The Crown's Jonathan Pryce says playing Prince Philip 'reinforced' his feelings about the Royal Family

Jonathan Pryce has admitted that playing Prince Philip in The Crown only "reinforced" his view of the Royal Family - although he did feel he understood his character better.

The actor stars as the late Duke of Edinburgh in the latest season of The Crown, which begins streaming on Netflix on Wednesday, and has previously talked about being no fan of the British monarchy.

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He recently said of viewing the series before he was cast in it: “I’m not a monarchist, and I thought I would have very little interest in the royal family but my wife Kate and I decided to watch it. We got to the end of episode one, and we turned to each other and said, ‘Shall we watch another one?’. We just got hooked.”

Speaking on the eve of season five's release, he was asked whether filming The Crown had changed his perception of the British monarchy.

Pryce, 75, told Yahoo UK and other media: "Changed it? No. It's reinforced my feelings about them.

"I suppose, looking at Prince Philip it's made me much more aware of the kind of man he was behind the headlines.

"He spent most of his life getting a bad press for saying all the wrong things, usually in the colonies, and finding more about the man who was behind all of that has changed my view of him, essentially."

Pryce also reflected on the Queen's death in September, saying that he thought people would be keener than ever to watch The Crown - and admitting he couldn't remember the name of former Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Read more: The Crown season 5: Royal expert fears far more 'dangerous inaccuracies'

He said: "I think it's bound to affect their perception of what we do, but I'm confident that the numbers will grow even bigger.

"After the Queen died, the viewing figures went up 500% for previous series of The Crown and I don't want to sound too pompous about it, but I think people will gain a bit of comfort from seeing her embodied again."

Pryce added: "For me, seeing the crowds queuing for the Queen was saying this is the kind of person we want to see leading our country. Not, er, who was it? Well, she's gone now, she was there for a week."

Imelda Staunton, who takes over as the Queen in season five, also shared her own thoughts on her passing.

She said: "It amazed me, people's response and I thought, god, you really admired this woman. Here we are celebrating this woman, with her own face - you know what I mean? This woman who just did the job, not anything outside the job, not the stuff around it.

"Like her connection with horses, she had blinkers, and you just go straight on."

The Queen was previously played by Olivia Colman and Claire Foy, and Prince Philip by Tobias Menzies and Matt Smith.

The Crown season five begins streaming on Netflix on Wednesday, 9 November.

Watch: The Crown season 5 cast on how they honoured Queen Elizabeth II