The Crown season 4

The fourth season of The Crown, which follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Netflix on 15 November 2020.

Olivia Colman stars as Elizabeth, with main cast members Tobias Menzies, Helena Bonham Carter, Josh O'Connor, Marion Bailey, Erin Doherty and Emerald Fennell all reprising their roles from the third season. Gillian Anderson, Emma Corrin and Stephen Boxer are added to the main cast. Additionally, Charles Dance returns in the season's first episode and Claire Foy reprises her role as Elizabeth in a cameo flashback scene.

Premise
The Crown traces the life of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 to the present day.

The fourth season spans 1979–1990, during Margaret Thatcher's 11-year premiership. Events depicted include the courtship and wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, their 1983 tour of Australia and New Zealand, the Falklands War, Michael Fagan's break-in at Buckingham Palace, Lord Mountbatten's funeral, the Princess of Wales's appearance at the Barnardo's Champion Children Awards, and at the end of the series, Thatcher's departure from office, as well as the marital difficulties of Charles and Diana.

Main

 * Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II
 * Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth's husband
 * Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, Elizabeth's younger sister
 * Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 * Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles, Elizabeth and Philip's eldest child and the heir apparent
 * Emma Corrin as Lady Diana Spencer, Charles's fiancée; later, as Diana, Princess of Wales, his wife
 * Marion Bailey as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Elizabeth II's mother
 * Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, Elizabeth and Philip's second child and only daughter
 * Stephen Boxer as Denis Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher's husband
 * Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker Bowles, Charles's long-time lover

Featured
The following actors are credited in the opening titles of single episodes in which they play a significant role:
 * Charles Dance as Lord Mountbatten, Philip's uncle and a father figure to Charles
 * Tom Brooke as Michael Fagan, a man who entered Elizabeth's bedroom in Buckingham Palace in 1982
 * Richard Roxburgh as Bob Hawke, the Prime Minister of Australia
 * Tom Burke as Dazzle Jennings, a friend and confidant of Princess Margaret
 * Nicholas Farrell as Michael Shea, the Queen's press secretary
 * Claire Foy as young Queen Elizabeth, in 1947

Recurring

 * Angus Imrie as Prince Edward, Elizabeth and Philip's youngest child
 * Tom Byrne as Prince Andrew, Elizabeth and Philip's third child
 * Freddie Fox as Mark Thatcher, son of Margaret Thatcher
 * Rebecca Humphries as Carol Thatcher, daughter of Margaret Thatcher
 * Charles Edwards as Lord Charteris of Amisfield, Private Secretary to the Queen
 * Richard Goulding as Edward Adeane, Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, and son of former private secretary to the Queen Lord Adeane
 * Penny Downie as Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, paternal aunt-by-marriage of Elizabeth and widow of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
 * Sam Phillips as the Queen's equerry
 * Letty Thomas as Virginia Pitman, one of Diana's flatmates
 * Allegra Marland as Carolyn Pride, one of Diana's flatmates
 * Flora Higgins as Anne Bolton, one of Diana's flatmates
 * Geoffrey Breton as Mark Phillips, Princess Anne's husband
 * Kevin McNally as Bernard Ingham, Downing Street Press Secretary
 * Paul Jesson as Sir Geoffrey Howe, Chancellor of the Exchequer; later Foreign Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 * Nicholas Day as Jim Prior, Secretary of State for Employment
 * Richard Syms as Lord Hailsham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
 * Peter Pacey as Lord Soames, Leader of the House of Lords (and Sir Winston Churchill's son-in-law)
 * Paul Bigley as John Nott, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
 * Don Gallagher as Willie Whitelaw, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 * Guy Siner as Francis Pym, Secretary of State for Defence
 * Georgie Glen as Ruth, Lady Fermoy, the Queen Mother's lady-in-waiting and Diana's maternal grandmother
 * Dugald Bruce-Lockhart as John Moore, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
 * Judith Paris as Wendy Mitchell, Lady Diana's dance teacher
 * Dominic Rowan as Charles Powell, Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister
 * Andrew Buchan as Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla's husband
 * Tony Jayawardena as Sir Shridath Ramphal, Commonwealth Secretary-General
 * Alana Ramsey as Sarah Lindsay, a Buckingham Palace press officer and wife of Major Hugh Lindsay
 * Jessica Aquilina as Sarah Ferguson, fiancée and later wife of Andrew
 * Tom Turner as Patrick Jephson, Diana's private secretary
 * David Phelan as Dickie Arbiter, Press Secretary to the Queen
 * Lucas Barber-Grant as Prince William of Wales, Charles and Diana's elder son
 * Arran Tinker as Prince Harry of Wales, Charles and Diana's younger son
 * Daniel Fraser as the Queen's equerry

