The Crown season 5

The fifth season of The Crown, which follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Netflix on 9 November 2022. It was the first season of the series to be released following both the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on 9 April 2021 and the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022; filming took place between the former and the latter's death.

Imelda Staunton stars as Elizabeth, along with main cast members Jonathan Pryce, Lesley Manville, Jonny Lee Miller, Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki. All cast members are new to the series; this season marked The Crown's final wholesale recasting, following the ensembles led by Claire Foy (seasons one and two) and Olivia Colman (seasons three and four).

Premise

The Crown traces the reign of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 through to the early 21st century.

The fifth season spans 1991–1997, during the premiership of John Major. Events depicted include Elizabeth's annus horribilis in 1992, Diana's Panorama interview, the separation and divorce of Prince Charles and Diana, Elizabeth's state visit to Russia, use of Prince Philip's DNA to identify the remains of the Romanov family, the decommissioning of Britannia, the handover of Hong Kong, and Major's departure from office and the beginning of Tony Blair's premiership.

Cast

Main

• Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II
• Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth's husband
• Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, Elizabeth's younger sister
• Dominic West as Charles, Prince of Wales, Elizabeth and Philip's eldest child and the heir apparent
• Jonny Lee Miller as John Major, Prime Minister 1990–1997
• Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles, Charles's long-time lover
• Claudia Harrison as Anne, Princess Royal, Elizabeth and Philip's second child and only daughter
• Natascha McElhone as Penny Knatchbull, Lady Romsey, wife of Lord Romsey, first cousin once removed of Prince Philip
• Marcia Warren as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, King George VI's widow, Elizabeth II and Margaret's mother
• Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales, Charles's wife

Featured

The following actors are credited in the opening titles of episodes in which they play a significant role:

• Salim Daw as Mohamed Al-Fayed, Dodi Fayed's father
• Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed, Diana's lover
• Alex Jennings as Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, Elizabeth's paternal uncle and formerly King Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936
• Lia Williams as Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, Elizabeth's paternal aunt by marriage and the Duke of Windsor's American wife
• Timothy Dalton as Peter Townsend, the man Margaret once hoped to marry
• Prasanna Puwanarajah as Martin Bashir, the journalist who conducted "An Interview with HRH The Princess of Wales"
• Bertie Carvel as Tony Blair, Prime Minister elected in 1997

Recurring

Notable guests

Episodes

Production

Casting

In January 2020, Imelda Staunton was announced as succeeding Colman as the Queen in the fifth season, and her role in the final sixth season was reported in July. Also in July 2020, Lesley Manville was announced as portraying Princess Margaret, and the following month, Jonathan Pryce and Elizabeth Debicki had been cast as Prince Philip and Diana, Princess of Wales, respectively. In October 2020, Dominic West was in talks to play Prince Charles and was officially confirmed as part of the cast in April 2021. In June 2021, Jonny Lee Miller was cast as John Major and Olivia Williams announced that she would portray Camilla Parker Bowles. On 18 November 2021, it was announced that Senan West, the real-life son of Dominic, was cast as Prince William. In March 2022, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu was cast as Monique Ritz. Khalid Abdalla plays Dodi Fayed; he relied on a piece of audio of Fayed doing a call-in for The Larry King Show to get a handle on Fayed's accent whilst speaking English, as Abdalla was unable to find an audio clip of Dodi Fayed online.

Filming

Filming for the season began in July 2021. Jemima Khan, who was a friend of Princess Diana, revealed that she had stepped down as a consultant and co-writer on episodes focusing on the Princess over concerns that the story of her final years would not be properly portrayed. Filming was temporarily halted that December after eight crew members tested positive for COVID-19, which resulted in them being quarantined.

Music

While not on the soundtrack, "Emotions" by American singer Mariah Carey was featured in the first episode.

Release

The season was released on the Netflix streaming service 9 November 2022. It was then released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2023 and worldwide the following day.

Reception

Audience viewership

During its debut week, the season topped Netflix's Top ten TV English titles with 107.39 million hours viewed. The following week, it remained number one with 84.31 million viewing hours. In its third week, it ranked at number three and generated 42.36 million viewing hours.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes reported a 71% approval rating for the season based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 6.75/10. Its critical consensus reads: "In its fifth season, it's hard to shake the feeling that this series has lost some of its luster – but addictive drama and a sterling cast remain The Crown's jewels." On Metacritic, the season holds a score of 65 out of 100 based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

TVLine named Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West the "Performers of the Week" on 19 November 2022, for their performances in the penultimate episode "Couple 31", writing: "...in one masterful scene near the end of the season's penultimate episode, the newly divorced pair met in private to share a few laughs and take a hard look what went wrong with their relationship, with Debicki and West bringing shocking candor and fresh vulnerability to the two former sweethearts. In the extended scene [...] Debicki and West [displayed] a warmth we hadn’t seen between these two since they first started dating". Meanwhile, Lesley Manville was given an honourable mention on 12 November 2022 for her performance in the episode "Annus Horribilis". The website wrote: "...Manville [brought] magnificent depth to a woman looking back on her life and wondering if things could’ve been different". However, many reviewers criticised the season for comparing poorly with earlier ones. Writing for The Atlantic, Shirley Li comments that "The new season of The Crown never risks challenging anyone's reputation. Instead, it merely risks its own as a compelling show". In Variety, Caroline Framke comments that "Morgan's scripts [hammer] their most obvious themes home with clattering thuds, pushing allegory after allegory with vanishingly little nuance". In The Guardian, Jack Seale concludes that "these new episodes are bitty and often just boring, with Morgan casting around for side plots to hide the fact that everything he has to say about the Windsors has already been said".

Controversy

After the fourth season, there were increased calls for Netflix to add a disclaimer to The Crown to emphasise that the series is a fictionalised portrayal based on historical events. These calls increased given that the fifth season was released only two months after the Queen's death. Veteran actress Judi Dench wrote an open letter to The Times, deeming the series "crude sensationalism" and calling for a disclaimer to be added. Netflix updated both the series description and the season five trailer caption on YouTube to refer to the series as a "fictional dramatization". However, upon the release of the series, no episode contained a disclaimer.