It seems we all have British monarchy fever. With the latest addition to the royal family, the American-divorced-actress-turn-British-Duchess, Meghan Markle, interest in the British monarchy is at a high.
As we wait for the Duchess to have her baby, we are left to satisfy our cravings for stories of the royal crown to historical movies, books, and television series.
The Netflix original series “The Crown” is a great place to start if you’re interested in learning more about the current monarch.
“The Crown”, now heading into its third season, looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II. The first two seasons has an all-star cast, with Claire Foy helming the cast as Elizabeth II and even earning Emmy nominations and winning a Golden Globe for the performance.
However, in a really interesting casting twist, Claire Foy will be passing the role of the monarch off to Olivia Colman. The rest of the cast will be switching as well, so Matt Smith, who has been playing Elizabeth’s husband Prince Phillip, will be passing his role to Tobias Menzies.
The first season starts on the wedding day of Elizabeth and Phillip in 1947 and examines her first years as Queen until 1955, while the second season follows her reign up until 1964. The show depicts encounters with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the early days of the Suez Crisis, and the aftermath of the Great Smog of 1952, among many other historical moments.
The coolest part about a show like this is that the story is already written – it’s history. If you want to know what happens next, you can easily go break open a history textbook or a Queen Elizabeth II biography.
However, what makes this show incredibly unique is the opportunity to watch amazing actors tell the stories of people who are still living and creating more history every day of their lives.
Could you handle the scrutiny of a sitting monarch watching your interpretation of their lives? Probably not.
However, Princess Beatrice recently revealed that her granny likes the show, and a senior royal source said that Elizabeth’s son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, are the ones who introduced her to the program.
“It has been a longstanding arrangement that [Edward and Sophie] drive to Windsor at the weekend to join the Queen for an informal supper while watching TV or a film. They have a Netflix account and urged her to watch it with them. Happily, she really liked it, although obviously there were some depictions of events that she found too heavily dramatized.”
We get to watch some of the best actors give us an inside look into the inner lives and motivations behind some of the most in-depth historical moments in recent history.
This decision to change actors for the roles as the characters age instead of aging the actors up is a remarkable choice considering the scope of the show and the acclaim the actors have received, but it is almost certainly going to be a success, considering the creative team is staying intact.
While the third season won’t be coming out until next year, you should jump on the chance to watch the first two seasons now.
It’ll give you ample time to fall in love with all of the actors’ performances before they are pulled out from under us and replaced with a totally new cast of incredible actors. God save the Queen.
Feature image credit: PxHere
