Wolf Hall- The Mirror and the Light: Wreckage

 "I do not understand you, Cromwell. Why are you not afraid? You should be afraid."

It's been... yeah, many, many years. Use the search function if you'd like to see my reviews of the earlier series, adapting Hilary Mantel's first two novels- I did; I certainly needed my memory refreshing. So much life has happened for me since then....

This first episode is extraordinarily powerful. Story, stript, acting, look, direction- all are superb in depicting the sheer peril of politics where the tyrant at the centre of it all is a highly intelligent, scarily volatile and utterly caprucious monster such as Henry VIII, a tyrant of truly terrifying proportions.

As per The Private Life of Henry VIII, a film which, oddly enough, I saw only weeks ago, we begin with the horrifying juxtaposition of Anne Boleyn walking to the scaffold as Henry prepares to marry Jane Seymour the same day. This sequence alone, beautifully shot, says everything. Horrifyingly, Anne keeps looking up, to the windows of the Tower, imagining that there may be hope...

Yet much of the episode concerns the fascinating and deadly games of power. Cromwell may be at the centte of all yet, as Chapuys amusedly pointds out, he is utterly dependent on the King, with no one to save him should he falter. No wonder he is carefully writing a book on how to handle the King.

The King, at this point, seems even worse than before, seemingly contemplating the execution of his own daughter for refusing to sign the oath, yet turning on a sixpence at the end to embrace his cowed child. As for Cromwell himself... he plays such a dangerous game. At one point, when Henry seems to turn fully against Mary, he himself even acknowledges that things certainly appear bleak.

I'm going to enjoy this series so very much- telly at its best.

The Crown: Season 4, Episode 8- 48:1

 "That was impressively c*nty..."

I must admit that, while this season maintains the high quality we've seen from The Crown since the beginning, and this episode for one is typically excellent although with a few , I'm afraid my interest is waning because of the subject matter. The '50s, '60s and '70s felt like history but this season, gradually focusing into my own remembered lifetime, feels more like tabloid celebrity tittle tattle- Charles and Di and, as here, Fergie and dodgy Andy. As a television drama it's still intelligent and excellent as ever, but the subject matter is grabbing me less.

This episode, however, addresses a serious constitutional question: what if a monarch truly comes to loathe a prime minister, and breaks the habit of a lifetime by subtly allowing this to be known- just this once? The matter is particularly acute as the key to the disagreement is the very clear moral need for sanctions against apartheid South Africa. Thatcher's stubbornness is not shown in a good light here. Still, while far from a Thatcherite myself, I must say that the script sets out to portray her in a bad light, heartless and arrogant. The Queen and Thatcher are paralleled throughout, with the Queen consistently shown in terms of her love of the Commonwealth and that speech in Cape Town on her 21st birthday (a nice touch, and lovely to get another scene with Claire Foy) dedicating herself to altruistic service, whereas Thatcher is made to say that she believes in encouraging people to look after number one, and only then to their neighbour. Still, she's right about the Commonwealth including several dictators with

One could argue that Thatcher is portrayed in a bad light here. One could also reasonably argue that her actual opinions don't seem to be misrepresented from what I know of the woman, and that those opinions were callous and ignorant. However, the episode tries to find a balance in the use of the character of Michael Shea who, having advised the Queen against making her views known, does so on her orders- and ends up as scapegoat having had his honourable behaviour highlighted by the script. This doesn't seem to reflect reality, and seems to be there to provide some sort of moral equivalence, although it's well done. But, while there are plenty of examples of royals being brutally unfair to their employees, in this case it appears to be entirely made up. I don't mind artistic licence, or facts being shaped to fit dramatic needs, provided the underlying truth is portrayed, or an attempt made to do so, and I've defended the programme before on such grounds. That doesn't seem to have happened here, however, which is a shame.

We also have some nice dialogue between the royal siblings on the occasion of Andy's wedding, as Charles arrogantly dismisses his siblings as "fringe" and earns the above splendid quote from Anne. His schadenfreude at his mother is, of course, a delight.

So, a well-structured episode with some nice character stuff, especially between the Queen and Thatcher, whose relationship has pretty much collapsed. But I don't like the use of events that didn't happen to provide balance.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 10- Mystery Man

“You are a mystery man to me.”