Notable guests

 * Isobel Eadie as Lady Sarah Spencer / Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Lady Diana's elder sister
 * Harriet Benson as Lady Brabourne, daughter of Lord Mountbatten
 * Valerie Sarruf as The Dowager Lady Brabourne, Lord Brabourne's mother
 * Brandon Whitt as Timothy Knatchbull, Lord Mountbatten's grandson
 * Evan Whitt as Nicholas Knatchbull, Lord Mountbatten's grandson
 * Mark Carlisle as Lord Brabourne, Lord Mountbatten's son-in-law
 * Patrick McBrearty as Francis McGirl, Member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who murdered Lord Mountbatten
 * Mark Brennan as Thomas McMahon, Member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who murdered Lord Mountbatten
 * Roy Sampson as Laurens van der Post, close friend of Prince Charles
 * Billy Mack as Ghillie
 * Karina Orr as Anne-Charlotte Verney, French rally driver
 * Pierre Philippe as Jean Garnier
 * Oscar Foronda as Constantino Davidoff, Argentine businessman
 * Douglas Reith as Admiral Henry Leach, First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff
 * Leanne Everitt as Christine Fagan, Michael Fagan's wife
 * Elliott Hughes and Jasper Hughes as the infant Prince William of Wales
 * Adam Fitzgerald as Graham Evans
 * Naomi Allisstone as Hazel Hawke, Prime Minister Bob Hawke's wife
 * Harry Treadaway as Roddy Llewellyn, Princess Margaret's former lover
 * Nancy Carroll as Lady Glenconner, Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting
 * Richard Teverson as Lord Glenconner, husband of Lady Glenconner
 * Gemma Jones as Penelope Carter, Princess Margaret's therapist
 * Trudie Emery as Katherine Bowes-Lyon, Elizabeth and Margaret's first cousin, niece of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and sister of Princess Anne of Denmark
 * Pauline Hendrickson as Nerissa Bowes-Lyon, Elizabeth and Margaret's first cousin, niece of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and sister of Princess Anne of Denmark
 * Eva Feiler as young Margaret Thatcher
 * Tom Espiner as Simon Freeman, a Sunday Times reporter
 * Peter Symonds as Hardy Amies, Royal Warrant holder as designer to the Queen
 * Jay Webb as Wayne Sleep, Dancer who performanced Uptown Girl at Prince Charles 37th birthday
 * Daniel Donskoy as James Hewitt, Princess Diana's lover
 * Lin Sagovsky as Elspeth Howe, Geoffrey Howe's wife, who is Camilla's aunt
 * Annette Badland as Dr Margaret Heagarty, director of paediatrics at Harlem Hospital
 * Nadia Williams as Veronica Middleton-Jeter, a social worker at Henry Street Settlement
 * Ailema Sousa as Linda Correa, a homeless mother of three
 * Nick Wymer as Kenneth Clarke, Secretary of State for Health; later Secretary of State for Education
 * Al Barclay as Michael Howard, Secretary of State for Employment
 * Keith Chopping as Norman Lamont, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
 * Martin Fisher as Peter Lilley, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
 * Marc Ozall as John Major, Foreign Secretary; later Chancellor of the Exchequer
 * Duncan Duff as Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Transport
 * Oliver Milburn as Chris Patten, Secretary of State for the Environment
 * Michael Mears as Malcolm Rifkind, Secretary of State for Scotland
 * Stephen Greif as Bernard Weatherill, Speaker of the House of Commons

Development
By October 2017, "early production" had begun on an anticipated third and fourth season, and by the following January, Netflix confirmed the series had been renewed for a third and fourth season.

