https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/crown-season-4s-most-scandalous-22987090?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Royalnews5&utm_campaign=royals_newsletter&ccid=2369561The Crown season 4's most dramatic moments from Diana's bulimia to royal clash
The Crown season 4 arrives on Netflix on November 15 and fans have lots to look forward to including the arrivals of Lady Diana Spencer and Margaret Thatcher
By Lewis KnightFilm Writer
13:56, 10 NOV 2020 Updated 15:09, 10 NOV 2020
The latest season of The Crown is almost arriving on Netflix and will feature some explosive storylines. The new episodes see The Queen (Olivia Colman) and Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) feeling more settled in their marriage but other dramas threaten the family future. The monarch finds herself in an increasingly icy relationship with her new prime minister, the controversial Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson). Elsewhere, the focus on Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor) and his need to find a wife sees him focus his attention on the young, sweet, but vulnerable Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin). However, from the beginning, it becomes clear that this will be one relationship that will not end well.
Here is what other explosive moments that fans have to look forward to in the new episodes.
1. Louis Mountbatten is assassinated
The new season opens in 1979 with the opening episode, Gold Sticks, depicting one of the darkest moments in the Royal Family's history. Charles Dance reprises his role as Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the uncle of Prince Philip and close confidante and surrogate father to his great-nephew Prince Charles. However, the family is horrified when Mountbatten is killed in a bomb blast as part of an assassination plot by the IRA in Ireland. His death prompts Philip and Charles to mourn but also sees Charles take on board Mounbatten's advice in his last letter to the heir to the throne: to find a suitable wife. Events depicted in the show surrounding Mounbatten's death did occur in real life, while even if his final letter was fictionalised, he did push Charles into marrying a virginal bride.
2. Margaret Thatcher versus The Queen
One of the chief focuses of the new run is the tense relationship between The Queen and her new prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Despite initially appearing hopeful about the relationship, The Queen gradually finds herself resenting the abrasive Thatcher and her harsh economic policies. While Thatcher's policies and personality remain controversial to this very day, The Queen has never publicly disparaged her and talk of any feud between the two remains speculative and rumoured.
3. Princess Diana's bulimia struggle
Multiple episodes of the new season come with a content warning at the beginning that notes the show will explicitly tackle Lady Diana Spencer's struggle with bulimia. The new episodes depict Diana binging on food and often purging and being sick in the toilet on multiple occasions as she struggles with isolation and a lack of control as she finds herself thrust into Palace life. These events mirror Princess Diana's own words of her experiences in her iconic Panorama interview with Martin Bashir. She said: "It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage. I was crying out for help. It’s like having a pair of arms around you, but it’s temporary."
4. Prince Andrew's entrance
Actor Tom Byrne is introduced as the controversial Prince Andrew in the new season. Arriving chaotically at one of his mother's residences in a helicopter, Andrew is portrayed as confident verging on arrogant and is his mother's favourite child. His first appearance also sees him refer to his actress girlfriend starring in an erotically-charged film about a 17-year-old called The Awakening of Emily. Andrew says: "She meets several twisted and perverted older predators who seduce the vulnerable, helpless, young Emily as we follow her induction into sensual pleasures."
When The Queen questions whether it is legal, Andrew responds: "Who cares?"
Andrew's romantic relationship with this US actress is a reference to Koo Stark, who he dated between 1981 to 1983.
4. Prince Charles and Princess Diana's affairs
The new episodes also depict the fraught marriage between the Prince and Princess of Wales. From even before her marriage to Charles, we see Diana unhappy over the presence of Camilla Parker Bowles (Emerald Fennell) in their relationship. As Charles continues to resent Diana's presence and later her popularity, he only pushes her further away and remains close to Camilla. Thus we see Diana begin engaging in passions of her own, namely with James Hewitt, in a relationship that has been well-documented in real-life. Diana also faces rumours of a 'revolving door' of male visitors at Buckingham Palace in the show, mirroring the constant speculation about her love life in real life.
5. Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace
A memorable moment from the history of Buckingham Palace has to be when unemployed painter and decorator Michael Fagan broke into the Queen's bedroom in 1982. On what he claims was his second time breaking into the Palace, Fagan went into the Queen's bedroom and the pair briefly spoke. In the show, Fagan (Tom Brooke) talks to the Queen about the damage being done to the country by Margaret Thatcher. However, Fagan himself says that the show has taken "a lot of artistic license" with their encounter.
6. Camilla Parker Bowles admits she can't compete with Diana in the public's eyes
In a moving moment between Prince Charles and true love Camilla, she admits that the rising popularity of Diana in the 1980s means that she will never be approved of by the British public. She said: "Thats what will happen if you put me in a popularity contest with her I will lose. I’m an old woman, I’m a married woman, nowhere near as pretty, nowhere near as radiant. She will always defeat me in the court of public opinion."
In real life, it would not be until 2005 and after Diana's death and both of their divorces that Camilla and Charles married. It was decided that Camilla would not take the title of Princess of Wales and she was styled instead as Duchess of Cornwall.
7. The Queen tackles apartheid in South Africa
In the season's eighth episode, The Queen is seen working hard with Commonwealth leaders to pressure South Africa into ending its apartheid regime through sanctions. However, The Queen finds resistance from Margaret Thatcher, prompting much negotiating behind the scenes and eventually the monarch lets criticism about the PM leak to the press. In the end, The Queen and private secretary Martin Charteris scapegoat press secretary Michael Shea. In real-life, Shea was named as the source but said that his comments were taken out of context and said that his subsequent departure from the Palace was unconnected to the scandal. Meanwhile, contemporary Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney later said that The Queen was a "behind the scenes force" in ending apartheid in South Africa.
8. Prince Philip faces off with Princess Diana
Throughout much of the season, former outsider Prince Philip is an ally and early advocate of Lady Diana Spencer. However, as her marriage with Charles disintegrates, Diana finds solace in her charity work, public appearances, and finding her own identity. Yet, as Diana grows increasingly fiery with Charles, she butts heads with Philip who delivers an ominous warning to her when she threatens to leave Charles. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," says Philip in the finale, "let's just say, I can’t see it ending well for you."
Diana responds: "I hope that isn't a threat, sir?"
Philip doesn't reply and eventually Diana joins the rest of the family at a gathering. While it is unknown if such a confrontation took place, Philip is known to have written to Diana telling her to "help maintain the dignity of the Crown" and either to "fit in or get out".
The death of Princess Diana from a car crash in Paris in 1997 sparked endless conspiracy theories surrounding her fate and the role of Royal Family members in it. However, the inquest into her death ruled there was no evidence of this.