It’s a bit of a jump forward to 1962, and this episode covers two years of time, but then again this is the last outing with this wonderful cast. I think we would be churlish to begrudge them at least one episode where, although there’s no swinging as yet, it is at least beginning to feel like the Sixties.

This is, as ever, a dense and thought-provoking episode, hinging on the Profumo scandal but not so much about it as riffing on it. Most obviously, there’s the unresolved question of whether the “mystery man” photographed at one of Stephen Ward’s parties is Philip or not, his increased absences at house parties and the like, and the question of whether he is playing away. It’s left ambiguous, even after the wonderfully acted confrontation scene near the end when the Queen shows him the locket he saw in his case all those years ago- and we still are left none the wiser. This kind of ambiguity is probably wise.

We also get a good sense of how social mores are changing- the satire boom is in full swing and Beyond the Fringe (if you haven’t seen it, do so; it’s extraordinary) mocks the establishment in new ways, and Macmillan’s humiliation as he watches it in stage is nicely juxtaposed with the pompously conservative, snobbish and implicitly homophobic prosecution speech at Stephen Ward’d trial, leading to his suicide- exactly the kind of vicious arrogance that needed doing away with. It was this, rather than particularly Macmillan, that needed to be swept away.

Speaking of Macmillan, this series has not been kind to him. I’m no Tory, but I’d say he’s the best peacetime Tory prime minister of the twentieth century- moderate, sensibly centrist in his opinions, a steady hand with colonialism. Yes, his resignation was more due to being fed up with it all than his ill health, but I’ve no doubt six years as PM is exhausting. The Queen’s rant at him for being a quitter here is uncalled for, but I suppose the point is that she doesn’t have the luxury of resignation. It’s an interesting scene to include.

We end with a new royal birth and a kind of deconstructed mise en scene as Cecil Beaton takes another photograph to end a second superb season. I’ll be blogging the next season very soon indeed.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 9- Paterfamilias

"The Prince is sure to be put through his paces by their gruelling physical regime..."

As ever, this is a thought-provoking and stimulatng piece of drama, and about more than it may seem at first. The gruelling experiences of the sensitive young Prince Charles at Gordonston are paralleled with flashbacks to the childhood of the young Philip- and we see that both father and son are damaged, both of them in large part because of their own fathers. The cycle continues. And it is hard to escape the conclusion that Charles will be a worse king for his experiences.

Charles is put through five long years of what he describes as "a prison sentence" and "Hell" by Philip, who passionately believes in Gordonstoun and its ethos and will stop at nothing to send his son there. Yet he struggled there himself at first, until the death of his favourite sister- which his absentee monocled failure of a father, Prince Andrew of Greece, cruelly blames on him. Dickie Mountbatten has the right of it in his little monologue to young Charles about parents falling short. The whole theme is masterfully developed, with the use of planes being particularly clever throughout. And Matt Smith is sublime in portraying his disappointment at Charles at the end.

There's more, of course- it's a shock to see the young Philip in Nazi Germany, speaking German and surrounded by the casual presence of Nazi iconography. His sister, Princess Cecile, casually and apptovingly refers to "Herr Hitler". And it's a shock to see Philip insist to Elizabeth that Charles must continue to attend Gordonstoun on pain of divorce- he is deeply attached to Gordonstoun. And the flashbacks tell us why: despite the physical exertions, cold showers and gruelling runs, the this of the school is not cruel and its headmaster, Jewish refugee Dr Hahn, is as progressive as he is harsh.

And yet, in spite of the nuanced portrayal here, one cannot but reflect on the words Elizabeth is made to say here, about the terrible childhood damage caused by bullying, and be horrified at how the man who will soon be our King was brought up. Poor Charles.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 8- Dear Mrs. Kennedy

"What are they doing?"

"Had to say. I believe it's the foxtrot."

It's getting almost predictable that I'm declaring each episode of The Crown in turn to be a superb piece of telly. I'm rather afraid I'm having to do so again.

This episode is a particularly strong example of what this episode does so well- the seamless mix of geopolitics and the history of the twentieth century with very real characterisation and psychological acuity. In this episode there's a lot of ten dimensional chess going on as the winds of change blow and former European (particularly British) colonies, especially in Africa) are made independent. Yet the episode begins with a foregrounding of how this is playing out in a Cold War context, with the Soviets ready to swoop. We see the Queen's portrait being removed and replaced with that of Lenin- replacing one symbol of European imperialism with another.

