DEBORAH ROSS: Olivia Colman is not Claire Foy. Off with her head!

The Crown

Netflix

Rating:

The War Of The Worlds

Sunday, BBC1

Rating:

The first series of The Crown (alternatively The Crewn) was much loved, and the second season of The Crewn was much loved too, and now it’s the third season of The Crewn and the backlash has been fierce. It’s clunky. It’s soapy. Olivia Colman is not Claire Foy. (Chop off her head!) And a previously literate script is now beset by clichés. ‘Hold the front page!’ a journalist even said. I must concede, in all my years as a journalist I have never said that or heard anyone say that, but then I have always worked from home in my pyjamas so it could be I just missed out on that type of thing. 

Olivia Colman as the Queen in The Crown. We adore Colman, of course, but what we most adore about her is her natural, inclusive warmth. However, what we saw was an actress having to deaden that, when we should have been seeing the Queen

Olivia Colman as the Queen in The Crown. We adore Colman, of course, but what we most adore about her is her natural, inclusive warmth. However, what we saw was an actress having to deaden that, when we should have been seeing the Queen

It’s true, I did not devour this 10-episode series, which covers the years 1964 to 1977, as compulsively as I devoured the previous ones. And now we will try to work out why, so bear with, bear with, or not, as I can’t say if it’ll be worth it. Alas, I am not in a position to offer any guarantees. First, some positives. The production values are still as mesmerisingly immaculate and, as a feast for the eyes, it’s terrific. The frocks, the hats, the furniture, the paintings, the Bentleys and the way that whenever you arrive at any royal residence you jump out of your Bentley (or little MG) at the front steps and a footman jumps in to take it wherever, and so it occurs to you: no member of the royal family has ever come home late at night and had to circle the block several times to find somewhere to park. Ever, ever, ever. What. A. Life. 

It is also fascinating on the ‘Did That Actually Happen?’ front. Every episode meant pausing and Googling. Was Harold Wilson suspected of being KGB? Did Lord Mountbatten attempt a coup? Was Princess Alice of Battenberg that batty, and did she give an interview to The Guardian? (‘Hold the front page!’) 

The strongest episodes are episode three (Aberfan, when a single, well-earned tear runs down the Queen’s cheek) and episode seven, where Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) suffers an existential crisis brought on by the moon landings. The weakest is episode six and Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) being dispatched to Wales to learn Welsh for his investiture, as this was soapily sentimental and also incredibly dull. While the series is sympathetic to Charles, how many times do we have to be told he is sensitive and misunderstood? 

In fact, how many times do we have to be told that, despite incredible privilege, and never having to park your car a mile away, they’re all victims? Aside, that is, from Erin Doherty’s Princess Anne, who is sly and dry and the one character who never feels sorry for herself. 

She was my favourite, along with Jason Watkins as Harold Wilson. Indeed, the standout scene of the series was Wilson’s  resignation, which brought a tear to my own usually bonedry eye. And I did thoroughly enjoy Helena Bonham Carter’s partying yet broken Princess Margaret, even if I couldn’t quite believe it. 

And now on to Colman and her ‘Left-wing face’. We adore Colman, of course, but what we most adore about her is her natural, inclusive warmth. However, what we saw was an actress having to deaden that, when we should have been seeing the Queen. That’s what I saw, anyhow. Not the Queen but the deadening of Colman’s natural instincts. And it properly got in the way. So The Crewn has dropped from five stars to four stars on this occasion but it is still eminently watchable and, obviously, we are all looking forward to season ten or whatever to find out who will play Emily Maitlis and whether they’ll film at the actual Pizza Express in Woking or build their own. 

I was minded to review the BBC’s new Sunday-night adaptation of HG Wells’s The War Of The Worlds set in Woking in 1905 – so pre-Pizza Express – but now I don’t think I can be bothered. I’m thinking: if it can’t be bothered to make an effort, can I? And the first episode (of three) didn’t seem very bothered, did it? Unlike The Crewn, the production values are shabby. The thing that landed in Surrey looked like a giant coconut constructed from papier-mâché. It was all very Doctor Who, circa 1973, and when Demelza – sorry, Eleanor Tomlinson as Amy – galloped off on that horse, did you notice how her hair stayed put? 

Eleanor Tomlinson and Rupert Graves in The War Of The Worlds. Unlike The Crewn, the production values are shabby

Eleanor Tomlinson and Rupert Graves in The War Of The Worlds. Unlike The Crewn, the production values are shabby

In other news, the characters are all one-dimensional, the Royal Observatory appears to be set down the road from Woking, when we all know it’s in Greenwich, and Robert Carlyle points out his character is gay by saying, ‘I’m a gentleman bachelor of advancing years who likes to keep himself nicely turned out.’ Well, get this: I know some gays who are quite scruffy! Hold the front page! 

I said I couldn’t be bothered but now it seems I have bothered, if only just. And you could say the same about the show.  

 

 

 

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