Casting
The producers recast some roles with older actors every two seasons, as the characters age. In October 2017, Olivia Colman was cast as Queen Elizabeth II for the third and fourth seasons. By January 2018, Helena Bonham Carter and Paul Bettany were in negotiations to portray Princess Margaret and Prince Philip, respectively, for these seasons. However, by the end of the month Bettany was forced to drop out due to the time commitment required. By the end of March 2018, Tobias Menzies was cast as Philip for the third and fourth seasons. In early May 2018, Bonham Carter was confirmed to have been cast. The next month, Erin Doherty was cast as Princess Anne. A month later, Josh O'Connor and Marion Bailey were cast as Prince Charles and the Queen Mother, respectively, for the third and fourth seasons. In October 2018, Emerald Fennell was cast as Camilla Shand. In December 2018, Charles Dance was cast as Louis Mountbatten. In April 2019, Emma Corrin was cast as Lady Diana Spencer for the fourth season. In September 2019 Gillian Anderson, who had been rumoured since that January to be in talks to portray Margaret Thatcher in the fourth season, was officially confirmed for the role.

Filming
The fourth season began filming in August 2019 and completed in March 2020. The producers confirmed that filming was completed ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown; the release date was not delayed.

Release
The fourth season was released on Netflix on 15 November 2020. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 2 November 2021.

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes reported a 95% approval rating for the season based on 107 reviews, with an average rating of 8.62/10 and a critical consensus: "Whatever historical liberties The Crown takes are easily forgiven thanks to the sheer power of its performances – particularly Gillian Anderson's imposing take on The Iron Lady and newcomer Emma Corrin's embodiment of a young Princess Diana." On Metacritic, the season holds a score of 86 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Writing in The Atlantic, Shirley Li describes the drama as "sharper than ever" and "splashy", but observes that, in contrast to the first three seasons, the fourth criticises the Queen for her "ignorance" and "stubborn devotion to tradition". In the Evening Standard, Katie Rosseinsky wrote that the season's episodes are "dizzyingly beautiful and staggering in scope", and highlights the outstanding performances of Anderson and Corrin as Thatcher and Lady Diana, respectively. In The New Zealand Herald, university professor Giselle Bastin described the season as "a masterly portrait of the turbulent 1980s" and complimented the production standards, casting and acting. BBC's arts editor, Will Gompertz, gave the series a rating of four out of five, praising Corrin and Bonham Carter but criticising Anderson's performance for "forever craning her neck from side-to-side as if scanning for a tasty lettuce leaf, while over-egging her Thatcher impression to such an extent she is close to unwatchable at times".

In a critical review, Dominic Patten of Deadline Hollywood complimented the earlier seasons but said that the fourth had "substantially tweaked timelines" and was "sub-standard soap", and that, despite Colman's performance, some of the other characters were like "Spitting Image live-action caricature[s]". Writing in The Guardian, Simon Jenkins described the season as "fake history", "reality hijacked as propaganda, and a cowardly abuse of artistic licence" which fabricated history to suit its own preconceived narrative. The season has reportedly received backlash from the British royal family and some royal commentators. Royal historian Hugo Vickers stated: "In this particular series, every member of the royal family...comes out of it badly, except the Princess of Wales (Diana). It's totally one sided, it's totally against Prince Charles". Royal biographer Penny Junor criticised the season as portraying the British royal family as "villains", stating that "The Crown's royals are wild, cruel distortions of the people I've known for 40 years".

Season four became the first drama series to sweep all categories at the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards. Olivia Colman and Claire Foy won the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series respectively for the episode "48:1." Josh O'Connor won the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the episode "Terra Nullius." Tobias Menzies won the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the episode "Gold Stick." Gillian Anderson won the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in the episode "Favourites."