We also see the British cultural cringe- even that of royalty- to the glamour of Camelot, as President Kennedy and the dazzling Jackie visit, seeming to outshine the Queen, And, while she and Jackie seem to connect, it seems  that Mrs Kennedy is unimpressed with Elizabeth, who is hardly an intellectual.

And yet... the Queen may not know who wrote Tartuffe, but her life is full of complex diplomatic decisions. And the episode centres on an outside-the-box diplomatic masterstroke, keeping President Nkrumah close to the West by allowing herself to be seen dancing the foxtrot with him in a masterful display of soft power.

We also, in a nice little coda, see the truth behind the Camelot glamour in Kennedy's illness, his philandering and... well, I'm not sure how factual the domestic abuse is, or the exact nature of the drugs administered to the First Couple. But the connection between the two women is nice to see, and the reaction to Kennedy's assassination tasteful.

I'm not sure I'd be gushing so much if the Kennedys were the central figures here- my impression of the historical Jack, despite the philandering, is that he was a much nicer chap than portrayed here, and Michael C. Hall is simply miscast. But I can't deny that this is, once again, bloody good.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 7- Matrimonium

"As in art, so, it would appear, in life..."

Again we have a Margaret episode and, again, there is much subtlety and character development. Like ast episode, the plot is simple; Margaret is to marry Tony who, we now see, is sectretly carrying on polyamorous relationships with both sexes and, moreover, is rather more damaged than he might appear. Yet Elizabeth, even after hearing the truth from Tommy Lascelles- again brought out of retirement to do what Michael cannot- is unable, after what happened with Peter Townsend, to say no. And the baby to whom she gives birth here will one day be mixed up with sexual doings that are a thousand times worse.

The episode abounds, as ever, with lovely character moments on which we can dwell as we hope that Margaret won't get hurt. The scene between Margaret and Elizabeth at the end is fascinating- Margaret wants freedom and independence, and is marrying this man as part of that. Yet she, unlike the Queen, enjos the titles and the deference and will never give up those things- a necessary precondition for any royal to break free of their life sentence in a gilded cage.

We get an outburst from Philip, last season a victim of snobbery himself, yet looking down on Tony who, unlike hilself, is not the grandson of a king and a prince in his own right. Fascinatingly, we learn that the womanising Tony is the son of a vaguely neglectful mother who left his commoner father to marry an earl, and his younger half-brother outranks him- until he marries Margaret. Deliciously, we hear this as Tony, along with the Frys with whom he is having a bisexual menage a trois, watches the results of the 1959 election as Supermac crushes all before him in a country that has never had it so good.

It is also jarring to see Macmillan lead the Cabinet in prayer upon hearing of the royal baby. 1959 was a different world, albeit a changing one, more religious than ours on the surface- but perhaps not much deeper than that; and where conservative social mores on the surface are not applied to the discreet elite.

A superb hour of drama, as always.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 6- Vergangenheit

"He's shouting, darling. Only zealots shout."

This is, perhaps, the finest episode so far, and rich in its themes of duty and (not narrowly religious)  faith.

It's obvious to those of us with vague knowledge of the Duke of Windsor's wartime activites that the two plot threads- David's desire to return from exile and do some useful work to free him from a life of empty decadence versus the looming forced publication of secret wartime papers linked to the toyals and, as we see in the flashback with George VI, are a source of great shame- are linked. And so the overall plot, as Elizabeth learns the full truth (perhaps) from Tommy Lascelles and ultimately exiles him forever, plays out superbly, with excellent dramatic beats and superb characterisation throughout.

Except the episode is even better than that. There are so many superb touches, from Tommy Lascelles preciousness with his miniature troops (the geek), to the quote above- given the wider themes of the episode, is the Queen Mother comparing Billy Graham to Hitler, as least in the limited sense that demagoguery is not a good thing? Yet the presence of Graham here- and the Queen's interest in him- provide a contrast between the dutiful and deeply conscientious Christian sovereign and the life of empty luxury and fundamental tackiness led by her flighty uncle in Paris. We last see Elizabeth kneeling in prayer, while we last see David giving a look of profound alienation as he suffers yet another party. Alex Jennings is superb here.

