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Season five of The Crown has dropped in Australia. Here are some of its key talking points

All 10 episodes of the latest instalment of The Crown are now available for streaming in Australia.

Starring Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Dominic West as Prince Charles — now King Charles III — and Australia's Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, the series focuses on the royals in the 90s.

It was a tumultuous decade for the royals, with marriage breakdowns and scathing criticism from the press, leading the Queen to declare 1992 as "annus horribilis".

So how did it all play out in Netflix's drama The Crown?

Let's unpack some of the key talking points. 

Princess Margaret's love story 

The first season focused on Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend, with the show depicting a passionate love affair that ended after the Queen refused to give her permission for the two to marry. 

That storyline is revisited in episode four,  which explores both heartbreak and the complicated relationship between sisters. 

A scene shows Princess Margaret and the Queen beginning to discuss Peter Townsend as if he were an old high school friend who randomly popped up on their Facebook feeds.

But it descends into the older sister being dismissive of her younger sister's feelings about a relationship she still — after all those years — disapproved of. 

The issue is revived after Margaret receives an unexpected letter from Peter.

She reflects on the similarities between her and Princess Anne's situations and her anger that Anne was allowed to marry the man she loved while Margaret wasn't.  

The show has really leant into a fabulous-but-tragic storyline for Princess Margret and this episode makes you wonder what might have been had she married Peter (at least in the context of the series).

It features quite a moving monologue about how people in happy relationships have an extra source of strength and support that those who aren't don't get — and the profound impact that can have on a person's life. 

But it also ends with a conversation between the two sisters that's essentially the royal version of that "what's it like having a sister?" meme.

The revenge dress

The Crown recreates Diana's iconic outfit, which she wore after an interview in which Charles spoke about their relationship aired in the UK. 

Debicki looks fantastic as a defiant and fabulous Diana, but the moment isn't played up to be as big as you might have imagined. 

Rather than ending with the Diana strutting in slow motion while Bitter Sweet Symphony plays, the episode ends with Charles doing good deeds with his charity, The Prince's Trust — which West is an ambassador for.

In fact, the episode features a few slides about the achievements of the charity. 

West told The Radio Times he offered his resignation from the trust, but this was refused in a letter from King Charles III's private secretary. 

He said the letter basically told him "do what you like, you're an actor. It's nothing to do with us".

That episode about the Romanovs 

Episode six opens with the brutal slaughter of the Russian Imperial Romanov family and, just a heads up, it's pretty graphic. 

This grim chapter of history is revisited in the context of the Queen's visit to Moscow to visit Russia's then-president Boris Yeltsin.

Queen Elizabeth II's grandfather George V was Tsar Nicolas' cousin, with the episode delving into the family ties and the Romanovs' fate. 

It creates tension between the Queen and Prince Philip in the show, with the pair going through some minor marital issues of their own. 

There's also a scene where Mr Yeltsin is depicted as bad-mouthing the Queen in Russian while posing for a picture with her.

The scene raised hopes for a Game of Thrones-esque reveal that the Queen could understand him the whole time but, alas, there was no "Dracarys!" moment. 

The series' actors Dominic West and Olivia Williams discuss the Netflix blockbuster's timing of release soon after the Queen's death.

The BBC didn't look good

One of the main narratives of the season is Diana's explosive (pun intended … you'll understand why) interview with Martin Bashir on Panorama, the BBC's investigative documentary program. 

Diana made very candid and quite damning remarks in the interview, which became a huge scandal for the royal family.

Years on, it was revealed that Bashir used forged bank documents that falsely suggested people were being paid to spy on Diana — something he later said he deeply regretted.

An investigation found Bashir was guilty of deceitful behaviour, but Diana "would probably have agreed to be interviewed" anyway. 

The Crown zeroed in on Bashir's pursuit of the interview, depicting Diana as becoming increasingly paranoid about being spied on in the lead-up to it. 

This dramatisation paints Diana as being in quite a vulnerable and isolated state, clearly laying the groundwork for her final days.

A reframing of 'tampongate' 

The show did an episode on the publication of transcripts of a very private conversation between Charles and Camilla — which The Crown portrays as being recorded by some random guy in a caravan with a lot of radio equipment. 

It was dubbed 'Camillagate' at the time, but also became known as 'tampongate' because of a joke the pair made in the phone call. 

The conversation was splashed across the tabloids and touted as outrageous and, well, quite gross, but the show's depiction provided context around that infamous line that tells a different story.

West told Entertainment Weekly what was really "disgusting" about the whole thing was the media's treatment of it. 

"I remember thinking it was something so sordid and deeply, deeply embarrassing," he told the magazine.

"Looking back on it, and having to play it, what you're conscious of is that the blame was not with these two people, two lovers, who were having a private conversation.

"I think it made me extremely sympathetic towards the two of them and what they'd gone through."

Is this going to make King Charles look bad?

With this season covering the phone tapping scandal, the divorce and his affair with Camilla, the general mood was that this was going to make Charles look awful. 

But it didn't come off as bad as the previous season. 

Yes, he is portrayed as bitter, unfeeling, cold and dismissive as the divorce played out in season five, but there are also scenes where he is sympathetic and apologetic. 

His affair with Camilla didn't come off as racy or scandalous, rather, their relationship was portrayed as loving, respectful and strong enough to endure scandal after scandal.

The portrayal didn't make him look like a playboy, but someone who had never stopped being in love with one woman. 

What might attract the most criticism is his portrayal as an agitator in The Firm, at times undermining his mother. 

In one scene former prime minister Sir John Major has dismissed as a "barrel-load of nonsense", Charles is depicted lobbying for the Queen's early abdication from the throne. 

"There was never any discussion between Sir John and the then Prince of Wales about any possible abdication of the late Queen Elizabeth II – nor was such an improbable and improper subject ever raised by the then Prince of Wales (or Sir John)," Sir John said in a statement last month. 

This is mirrored in another scene, when Charles is depicted as trying to get the newly-elected prime minister Tony Blair on his side. 

Mr Blair's spokesperson later told the UK's Daily Telegraph that this was "complete and utter rubbish".

Leaving that aside, the general impression The Crown's depiction of King Charles gives is as a frustrated son pushing for reform and modernisation — which is not necessarily a bad thing. 

All things considered, it could have been much, much worse for the new King and may even prove to serve in his favour.  

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