The recreation of that tour for the Netflix political dramaThe Crown is equally impactful,laying down the foundation of what would become the War of the Waleses,waged almost in the public eye,even back then,as Charles,Diana and newborn Prince William dazzled Australian fans.
The Crown breaks the spell of that moment in time,bringing an objective eye to a relationship which somehow enchanted the world. In fact Charles and Diana had only met 13 times in person prior to their engagement,a union which was largely engineered by the Queen Mother and her friend,Diana's grandmother,Lady Fermoy.
The fourth season ofThe Crown is particularly strong,thanks to the addition of political force Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) and the exploration of the conflict between the Queen (Olivia Colman)and son Charles (Josh O'Connor). And actress Emma Corrin delivers,weaving a compelling character in Diana without the kind of distracting performance that royal dramas of old battled against.
The re-creation of the tour inThe Crown also gave Australian actor Richard Roxburgh a chance to explore a new take on a character he knew well:former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke,whom Roxburgh had played in the 2010 Network Ten telemovieHawke.
Roxburgh told this masthead he was initially reluctant to take the part."You sort of think the obvious,which is I've already done that,so to do it in another form as a part of something else felt odd,"the 58-year-old actor says."But when I read that particular take on Bob,I just thought there were a couple of things that were really enticing.
"It felt to me like the first time that the Republican agenda in"the colonies"had been taken up inThe Crown,and I thought that was a really exciting thing because I'm an avowed Republican myself.