The first scene between Elizabeth and Graham is superb, too. I'm not someone capable of faith myself (show me empiiacal proof that God exists and I'll believe, but don't just tell me there's an invisible man who lives in the sky and not expect a raised eyebrow) but the desire of the Head of the Church of England to be a "simple Christian" is touching. Although nowhere near as good as the revelation that Phil has been getting bladdered with the Queen Mum and Tommy Lascelles.

Is what Tommy Lascelles says about Edward VIII literally true? I'm sure to a large extent it is, but in full? Was David significantly worse than his brother for hob-nobbing with Nazis in the 1930s, when the Holocaust was unsuspected but it was already clear Hitler was a cruel dictator, whatever sympathies one may have had for Germany after Versailles? I'm no expert. But this is a supetlative hour of telly.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 5- Marionettes

“Goodness, a constitutional crisis!"

A quietly excellent episode this time, artfully exploring somewhat abstract constitutional issues while nevertheless functioning as drama. And John Heffernan is superb as a peer(!) who throws a grenade on to the institution of monarchy in order to save it in a world where, after all, where monarchies were once the rule and republics the exception, we now live in a world where the reverse is the case.

Lord Altrincham's opinions reflect, interestingly, a time where any criticism of the monarchy was seen as heretical and republicanism was unthinkable. Today we are, I think, more open-minded, and not necessarily to the monarchy's detriment. Like many, I am a republican in the abstract. My ideal state would of course be a republic; that a head of state should be elected is a no-brainer. But we do not, of course, live in the abstract; we live in a particular time and place. And I for one do not believe, here in the UK in 2020, that our current generation of politicians has either the integrity or the constitutional literacy to make such a radical change and the monarchy is, in contrast to the damage that may be done, eminently preferable. I'm the St Augustine of republicans- give me a republic, but not yet.

Yet there are troubling issues- of snobbery, of the diminished but inevitable presence of divine right in a secular world, of the disconnect between the actual job of being a head of state who is "above" politics and the actual history of royalty, represented by the Queen Mother here in her dolefully reactionary "marionettes" speech near the end. These issues are hinted at by Lord Altrincham- a character who comes across rather well, both overall and while being interviewed by Bertie Carvel as a superb Robin Day- but he seeks not to destroy the institution, but to save it, as comes across in the dramatically effective but probably apocyphal chat with Elizabeth herself.

What is perhaps clear is just how out-of-touch the old breed of courtier has become, as seen with the dreadful speech Elizabeth is given. Things must change, so that they may stay the same.

In other news, Margaret is shagging Tony. This is superb stuff as ever.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 4- Beryl

“The surface is so dreary, don’t you think?”

This is a superb bit of telly. On one level, it’s a Margaret episode, allowing the royal couple to fade a little into the ensemble. One another, it’s far deeper and more interesting.

We see some development of Elizabeth and Philip as they make the best of things and settle down into their very humdrum married life of duty. Marriage is a theme, as Harold Macmillan uses the metaphor to refer to the fractured post-Suez Transatlantic partnership- but, as we discover, his wife is openly having an affair with the Prime Minister as a knowing and emasculates cuckold. As his wife says of him, “His weakness repels next, his love disgusts me.”

For Margaret, it seems, there can be no wedded bliss, as her latest potential fiancé humiliates her. Only by venturing into a freer world, the fascinating Bohemia of Fifties London with its Angry Young Men, artistic ferments and upcoming ventures Beyond the Fringe, does the discover a measure of freedom from her gilded but oh-so-restrictive cage. And she meets, in avant garde photographer Tony Armstrong-Jones, not only a potential love interest but an exciting entry into a much less dreary world.

What’s particularly wonderful about this episode partly set in arty Bohemia- with cameos from Ken Russell, Dudley Moore, Johns Profumo and Betjeman, and no doubt others- is that the cinematography is as creative and unconventional as anything in Tony’s studio, and Vanessa Kirby shines. A finely crafted episode.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 3- Lisbon

“One always has to accept one’s own part, I believe, in any mess.”

