll take it.

Eventhe notorious “tampongate” phone call between Charles and his then-mistress Camilla reads differently in sex-positive 2022. Who would begrudge a pair of middle-aged lovers some private and consensual sex talk?AsTime opined:“Read past the sordid headlines,and it’s clear that these two had the sort of bond only achieved in long-term,committed partnerships”.Dominic West,who plays Prince Charles in this season,said recreating the conversation made him feel “extremely sympathetic” towards the couple.

Anyway,in real life it’s been superseded by the alleged far less savoury antics of Charles’ brother Andrew.

If the new season ofThe Crown reminds us of anything,it’s how publicly out-of-control the family seemed during the ’90s. Princess Diana was a neutron-bomb,thoroughly modern in her medium and her message,a precursor to contemporary women who own their stories by telling them their own way,without journalistic intervention. By contrast,all the Palace had wasTown and Country magazine and a few sympathetic journos atThe Telegraph.

The story that emerges most strongly in the new season is that of male insecurity. Charles is desperately insecure in the face of his miserable wife’s popularity. He needs the nurturing strength of his mistress to prop him up. He is insecure in the shadow of his monolithic mother,and he finds it hard to work out a way to be a man within this system of women.

Decades later,his youngest son faced a not-dissimilar dilemma – it seems Harry had a crisis of masculinity when he realised he had no proper job,and that he couldn’t protect his wife (or future children) from being harmed by the system,just as his mother had been. So he left it.

Season six ofThe Crown will be its last,and they have already cast the young Kate Middleton. If the Palace doesn’t like her depiction,or that of the young princes,they should probably turn the other cheek – the worst thing this show does to the royal family is to depict them as damnably human.

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