Yes, that's ex-007 Timothy Dalton playing Princess Margaret's sweetheart on The Crown

The name's Dalton. Timothy Dalton. And, yes, that is the former James Bond franchise star playing Princess Margaret's old sweetheart Peter Townsend on the new season of The Crown.

Diehard fans of the Emmy-winning series will recall that Townsend was played by Ben Miles on season 1 of the show. Claire Foy's young Queen Elizabeth forbade Vanessa Kirby's version of Margaret from marrying the RAF flying ace and member of the royal family household staff because he was divorced. Alas, the season 5 reunion of Townsend and the Princess, now played by Dalton and Lesley Manville, proves bitter-sweet.

Keith Bernstein/Netflix Lesley Manville and Timothy Dalton on season 5 of 'The Crown'

"Timothy plays Peter Townsend, who obviously was the man who was supposed to be marrying Princess Margaret when they were much younger," says Manville. "He did come back into her life when they were about the age that we are in episode 4, but obviously it's been dramatized for the purposes of the series. Timothy Dalton [is] just very, very, very good casting I think. He looks great. He's got those dashing good looks still, and it was really, really, really lovely doing those scenes together, and it serves as a springboard into the feelings that Margaret has about being deprived [of] the man that she wanted to marry juxtaposed with how the Queen's children are being allowed a new kind of freedom within the royal family to marry who they want, separate if they have to. Obviously that becomes therefore what drives her to go and confront the Queen about what she urged her to do 40 years earlier."

Keith Hamshere/Danjaq/Eon/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock Timothy Dalton in 'The Living Daylights'

While Dalton is best known for playing Bond in 1987's The Living Daylights and 1989's Licence to Kill, the British actor has many credits outside the 007 franchise including 1980's Flash Gordon, 1991's The Rocketeer, 2007's Edgar Wright-director Hot Fuzz, and the TV shows Penny Dreadful and Doom Patrol.

Watch the trailer for season 5 of The Crown below.

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