This is a very cleverly structured episode, both in itself and as part of the season. We return, of course, to the Lisbon flash forward where the season began, whet the two plot threads- Eden’s resignation and the climax of the Parker divorce case revelation in the media and the confrontation between Elizabeth and Philip. It’s masterfully done: the train steaming inexorably towards Sandringham for Eden to suffer his drive of shame before resigning is also a symbol of what awaits Philip.

Yet Elizabeth remains, somehow, constitutionally above it all. Eden may try to rationalise things to himself, and to claim that he’s resigning from ill health and not because he’s just been- to use an anachronism- Thatchered by his Cabinet. Macmillan may try and downplay his past support for the Suez misadventure, but the Queen is not unaware. And nor is she unaware of the underlying reasons for Philip’s “restlessness”- again, the question of his possible adultery is left open- or, indeed, unfeeling, whatever the stiff upper lip exterior may show. Claire Foy is utterly sublime here.

The solution- upgrading Phil to a Prince and a crackdown on moustaches- seems unlikely to work. We shall see. Further kids are on the way, the less said about the first of them the better, but Mike is perceptive, in his parting chat with Phil, on the underlying tension between a monarch and their eldest son, who represents their personal extinction.

There is an awful lot going on here- echoes of the Iraq War, but one where the protests claim their scalp; Tommy Lascelles coming back from retirement for a crisis; the Queen and Eileen having a woman to woman talk. The obvious respect both PM’s have for Elizabeth- and her perceptive comments to Eden on how doing nothing is often the wisest course, but not one that may appeal to those wishing themselves to be great men. This is a clever, clever bit of telly.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 2- A Company of Men

“Men are expected to indulge...”

This is a very, very courageous piece of telly and I’m surprised the subject matter didn’t arouse more controversy at the time. Again, Philip isn’t shown to have been having an affair during his five month tour of the Commonwealth (or indeed previously), but it is implied that he may have been a little naughty- as Eileen, Mike Parker’s disgruntled wife, tells us, the five month trip looks awfully like a very long stag night.

Meanwhile Elizabeth remains at home- calm, unflappable, far too stiff upper lip to allow her feelings to be visible- much as Sir Anthony Eden, humiliated by the Suez debacle, appears to be having a physical and mental breakdown as the drugs no longer work. But this is not an episode for geopolitics, much as Lord Mountbatten may scheme- he’s an interesting character.

But a large portion of the episode, expensive looking at that, is given over to Philip’s hi-jinks, interspersed with the odd speech and the occasional Olympics to open. There’s a very symbolic scene in which he rings Elizabeth from the other side of the world but the line is terrible- as ever, they aren’t communicating. But most fascinating is the journalist interviewing Philip in which we are reminded of his traumatic childhood, where revolution in Greece led to parental abandonment and breakdown- and the awkward fact of his Nazi sisters.

We finish with Philip having a long night of the soul, and a family reconciliation of sorts. But, as the start of last episode shows, there are still difficulties to come. The spiralling scandal of Mike and Eileen’s divorce threatens to expose Philip and the tension is palpable. This is good drama, although I’m glad we do t have those stupid lese-majeste laws they have in Thailand. And Matt Smith, in particular, is superb.

The Crown: Season 2, Episode 1- Misadventure

“A prison...?"

It's been years since I saw the first season so this is long overdue. In my defence, there's so much telly to see and blog. But I'm reminded, after this first episode of what I can hardly call the new season, that this is a bloody good programme. And both Claire Foy and Matt Smith excel as ever- as does Jeremy Northam as an increasingly tragic Sir Anthony Eden beneath the apparent patrician poise.

Foy is superb at conveying the deep yet necessarily restrained emotions of a Sovereign, not free to be a person, as her marriage seems to be falling apart, yet divorce is not an option and neither, it seems, is happiness. Monarchy is a gilded cage, and not a humane one. Yet Smith also successfully walks a tigtrope, remaining likeable as an emasculated yet childish paragon of toxic masculinity chafing at his traditionally feminine role and, it's implied, having affairs- although this, I suspect, will never be more than implied. I suspect the picture of a woman found by Elizabeth in his bag will have an innocent explanation, but there are definite hints at infidelity. Their marriage is in trouble.

