Acclaimed British actor Dame Judi Dench, best known for her role as 'M' in the James Bond series, has weighed in on the drama surrounding the release of Season 5 of Netflix's The Crown, calling for a disclaimer to be put in place before each episode out of "respect" for the late Queen Elizabeth II.
The star expressed her displeasure with the series, which chronicles the life and reign of the queen and her family members, in an open letter to the editor of The Times of London newspaper, which was published on Thursday.
In it she expresses the belief that "while many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true."
She goes on to call for Netflix to walk back on earlier assertions that they will not place a disclaimer telling audiences the show is a work of fiction based loosely on fact, before each episode.
"The time has come for Netflix to reconsider—for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved," she said, "as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve its reputation in the eyes of its British subscribers."
Queen Elizabeth II, who the show's central character portrays, died on September 8, with her son, King Charles III ascending to the throne. The main storyline of the new series is expected to focus on the breakdown of Charles' marriage to Princess Diana in the 1990s, something which affected dramatically his public popularity.
The buildup to the release of the show's fifth season on November 9 has caused widespread discussion in Britain, reigniting calls for the disclaimer.
One public figure represented in the series, former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major, after hearing an account of fictionalized scenes in which he is portrayed, released a statement calling the show a "damaging and malicious fiction" and "a barrel-load of nonsense peddled for no other reason than to provide maximum—and entirely false—dramatic impact," per The Telegraph.
In 2020, after the release of the fourth season, then–Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that the show was "a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that.… Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact."
Netflix issued a rebuttal which it has since stuck to, stating that the series was never presented as fact.
"We have always presented The Crown as a drama, and we have every confidence our members understand it's a work of fiction that's broadly based on historical events," it said. "As a result, we have no plans—and see no need—to add a disclaimer."
That Dame Judi should join the voices against the drama may come as some surprise as she has won critical acclaim for portraying members of the royal family on screen throughout her career. This included winning an Academy Award for her portrayal of Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (1998) and a BAFTA for playing Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), a role she reprised in 2017 for Victoria & Abdul.
The movie, Mrs. Brown did not show a disclaimer, whereas Victoria & Abdul displayed a line saying that the film is "based on true events...mostly."
The star has met with members of the royal family over the years, being photographed on a number of occasions with the new King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Despite her having been part of royal-centric drama productions in the past, prominent royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told Newsweek that Dench was entitled to speak her mind on the issue of the disclaimer.
"Dame Judi Dench is one of our greatest actresses and her superb portrayal of Queen Victoria in two films has rightly become famous," he said. "She also won an Oscar for her highly memorable portrayal of Elizabeth I. Audiences watching these films knew they were fictionalized history and all the characters in them were long dead."
"The Crown is very different. When complete, it will run to six series and 60 episodes, and reportedly covers events to the end of the 1990s. It has an enormous worldwide following. The fact that it is publicized as a drama, despite deliberately distorting events involving those living as well as those deceased, is not the point.
"Dame Judi believes that Netflix should run a disclaimer as a mark of respect to the late Queen as she accuses it of 'crude sensationalism.' She rightly believes that many viewers will believe what they see actually happened."
Netflix's The Crown returns on November 9 with Dame Imelda Staunton in the lead role as Queen Elizabeth II, Dominic West as Prince Charles and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana.
Dame Judi's Comments in Full
Sir, Sir John Major is not alone in his concerns that the latest series of The Crown will present an inaccurate and hurtful account of history (News, Oct 17). Indeed, the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.
While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true. Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series — that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother's parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence — this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.
No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged. Despite this week stating publicly that The Crown has always been a "fictionalised drama" the programme makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode.
The time has come for Netflix to reconsider — for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve its reputation in the eyes of its British subscribers.
Dame Judi Dench
London W1
Newsweek reached out to representatives of Dench for comment.
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About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
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