‘The Crown’: history or entertainment?

In 1983 I was sitting in the restaurant of a French chateau. I was dining alone. Among the diverse nationalities present there was little interaction.

Then an urgent conversation began to spread across the other diners. Mobile phones were non-existent. Finally, the German couple on the next table leaned over and, in impeccable English, asked: “Have you heard?”

Korean Airlines flight 007 had been shot down by Russian military aircraft.

We all finished our meal and moved to the bar where the French evening news was helpfully translated into all the languages present. Much discussion, with little in the way of facts.

There are only a few times when I clearly remember “where I was when I heard the news that…” This was one. It brought back memories when the event featured in the excellent TV drama For All Mankind. The show is an “alternate history” of man’s exploration of the moon, and real events – like Korean 007 – are interwoven through the narrative. The programme included a conversation which took place on the flight. Obviously, this was invention, as no one survived the crash.

The latest – and last – tranche of The Crown has just dropped on Netflix, with the usual carping about real or perceived inaccuracies in the storyline. Just like the imagined conversation on the doomed Korean flight 007, there is no way to tell what was actually said behind closed doors. Peter Morgan and the Left Bank Pictures team have invented a version which fits the known events, but it is still an invention.

Every season the complaints grow. I believe this is for two reasons. First, because the later series are closer to living memory — viewers are comparing what they see to their (unreliable) memories and royal watchers’ speculation. Second, we feel able to comment on things closer to our own experience. Very few people have a good knowledge of rocket science – but everyone has an experience of a dysfunctional family member.

In 2000 Mel Gibson was doing the rounds promoting his film about the American Revolutionary War, The Patriot. On one breakfast TV couch he seemed to me to be a little hung over. He was confronted by an angry historian who told him of the many inaccuracies in the film. Gibson tried to defend the film, but was defeated at every turn. The film, said the historian, was a particularly egregious example of Hollywood rewriting history. The host tried to wind up the interview and Mel Gibson finally exploded, saying: “Well, we’re not in the History business, we’re in the Entertainment business.” And then left, thinking he’d won the argument. He had not.

I am enjoying The Crown enormously. It is – in my opinion – a well-produced, well-written piece made by people who are at the top of their craft.  It’s enjoyable, but it’s not a documentary. Any more than For All Mankind tells us what actually happened on the moon.

Enjoy your entertainment, but don’t mistake it for history.

(As for The Patriot, I didn’t even find it entertaining.)

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