But can royals ever be happy, or human? The institution is cruel. Look at Margaret, now a careless drunk after being denied happiness last season. Royalty means privilege, comfort and no freedom whatsoever. There are plenty of reminders here of the snobbery that surrounds it. Any debate on the monarchy would always be won by republicans as a no-brainer. And yet, what should we have instead? Do we, in populist 2020, trust our venal politicians with any major constitutional reform?

But the Establishment (a very '50s word) goes beyond this. We first see Eden addressing Eton, hia alma mater, as the sixteenth out of forty prime ministers to have been an Old Etonian. It reminds us that even the sensibly, centrist, Welfare State-supporting Tories of the Butskellite decades were still Tories and not, alas, Whigs, accepting change and reform only as far as they needed to survive.

This is a fascinating mix of themes, of the personal and the political, which are of course profoundly intermingled. Again, I'm hooked.

We see the Suez slowly unfolding in Egypt, to the concern of pretty much everyone, and scenes of the Canal being invaded by British and French troops are juxtaposed with Eden popping pills.

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 10- Gloriana

"You have more freedom than any consort in history. And you repay it by scowling and sulking like an adolescent."

As ever, the title of the episode is clever. It's interesting to consider it alongside the final scene, with Elizabeth dressed up all regal and told to be Elizabeth Regina, most definitely not Elizabeth Windsor. This is both the theme and the tragedy of both the episode and the series.

Elizabeth Windsor has her interests- keeping her husband happy with the man she loves and maintaining a happy marriage with her increasingly petulant husband (Phil ends the series being increasingly unlikeable, beastly to both Elizabeth and Charles without sufficient motivation). But it's in the interests of Elizabeth Regina to ruin all this in the name of a glorious yet powerless monarchy and an uncaring Church which seems to exist only to cruelly police people's sex lives. What happens to Margaret and Peter is unspeakably cruel and I can see how Margaret sees the chance to renounce her titles as a liberation- the chains may be made of gold but to be royal is to be enslaved, with no agency, privacy, dignity or power.

And it stays with you. In a powerful scene a desperate Elizabeth asks for advice from her uncle David, the only person alive who knows how she feels- and for once he drops the cynical mask and speaks honestly; there is no escape from these conflicts between person and monarch, not even abdication. These are complex, abstract themes, handled well in a strong finale.

There's another strand to the episode, though. The new PM, Sir Anthony Eden, at first seems much younger and more vigorous than his predecessor, but we gradually see the pills he's taking, the pain he's in and, in the final scene, the recreational drugs he's injecting; is he any more fit for the job than his predecessor was? The trippy final scene makes it clear that Suez is coming.  This veteran foreign secretary has been reduced to a drug-addicted shadow of a man just when it's all about to kick off.

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 9- Assassins

"I'm not sure I could trust a Modernist with an English name..."

There's a lot bubbling away in that troublesome marriage between Elizabeth and Phil- not least that, as he gets sloshed with his ra-ra mates, she's hanging around with her friend (and old flame), Porchy, who shares her interest in horses, an interest which Phil does not share. Things are clearly building towards a head next episode, But this episode is all about Winston.

It's November 1954, and Winston's 80th birthday is coming up, an age that suggests retirement may not be far off; Gladstone may have become Prime Minister for the fourth and final time at 83, but that's not how things are done in the twentieth century. No; we get modernist artists to do a portrait, and so the episode hangs mainly around Churchill and Graham Sutherland's conversations as Winston sits for his portrait.It's a very character-based episode, filmed largely on location at Chartwell, which gets inside the head of this gruff, eloquent, stubborn and deeply emotional man, suffused with greatness, grief and the black dog.

Churchill's pride is greatly wounded by what must feel like a personal betrayal from his protege, the ambitious and frustrated Sir Anthony Eden, as he delivers an obviously pre-prepared and deeply tactless speech urging Churchill to step down, almost openly accusing him of staying on through nothing but personal pride. The effect is precisely as you would expect.

The unveiling of the painting is the disaster we all know, but the painting has "truth" and is the ultimate catalyst of the wounded Winston at last deciding to step down. We end with scenes of the Queen speaking at a dinner for him juxtaposed with scenes of the painting being burned. The episode is a fine farewell to Churchill whom, I suspect, we shall not see again. But these scenes are also juxtaposed with scenes of Elizabeth and Phil rowing, and I suspect the finale will show a lot more of this...

