TV SERIES · 2016–2023 · UK
The Crown
- Created by
- Peter Morgan
- Network
- Netflix
- Seasons
- 6
- Episodes
- 60
- Studio
- Left Bank Pictures, Sony Pictures Television
38 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one…
Summary: TMDB
All facts (38)
- #001
The Crown is one of the most expensive television series ever made. Each episode was budgeted at £5 million, and before the first episode was even completed or any episode had aired, two seasons had already been commissioned with the intention of producing four more.
- #002
For his role as Sir Winston Churchill, John Lithgow's dialect coach was William Conacher, who also had to coach the largely British cast through subtle shifts in English accents across the decades. Lithgow stuffed cotton into his nostrils to capture the faint nasal timbre of Churchill's intonation, while a dialect evolutionist was on set to monitor the accuracy of accents throughout the series' time span. For example, it was noted that Queen Elizabeth II's vowel pronunciation in the 1950s was very different from the way her grandson Prince Harry speaks today.
- #003
Coincidentally, Helena Bonham Carter's uncle, Mark Bonham-Carter, briefly dated Princess Margaret, the character Helena played in Seasons 3 and 4 of the series.
- #004
For his role as Sir Winston Churchill, John Lithgow said the makeup process was extremely simple and took only about twenty minutes to complete per session. Along with a thin wig, a "plumpers" plate had to be fitted to his back teeth to emphasize his chin, and tight collars were used for the character's distinctive Churchill "double chin." The process was supervised by Ivana Primorac. Coincidentally, Primorac and her team won the BAFTA for Best Makeup for their work on Gary Oldman as Sir Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017).
- #005
The coronation gown worn in the series is a replica ordered by Harrods in 2012 for a celebratory display for the Queen's jubilee. The gown belongs to Angels Costumes, from whom most of the series' costumes were rented, and was made there. Although it was made to mannequin size, Claire Foy fit the gown perfectly and was the first person to wear it.
- #006
The Crown is Netflix's second most expensive project, with a budget of approximately £100 million, placing it just behind The Get Down (2016), which cost about £120 million.
- #007
Although Princess Margaret and Roddy Llewellyn appear to be together only briefly in the series, they were in fact together from 1973 to 1981. Roddy was actually 17 years younger than Margaret.
- #008
Creator Peter Morgan originally envisioned the series as six seasons totaling sixty episodes, with the first season covering events up to 1955, but in January 2020 the production announced its intention to conclude the series with Season 5 while completing Season 4. However, in July 2020 Morgan announced that it would end at the projected six seasons because he needed more episodes to convey the story he wanted.
- #009
Elizabeth's grandson Princess Eugenie is an avid fan of the series.
- #010
John Lithgow (Sir Winston Churchill) was the only American actor to play a British character in the series during the second season. In the fourth season, Gillian Anderson, who was born in the United States but raised in different ways in the US and the UK, plays Margaret Thatcher.
- #011
In 2021, it became the first drama series to win all four major acting Emmy Awards in a single year, in addition to winning Emmys for writing, directing and drama series.
- #012
William Conacher, the dialect coach who tutored Dame Helen Mirren for her Tony Award-winning role as Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's 2013 play "The Audience," had a peculiar difficulty with Claire Foy and Matt Smith over the pronunciation of simple terms such as "thank you" and "was." When speaking, Foy was able to relax her jaw better and pronounce "thank you" more shortly, as "thenk yu." Smith, meanwhile, struggled with the word "was," which he pronounced as "wuz," when the royal-specific intonation was closer to "whawz."
- #013
During a panel discussion at the 2018 INTV Conference in Jerusalem, the series' producers admitted that Claire Foy (Queen Elizabeth) was paid less than Matt Smith (Prince Philip) in the first and second seasons. They apologized for the mistake and promised that in future seasons any actress playing Queen Elizabeth would receive equal pay to any actor playing Prince Philip. Producer Andrew Mackie joked, "going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen."
- #014
The series accurately depicts King George VI's speech impediment, a severe stutter. This aspect of his life had previously been detailed in the Oscar-winning film The King's Speech (2010).
- #015
Series creator Peter Morgan had previously worked on projects about the later life of Queen Elizabeth II. His screenplay for The Queen (2006), which detailed the monarch's reaction to Princess Diana's death, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and starred Dame Helen Mirren. In addition, his critically acclaimed 2015 play The Audience also featured Mirren as the Queen and ultimately inspired this series.
- #016
The first season of the series continues with stories about Edward VIII's abdication and the subsequent treatment he received from the royal family and the British government, without revealing the extent to which that treatment was shaped by his and his wife's sympathy for (and possible collusion with) the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. The scope of these actions was detailed in British government files (the Marburg and Windsor Files) that were suppressed by Sir Winston Churchill on national security grounds and not released until 1957. These revealed not only the extent of Edward and Wallis's Nazi sympathy but also the details of a bizarre Nazi plot during World War II to overthrow King George VI and reinstate Edward as king of England, this time as Hitler's puppet. This element of Edward and Wallis's characters was explored in more detail in the second season's Vergangenheit (2017). In mid-2015 (about a year and a half before Vergangenheit aired), previously secret footage emerged showing Edward teaching the future Queen Elizabeth (then about seven years old), her mother and her sister to give the Nazi salute. The home movie is thought to have been filmed in 1933 or '34, close to the beginning of Hitler's regime.
