A former royal staffer has slammed The Crown season 4. Photo / Netflix
A former royal staffer has slammed The Crown season 4. Photo / Netflix
The Queen's former Press Secretary has come out swinging against The Crown for its damning portrayal of Prince Charles during the early days of his marriage to Princess Diana.
Speaking to True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat, Dickie Arbiter condemned the popular series, adding that it should come with "a health warning" because of the sheer level of inaccuracy.
During the recently-released fourth series, the Prince is shown as cold and frustrated by his wife's mental health struggles while cheating on her with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
According to Arbiter, it's simply not true that the pair never had a good relationship.
He also pointed out that the timeline of Charles' affair with Camilla was all wrong, given the royal reportedly had little to no contact with her during the first five years of his marriage.
"'I remember going on tour just after they got married in 1981 and she was the first Princess of Wales in about 80 years, so it was a big deal," he said.
"They couldn't keep their hands off each other. Charles used to pat her bum regularly. There were times when he would even squeeze it, even in Australia.
A former royal staffer has slammed The Crown season 4. Photo / Netflix
"There was a relationship from the beginning. There was genuine love and happiness there," he added.
Expanding on his issues with the Netflix series' bending of the truth, he called the "Balmoral Test" portrayed in the early episodes of the season "a load of claptrap".
In the episode in question, Gillian Anderson's Margaret Thatcher is shown being ridiculed by the royals for bringing the wrong clothes for a day of hunting with the Queen, showing up to drinks in the incorrect dress code and clashing with the staff.
"What a load of claptrap," Arbiter asserted.
The staffer said the scene when Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher goes hunting would never have happened that way, and described Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth as "po-faced and cold". Photo / Netflix
"Nobody is put on test. Before anyone goes to Balmoral, they are briefed on what takes place and what clothes to take.
"Not how to behave, as it's expected that you will use common sense. Margaret Thatcher would have no way gone out in her heels."
Arbiter spent 12 years as Her Majesty's press secretary, so he was equally dismayed by The Crown's portrayal of the Queen as cold and unfeeling.
"Olivia Coleman as The Queen is not the Queen I know," he said.
"She comes across as po-faced and cold …. The Queen does have motherly instincts."
Elsewhere in the interview, he suggested The Crown 's creators should make it clear to viewers that the details are factually inaccurate.
"We are talking about a health warning at the beginning," he suggested.
"A written health warning is no good. It has to be a spoken health warning at the beginning to make sure people actually take it in. There has to be a proper warning at the beginning – verbal."