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 8- Pride & Joy

"The banger is falling apart!"

This episode was, perhaps, inevitable given the way this series is structured; a long and demanding Commonwealth tour between Liz and Phil serves as a nice contrast with her less dutiful sister Margaret, who duly makes a hash of standing in for Elizabeth during her absence. Just as interesting, though, are the deepening cracks appearing between Elizabeth and a husband who sees the farcical side of using pomp and circumstance to hide the fact that the once-mighty British Empire is slowly dying with a whimper.

We also get a nice bit of character development for the Queen Mother, too, as she disappears away to the Highlands to get away from it all, be anonymous and endear herself to us viewers in a way she hasn't so far.

This is, I think, presented as a pivotal moment for Elizabeth as Queen as she literally follows Churchill's advice to "never let the cameras see the real Elizabeth Windsor". Just as symbolic, I think, is how she charmingly intimidates a group of photographers into destroying the evidence of her row with a somewhat mardy Phil. The tour is deeply punishing, as shown by some nice directorial tricks, but Elizabeth endures it all for duty.

The ending, where the Queen bollocks Margaret and they proceed to get philosophical, is perhaps a microcosm of the whole show; it's well-made, well-acted and watchable, but it is lacking in the profundity that would make it truly great, and I suspect that is in no small part down to the subject matter.

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 7- Scientia Potentia Est

"No one wants a bluestocking or a college lecturer as Sovereign!"

One of the better episodes, this, making the point that not even all the privilege in the world can save one from 1950s misogyny and stereotyping- and, make no mistake, today is much the same but with the rough edges taken off. Women's rights may have advanced from the Paleolithic to the Mesolithic but they are nevertheless in the Stone Age.

Back in little Lillibet's childhood, for example, even after she became heir presumptive, her education consisted solely of the Constitution, Bagehot (So that's how you pronounce the name! I had a similar epiphany with "Lascelles".) and all that. Nothing else. No history, literature, science, philosophy; and yet, her brief expert discourse to the professor hired to tutor her on the finer points of horse racing is clearly meant to imply that Elizabeth, so self-consciously uneducated and intimidated by all these successful and educated men (yes, men) who surround her, is not so much unintelligent as untested.

The other main strand to the episode is, of course, the astounding fact that Churchill had a couple of minor strokes during 1953 and that not only the Press but also the Queen was kept in the dark; no wonder that we Brits have since preferred our leaders to be rather less gerontocratic ever since. Worse, Churchill is only buggering on so that his preferred successor, Eden, can recover from crippling gallstone surgery. And the poor heath of both the prime minister and the foreign secretary is seen, especially by the Eisenhower era Americans, as a metaphor for national decline. Awkward.

We also get a disturbing clash over the choice of his replacement as royal secretary between Elizabeth and the forces of ossified conservatism in the shape of Lascelles; he seems to see anything other than bland, passive conformity as a slippery slope on the way to Abdication. But Elizabeth is clearly no Edward VIII.

We end with Elizabeth giving Churchill a delightful bollocking and Phil, hitherto unseen all episode, turning up as pissed as a fart having spent even more time away from his wife. All is not perfect in that marriage...

Good stuff.

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 6: Gelignite

"There's no such thing as a blameless party in a divorce!"

So this is the one where Margaret isn't allowed to marry the man she wants because he's divorced (his wife left him) and, frankly, because he's a commoner. And all because the Queen is allowed, through the Royal Marriages Act 1772, to veto any of her relatives.' marriages before they're 25. It's hardly fair although, of course, the same could be said of hereditary succession. Being in the Royal Family is a (very) gilded cage. To be royal is not to be free. We end with the two sisters very much estranged.

That takes up most of the episode, but we also get some foreshadowing of Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal courtesy of Ed Stoppard, who played Brian Epstein in Cilla; Stalin dying in the background; and Princess Margaret delivering a speech in Rhodesia at the end which is staggering in its casual racism. And it seems that Philip is spending less and less time with Elizabeth.

Dramatic and unusually self-contained as the episode is, it feels very much like foreshadowing...

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 5: Smoke and Mirrors

"Borrow it, Ma'am? From whom? If it's not yours, whose is it?"

