Spy: Kiwi director's Crown-ing glory

Olivia Colman portrays Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix's royal bio-series, The Crown. Photo: Netflix.

Kiwi director Jessica Hobbs has been nominated for an Emmy for her work on the third-season finale of The Crown.

Hobbs is part of the Kiwi showbiz family of former Shortland Street stars - brother Chris, Katrina and Rebecca. Her other brother Tom is an actor too but it yet to don a doctor's coat on the popular soap.

After eight years as an assistant director, Christchurch-born Hobbs got her first big break directing Australian show Heartbreak High. Success in England followed with such shows as Apple Tree Yard and Broadchurch.

Last week she told entertainment news website Gold Derby that she was doing post-production virtually for season 4 - from a family vacation in Greece.

"We wanted to deliver to Netflix — people are hungry to see new material and hopefully, they'll love it when they see it."

Hobbs enjoyed working with Olivia Coleman, who plays the Queen and Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Princess Margaret.

Helena Bonham Carter plays Princess Margaret in Netflix's royal bio-series, The Crown. Photo: Netflix.

"I particularly related to Margaret's story: I related to the age that she was and the situation that she found herself in about being second in the family. There were so many personal notes that I wanted to explore and particularly from a female perspective, what it is to start feeling invisible," she told Gold Derby.

In the fourth season of The Crown, due November 15, Gillian Anderson and Emma Corrin join the cast as Margaret Thatcher and Princess Diana.

"Diana and Thatcher are the two big female leads who come in and those two characters put enormous pressure on the family from different ends," Hobbs said.

"It was wonderful for a cast that had fallen in love with one another and were very comfortable with one another, to introduce these two new very rocket-fuelled performances and have everyone else go, 'Right! Okay, now we have to match that,' so it's pretty exciting."

The 72nd Emmy Awards were to be held at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has changed to a virtual show, to be broadcast on September 20.