Historical accuracy
Vickers further argued that season four is "yet more subtly divisive than earlier seasons", with "pretty much every character" shown as "dislikeable", and that "every member of the royal family ... comes out of it badly, except the Princess of Wales". He also called season four the least accurate season in the series. Royal commentator Emily Andrews said that "sources close to Prince Charles" have labelled some of the scenes "trolling on a Hollywood budget". It was also reported that Prince Charles and Camilla turned off comments on their Instagram and Twitter accounts, such was the intensely negative reaction to their portrayals.

Throughout the season, the Private Secretary to the Sovereign is portrayed as Sir Martin Charteris, yet in reality, he retired in 1977.

The opening scene when Prince Charles first meets Diana is fictionalised, although they did meet during a date with her sister, Sarah. Vickers has stated that Prince Charles had no personal contact with Camilla during the first five years of his marriage; their relationship developed after 1986, by which time the marriage had broken down. The frenzy around Prince Charles and Diana's Australian tour is accurately depicted, including his feelings of being overshadowed by Diana, which have been confirmed by multiple sources. Diana's former press secretary has confirmed their fractious relationship when away from the media. Their schedule was never revised to accommodate Prince William, and the sheep station was arranged for them in advance by the former Australian Prime Minister, specifically so that the couple could be with their son each night. According to Dickie Arbiter, the meeting in which Sir John Riddell, the Prince of Wales's private secretary, questions Diana's mental fitness before her solo trip to New York never happened.

Mountbatten did not write to the Prince of Wales shortly before he died, although he had written advising him in the past. The newsreel clips of Northern Ireland shown alongside Mountbatten's assassination included events that had happened years earlier, and others that had not yet occurred.

Vickers suggested that almost all the details concerning how visitors are treated at Balmoral are inaccurate, and noted that the Thatchers' first visit is depicted out of sequence with Mountbatten's funeral. The Thatchers did not enjoy their visits to Balmoral, but there is no evidence that the Prime Minister dressed inappropriately. Diana's visit happened an entire year later, when the Queen was not present. He added that, as a member of an aristocratic family, Diana was already familiar with royal etiquette, and therefore would not have needed the intensive lessons given by Lady Fermoy that were portrayed in the show.

Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher's biographer, deemed the scene where Thatcher begs the Queen to dissolve Parliament so she can stay on as PM "factual nonsense". It is true, however, that she used to do her own ironing at Downing Street. It is unlikely that Prince Philip ever mocked her for being a scientist, given his own interest in the sciences. Mark Thatcher going missing during the Paris–Dakar Rally did not coincide with the Falklands invasion.

Michael Fagan has said that his conversation with the Queen in the palace bedroom was "short, polite and non-controversial", and that he never spoke about Margaret Thatcher.

The scene where the Queen guesses who the Prime Minister might appoint to cabinet is entirely fictional, nor would the PM have ever left a royal audience early or criticised the Queen for her privilege. Vickers says that, in reality, it was the Queen's press secretary who took it upon himself to pass his own views about the Prime Minister to the media, and he was forced to leave the palace as a consequence.

The plot involving the family's relationship with the Bowes-Lyon sisters is largely inaccurate. Princess Margaret played no part in discovering their existence, nor did she confront her mother about this. John "Jock" Bowes-Lyon died six years before Edward VIII's abdication, and the sisters were placed in the Royal Earlswood Hospital by their mother Fenella in 1941. The Queen Mother believed her nieces to be dead until 1982 and upon discovering that they were alive, sent money for toys and sweets on their birthdays and at Christmas. According to the Bowes-Lyon family, there was never any attempt at a coverup. The relationship between Princess Margaret and Father Derek "Dazzle" Jennings is also heavily fictionalised. Jennings did not have any involvement with the Bowes-Lyon sisters and remained Princess Margaret's friend and spiritual advisor, with the Princess visiting his sickbed before he died in 1995. Similarly, Princess Margaret's interest in Catholicism is underplayed; she did not convert, but Jennings was reportedly convinced she would, even going so far as to arrange for a dinner between the Princess and Cardinal Hume in 1988.