And so we come to the coronation, that watershed in British television history where a ceremony both elitist and inclusive (Phil let the TV cameras in) finally made telly a true mass medium. It was also, as we see here, a battle of wills between, inevitably, tradition- the Dukes of Norfolk have arranged all coronations since James II- and the radical modernising zeal of, er, Prince Philip. In 1953 he was very much the outsider, and has the fear of revolution of a continental royal..

It;s nice, then, that we begin with a flashback to 1937, as George VI lets little Lilibet help him with practising for his big day. It's also a brilliant showcase for David as a character- forbidden from the event, he may host a small party in Paris, mocking the ceremony as it is screened, but he is not so cynical as he seems; he is wounded that he never lasted long enough to have a coronation of his own.

This is also the point where Queen Mary dies, a very present link with the Victorian past. The same could be said of Churchill, who now sits during his audiences with the Queen. But the centrepiece is the ceremony itself, much of which is simply shown as was, complete with the Archbishop of Canterbury (Ronald Pickup) fluffing his lines. It's a deeply moving and powerful piece of mumbo-jumbo. But we end with Elizabeth and Philip's marriage in an awkward place.

More very good drama, as we can expect from Netflix. The Crown is, perhaps, in the "very good" caegory rather than being one of the all-time greats, but at the halfway point I'm very much enjoying it.

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 4- Act of God

"Be careful out there. It's a real pea-souper!"

This episode is interesting in that it deals with the great smog crisis of 1952, where a mixture of weather and pollution caused 10,000 deaths and the elderly Churchill, interested only in foreign policy, showed no more ntetest until his job was seen to be in peril; this isn't widely know today, much like Churchill's second ministry as a whole.

In other news Phil takes flying lessons with the man who's shagging his sister-in-law- Elizabeth manages to get Churchill to agree to this as a quid pro quo- and Queen Mary is dying. This shouldn't be surprising; after all, she was born in 1867, the year of the Great Reform Act and the Ausgleich, but for Elizabeth it's a race against time to speak as much as she can with the person who seems to have formed her ideological view of monarchy.

We get to know Clem Attlee a little in this episode, no longer prime minister yet, next to Churchill, seeming to be relatively young. And, most heartbreakingly, Venetia develops her hero-worshipping crush on Churchill to a peak, only to be killed by a traffic accident in the smog. So that's why the character has been so heavily emphasised.

Interesting that Elizabeth's view of monarchy is extremely conservative, an updating of the Divine Right of Kings to the context of parliamentary democracy, whereas Philip is much more modern, believing in such radical concepts as the separation of church and state. It's inter sting, too, that the constitutional question of whether she is able to sack Churchill on grounds of age and irrelevanc is never really resolved in theory; even Tommy Lascelles leaves the question open. Only Queen Mary is there to give a firm answer, and she won't be there for long.

More fascinating, cerebral stuff that avoids Daily Mail-style fawning in favour of ideas and characters. This is good telly.

The Crown: Season 1, Episode 3- Windsor

"I know he's Winston Churchill and all that, but remember who you are!"

This episode plays a clever trick in constantly juxtaposing Elizabeth's first baby steps as monarch with the abdication, in flashback, and present day waspish emptiness of David, the former Edward VIII, with the now dying Queen Mary standing in judgement over everything. Alex Jennings is perfectly cast.

Elizabeth is now faced with the full weight of being Queen, dealing with her first red box still marked for "the King" and feeling nervous about her first audience with Churchill, who soon puts her right about how such things are done. But she's under pressure to ensure that the kids keep Phil's surname, and to stay in Clarence House rather than Buckingham Palace, both to please Phil and smooth her marriage, and both doomed, as we see.

It's interesting to see the character of Ernst Von Hannover, a reminder of the family's German roots who happily chats in German with Queen Mary. And it's ominous to see that Townsend's wife has left him; the affair between Margaret and himself, in the 1950s, is another thing that can only be doomed.

The unpopular David manages to do a little deal with his old friend Churchill, breaking the bad news about the surname and palace to the Queen in exchange for no cut in his allowance. Phil is not happy, feeling emasculated; these are days long before feminism. But most interesting is the chat between Elizabeth and David. He may have apologised to Albert for denying him an "ordinary" life, but Elizabeth has been denied one too. Although her definition of "ordinary" is not how most of us would use the word.

Good, well-constructed drama, and still gripping.