- #017
Claire Foy was breastfeeding her newborn baby during the production of the first season. She was already five months pregnant when she first read the script and therefore never thought she would land the lead role.
- #018
Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret) does not smoke in real life. She therefore had to smoke herbal cigarettes during production.
- #019
In March 1974, Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips were the targets of an attempted kidnapping as they returned by car to Buckingham Palace. Many royal history enthusiasts were astonished to notice that this significant event was ignored in the popular series.
- #020
Claire Foy is four years older than Vanessa Kirby in real life, which matches the age gap between their real-life characters, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret.
- #021
The Leica camera used by Antony Armstrong-Jones, Snowdon, was famous for its silent shutter, which made it popular among photographers doing unobtrusive and intimate shoots. A Foley artist added the noise.
- #022
Because of rights issues, the series could not use the actual photographs taken by Antony Armstrong-Jones, Snowdon, so photographer Julian Broad was asked to create images in the spirit of Armstrong-Jones's work to be shown in certain scenes, such as the exhibition opening. Broad had previously worked as the real Armstrong-Jones's assistant for two years in the 1980s.
- #023
When Gillian Anderson was cast as Margaret Thatcher, many fans argued that she was too sexy for the role.
- #024
Alex Jennings plays the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated the throne. Jennings had previously played another member of the royal family, King Charles III as the Prince of Wales, in the film The Queen (2006). Both projects were written by Peter Morgan. Jennings is now known for royal roles. He also played King George III in Liberty! The American Revolution (1997) and King Leopold I of Belgium (Queen Victoria's maternal uncle, Prince Albert's uncle, and the husband of Princess Charlotte of Wales, who died before she could become Queen of the United Kingdom) in Victoria (2016).
- #025
In the United Kingdom, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport asked Netflix to add a warning to The Crown stating that it is fictional.
- #026
Porchey (Henry George Reginald Molyneux Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon), a longtime friend and horse racing manager of Queen Elizabeth II, was portrayed in seasons 1, 2 and 3 and was officially known as Lord Porchester. His family owns the grand Highclere Castle in Hampshire, England, known as the real-life location in the popular TV series Downton Abbey (2010).
- #027
Queen Elizabeth II died on 8 September 2022 after 70 years on the throne. To pay respect to her death, production on the sixth season of The Crown was halted for 2 days.
- #028
Paul Bettany was in talks to play Prince Philip in the third and fourth seasons but withdrew from the talks due to problems finding mutually acceptable shooting dates. Tobias Menzies was later cast in his place.
- #029
Contrary to what is shown in the series, Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor (Lia Williams), was not in the room during the Duke of Windsor's abdication radio broadcast.
- #030
On the day Vanessa Kirby did her screen test for Princess Margaret, she had previously applied bronzer only to her ankles. She wore a skirt that exposed most of her legs for the audition, showing her legs in their natural color and her bronzed ankles in bright orange. Peter Morgan later explained that the appearance of her ankles was so distracting that it almost cost her the job.
- #031
Imelda Staunton, who plays the final version of Queen Elizabeth II, said in interviews that the news of the Queen's actual death came during filming. The actors were then given 10 days off, coinciding with the mourning and funeral. She said that when they returned and she got into character it felt strange, and that the cast and crew definitely felt a difference.
- #032
Conservative British journalist Charles Moore condemned the casting of Olivia Colman to play Queen Elizabeth II and claimed that Colman has a "left-wing face," claiming that she thought this was "ridiculous."
- #033
Prince William in season 5 is played by Senan West, the son of Dominic West, who plays Prince Charles in seasons 5 and 6.
- #034
As of 2020, the estimated production budget of The Crown was reported to be 260 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive television series in history.
- #035
On 1 November 2016, the first two episodes premiered in cinemas in the United Kingdom.
- #036
Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter, who take on the roles of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret respectively in the third season, had both previously played Queen Anne. Colman in Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) and Carter in The King's Speech (2010).
- #037
"Toothmeister" Chris Lyons created a pair of tooth blocks that John Lithgow wore on his back teeth for the character of Sir Winston Churchill, which caused a change in his diction and a contraction of his chin.
- #038
Despite playing her younger sister, Helena Bonham Carter is actually almost 8 years older than Olivia Colman.
Continue through the archive
Claire Foyas Queen Elizabeth II
Olivia Colmanas Queen Elizabeth II
Imelda Stauntonas Queen Elizabeth II
Tobias Menziesas Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Jonathan Pryceas Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Lesley Manvilleas Princess Margaret
Helena Bonham Carteras Princess Margaret
Dominic Westas Prince Charles
Elizabeth Debickias Princess Diana
Olivia Williamsas Camilla Parker Bowles
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