Netflix has defended The Crown after its upcoming fifth series was criticised as 'malicious nonsense'.
Former Prime Minister Sir John Major will be shown in a storyline which sees King Charles plotting to persuade his mother to abdicate from the throne back in 1991.
During the first episode which airs on November 9, Charles summons Major to a meeting and schemes to oust the Queen.
For the upcoming series of the hit drama, which features recast roles, Dominic West stars as the King, while Elizabeth Debicki plays Diana and Imelda Staunton the Queen.
A spokeswoman for The Crown said: “The Crown has always been presented as a drama based on historical events.
“Series five is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family – one that has already been scrutinised and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians.”
In one of the rumoured scenes from the show, the former PM and his wife Dame Norma talk about the Royal Family disparagingly.
A spokesman for the couple said: “Sir John has not cooperated – in any way – with The Crown. Nor has he ever been approached by them to fact-check any script material.
“Discussions between the Monarch and Prime Minister are private and – for Sir John – will always remain so.”
The Netflix show reportedly features an imagined conversation between Major and the late Queen, described as “nothing other than damaging and malicious fiction” and “a barrel-load of nonsense peddled for no other reason than to provide maximum – and entirely false – dramatic impact”.
The spokesman added: “There was never any discussion between Sir John and the then Prince of Wales about any abdication of the late Queen.”
The new season will premiere on Netflix on November 9 with 10 new episodes set in the Nineties and Philip played by Jonathan Pryce opposite Imelda.
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This turbulent decade for the Royal Family has been well documented and interpreted by journalists, biographers and historians.
Elizabeth Debicki, who stars as Princess Diana, told Netflix fan website tudum.com there was lots of material for research.
She said: “That’s the amazing thing about playing these people at this time, because in the journey of The Crown so far out of all the seasons, this is the most visual content we have of the Royal Family. In the ‘90s everything had started to be filmed and also it was the birth of the 24-hour news cycle so there’s just this incredible amount of content that we have access to.
"Diana was the most photographed person in the world at that time. As an actor you open the portal and this huge tsunami of information comes at you. I happily swam around in it.”
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