Princess Anne and Princess Margaret Are The Crown ’s Best Secret Weapons

Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana is the best part of The Crown’s fourth season. That’s not up for debate. However, the voices of reason this season—the narrators, the conscience, and perhaps the most relatable royals—are Princess Anne and her aunt, Princess Margaret, played by Erin Doherty and Helena Bonham Carter, respectively.

The 10-episode fourth season does a deep dive into Lady Diana Spencer's entrance into the royal family (as well as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s 11-year run in power), but it’s Anne and Margaret that help ground the soap opera theatrics of it all.

“Anne and Margaret have the same essence, that same kind of fiery need to be brutally 100% honest when people ask them what they think, and even when they don’t,” says Doherty. “So much of this family’s downfall is no one is actually having an honest conversation with anyone…and Margaret and Anne provide it.”

Take this quote from Margaret to the queen mother in episode seven, which focuses on mental health: “If you’re not first in line [to the throne] or if you don’t fit the perfect mold…then you’ll be spat out or hidden away, or worse, declared dead.”

In real life it’s not well known if Princess Margaret was especially close with Princess Anne (aside form family get-togethers, they don’t interact all that much on The Crown), but they were often pictured together, as seen below at the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. And ironically, in The Crown it is Margaret and Anne who understand Charles and Diana’s relationship better than anyone else. As a result their dialogue helps the viewer finally make sense why Diana and Charles weren’t the right match.

Princess Margaret—first played by Vanessa Kirby in seasons one and two and now by Bonham Carter—knows more than anyone how “the firm” (the royal family’s nickname) can come between true love. She was forbidden from marrying her first love, Peter Townsend, because he was previously married, something that the Church of England was very much against. As a result, Bonham Carter says, she wanted Princess Margaret in season four to be vocal about the problems with Charles and Diana’s mostly arranged marriage. (I mean, someone had to.)

During a press conference for The Crown, Bonham Carter pointed out that after reading an early script of season four, she had some ideas for how Margaret would react to the upcoming wedding of Charles and Diana. “I think there was a point—and maybe I’ve imagined this—where I said [to creator Peter Morgan], ‘Margaret’s not going to be encouraging a marriage when her whole life was destroyed when her sister interfered [in her own relationship].’ Marriage is a complicated thing, and not just for the royal family. I think Margaret sees Diana is too young. And you could count on one hand how long she and Charles knew each other. It’s so ill-advised on so many levels…and if they’re not happy, they’re not going to be useful to the country.”

And so in episode three, when the royal family is at the wedding rehearsal, Margaret says to her brother-in-law, Prince Philip, “Charles loves someone else. How many times can this family make the same mistake…forbidding marriages that should be allowed, forcing others that shouldn’t. Paying the consequences each time. He’s still in love with the other one.”

It’s the kind of exchange that makes you think, as much as one loves a grand royal wedding, Margaret is right—and maybe she can stop it. Of course, Philip doesn’t want to hear it, and says that the older Diana gets, the more confident and beautiful she’ll become, and Charles will fall in love with her even more. (Right, because that always works.)

Margaret is dumbfounded. “And in the meantime, he juggles them both?” When the queen mother tells her daughter that’s how it’s always been, Margaret steps up her concerns. “This is madness,” she asserts. “We can stop them now, before they tie the knot. Not just for the sake of the monarchy but for them as human beings.”

But the royal family has never sold itself on being human—at least not until Diana later upended the whole system by publicly showering her children with affection and hugging total strangers. That’s why Doherty relished those private moments as Princess Anne where she could show just how broken the queen’s only daughter really was.

“In the episode titled ‘Favourites,’ when Anne tries to reach out to her mum and doesn’t get what she needs, she essentially has a little bit of an emotional breakdown,” Doherty says. “It’s a heartbreaking thing to watch and play, but necessary to show that vulnerability. Because even people you think have it all together do not. That’s part of being human, and it’s wonderful to see.”

Anne is dealing with her own fractured marriage, and the queen’s response is basically that troubling times will pass if you have the patience to wait. Anne—never one to hold back—pointedly looks at her mother and asks, “Is doing nothing your solution to everything?” In some ways that very question/statement sums up exactly what has dogged the queen during the country’s most difficult times.

“That is the show,” Doherty says. “But the fascinating and beautiful thing about the queen is that she is this immovable force, and we will never understand that. But that’s what creates, essentially, all the drama.”

Ironically, even though the queen isn’t the most comforting mother to Anne, she does need Anne’s guidance in episode nine when it comes to uncovering the truth about Charles and Diana’s marriage. It’s just another example of how essential Anne is to the story this season, even if Anne’s own personal life sadly doesn’t get more screen time.

But even amidst all the sadness, Doherty and Bonham Carter clearly had a great time filming this season (and we’re not even talking about the Ibble-Dibble game in episode two). “I relished every moment where I got to show a little crack in the armor because I think it’s essential not to turn these people into superheroes in a sense,” Doherty says. “I want to be more like her, and I try to be, honestly. I feel like having the opportunity to say some of those lines is going to be some of the highlight of my acting career."

Josh O’Connor, Doherty’s on-screen brother, has a more direct take: “Look, let’s not beat around the bush: Anne was everyone’s favorite character in season three. We all know it! And we can always do with a little more Erin Doherty. She’s terrific as Princess Anne.”

Next season new actors will come in to play Anne and Margaret, respectively. Of the two, only Princess Margaret’s casting has been announced (Lesley Manville will play the queen’s younger sister in seasons five and six). But for now Bonham Carter says she’s very sad that it’s over. “Margaret is just a great gift of a part, and has been really fun company. I can’t believe I’ve been paid to do it.”

For more on season four of The Crown, click here.

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor. You can follow her on Instagram at @jessicaradloff14.

Originally Appeared on Glamour