The Crown sparks backlash over Princess Diana funeral scene

It's been one of Netflix's most popular series for years, but The Crown has always received its fair share of criticism as well as acclaim - with many calling the programme out for not showing a clear enough disclaimer that although the series depicting the Royal Family's ups and downs is loosely based on fact, a lot of it is imagined.

For instance, whilst an episode might depict a true event, such as the Queen not promptly visiting the Welsh mining town of Aberfan following the disaster that saw 144 killed, the conversations shown to have happened behind closed doors, or Her Majesty's reasons for not immediately travelling to Wales, have never been properly verified. Ditto, many have expressed concern for the way the show has heavily implied that Prince Philip was not entirely faithful during his marriage to Queen Elizabeth II.

Now, the show is being called out by royal experts for planning to include scenes of Princess Diana's funeral from 1999, which was reportedly watched by 2.5 billion people around the world. One particularly heartbreaking moment of the day has since gone down in history; when the two young princes, William, who was aged 15 at the time, and Harry, who was just 12, walked behind their mother's coffin for a mile.

It's a moment that both Prince William and Prince Harry have described as traumatic, especially given how young they were at the time. In 2017, Prince William even said it was "one of the hardest things I've ever done".

According to a new report from The Mail on Sunday, William Shawcross, the Queen Mother's official biographer, has now described the series as 'vile', particularly for planning to air the funeral scenes so soon after the Queen's death. "Nothing is sacred to [the writer of The Crown] Peter Morgan. This is a vile series which lies to the public and has been incredibly hurtful to the Royal Family from the Queen and our new King down. Unlike any other family, they cannot sue."

Fellow royal author, Angela Levin, who has written a biography of Prince Harry, also told the paper about her disapproval of the programme's decision to include Princess Diana's funeral. "It's inhuman, beyond any sense of decency, and hurtful. When I first went to interview Harry, he asked if I had seen The Crown, which at the time was on Series 2. I said no and he said, 'Oh you must watch it. My only problem is they've got to stop before they get to me'."

She added that the royal also told her, "My mother had just died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television. I don't think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don't think it would happen today. No child should lose their mother at such a young age and then have his grief observed by thousands of people."

However, speaking recently to Entertainment Tonight, Elizabeth Debicki – who has taken on the role of Princess Diana in the new season, was keen to reassure viewers that the Princess of Wales' tragic passing has been handled with real sensitivity.

"Peter [Morgan, the show's creator] and the entire crew of this job do their utmost to really handle everything with such sensitivity and truth and complexity, as do the actors," she said. "The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer’s perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice, is just immense."

Series five of The Crown is due to air 9 November on Netflix.

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