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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Katherine Heslop

The Crown's Helena Bonham Carter says show 'shouldn't go on' as it 'crashes' into present

The Crown star Helena Bonham Carter doesn't think the royal drama should carry on, as it's "crashed into the present".

The Harry Potter star, 56, played Princess Margaret in season three and four of the Netflix smash, which is currently filming its sixth and final season.

The show has chronicled the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II, with the final outing covering Princess Diana's death and funeral, and even casting an actor to play Kate Middleton.

Helena said The Crown, which started with the marriage of the then Princess Elizabeth and Phillip in 1947, was no longer a "historical drama."

Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret (Netflix)

The Guardian put to the Enola Holmes star that going forward, it will be easer for The Crown's creator, Peter Morgan, to write the show.

The star, who plays Crossroads star Noele Gordon in a new ITV drama, replied: I should be careful here too, but I don’t think they should carry on, actually.

"I’m in it and I loved my episodes, but it’s very different now. When The Crown started it was a historic drama, and now it’s crashed into the present. But that’s up to them."

The fifth season of The Crown follows the disintegration of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's marriage (Press Association Images)

Princess Margaret was at first played by Vanessa Kirby, who was replaced by Helena, with Mrs Harris Goes to Paris star Lesley Manville portraying her in the final seasons, against Imelda Staunton's monarch.

The show if often a topic of heated debate, and faced controversy last year when high-profile figures criticised how the most recent series portrayed characters, and called for it to have a disclaimer to make it clear the show was fiction.

Actress Dame Judi Dench at the time wrote that Netflix "seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism".

She said there was a risk that "a significant number of viewers" would take the drama series as historical fact.

There has long been a fascination over whether the royals actually watch The Crown, and earlier this month Prince Harry confirmed that he has, while appearing on Stephen Colbert's The Late Show.

When asked, Harry, who was promoting his explosive memoir Spare, said: "Yes I do actually, which by the way is another reason why it’s so important that history has it right."

Helena said The Crown has "crashed" into the present (Getty Images)

Host Stephen also asked Harry to confirm if he watched "the recent stuff or the older stuff" of the show, to which the Duke said he watched "both".

Harry had previously discussed the show with James Corden in 2021, explaining: "It’s fictional. But it’s loosely based on the truth. Of course, it’s not strictly accurate."

A Netflix spokesperson previously defended the recent episodes by saying: "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."

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