The Crown: This major character almost didn't appear in the series – News Series

When it premiered in 2014, The Crown was already one of the most ambitious television projects of all time. And over the course of its seasons until its production ended last year, its impact on the small screen world was significant.

Created for Netflix and released in 2016, Peter Morgan's series chronicled the life of Queen Elizabeth II from just before she became monarch to 2005, when Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles. With a cast that changed every two seasons, with Claire Foy, Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton taking on the lead roles, the series showed a queen facing a changing and turbulent external (and internal) world.

Lady Di or not?

But while he tried to stay as close to reality as possible – adding his share of fiction to fill in certain gaps – Peter Morgan spoke in an interview with Variety last June about his fears about portraying Diana on screen, speaking primarily about his apprehension about telling the story of her death. What was he afraid of? Everything.

“Frankly, everything. I had a morbid fear that I wouldn't be able to find an actress good enough to play her. So I think my biggest concern was finding someone who wouldn't convince you that she was Diana. I have to say that I was prepared to rewrite the show and not have Diana in it. And there were some advantages to that – she was this outside element, and we were with the family that had to deal with the outside element. I was prepared to do that if we hadn't found the right actress – and first with Emma Corrinthen with Elizabeth DebickiI think we found the only two who could do it and in a way that really convinced you.”

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He added: “Dealing with his death was obviously a very sensitive issue, but it's also a matter of historical documentation. It's a major historical event. And as a playwright, I think it's your responsibility to address that subject. But of course, you do it knowing that there are a lot of people who have a lot of feelings about it and are personally affected by it. So you have to be careful and sensitive and responsible in how you do it.”

Diana, ghost?

After writing the film The Queen in 2006, Peter Morgan wanted to approach the subject in a different way, especially since the film did not offer the same point of view.

“With The Crown, even though it covers exactly the same period, I didn't want to repeat myself. I didn't want to do it through Tony Blair's eyes. I didn't want to have the same conversations. I had a lot of that attitude towards Prince Charles at the time, who is now our king. And I also wanted to show, maybe now that we're dramatising Diana, how she affected them after she died. That's why I wrote these scenes, which I thought a lot about, where Elizabeth Debicki was a figment of their imagination, part of their inner conversation.”

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“There are only two moments in the series where we break with naturalism.”, he added. “And right after the loss of a loved one, I don't think it's uncommon for people to have imaginary conversations, to imagine seeing them. One or two people in the UK have said something about a ghost. It's not a ghost! There's no rattling of chains. It's such a silly term, it's the imaginary conversations of people who are grieving. I find those scenes very moving, very touching. I think some of Elizabeth Debicki's best performances were in those scenes. She had incredible poise and compassion.”

When imagination must intervene

As for the scenes between Diana and Dodi Fayed on the night of her death, besides the many testimonies, the creator's imagination must have come into play.

“We have first-hand accounts. But there was a period when Diana and Dodi were alone in that hotel room at the Ritz. We know everything that happened from the moment they left that hotel suite and got into the car. We know meter by meter, second by second what happened. But what we don't know is what they were saying to each other in that hotel room. And that's where I come in, and I have to use my imagination, but (…) I don't start writing immediately and think, 'Well, I wonder what they had…' – you have to think very long and hard. Where is this particular character at that particular moment in their life? Many people, close to Diana and Dodi, have spoken about the state of mind of both individuals at the time, and you reconstruct what you imagine to be the case. And if you're wrong, the audience will tell you. An audience, even without doing any research, will guess whether something is true or not. The audience is very intelligent (…). If it is implausible, the audience will know instantly. They will simply reject it.”

He continued: “For me, the pleasure lies in the imagination. But the imagination that is so well supported by anecdotes, personal interviews (…), historical books, that you can then imagine with precision. That scene that night at the Ritz Hotel, I am particularly proud of it, because I really believe that it is the closest thing to what Diana and Dodi were saying to each other that night. The fact that she did not want to hurt his feelings, the fact that she had no intention of marrying him. (…) My conscience is quite clear about what happened to us.”

All 6 seasons of The Crown are available to watch again on Netflix.