The Crown recap: Everything you need to keep in mind before you binge-watch season 5!

A lot was shown about the much-talked-about royal family over the course of 40 episodes. Via The Crown recap, we summarize everything that has happened in the story so far!

If you love watching The Crown then we’re pretty sure you’re eagerly awaiting the upcoming season 5 with bated breath just like we are. Getting an insight into the life of a royal family, their scandals, their costumes, the sets, their British accent are just a few of many reasons why we’re so addicted to the show. The Crown is known to change its cast for all of its characters as they age. The first two seasons were beautifully portrayed by Claire Foy who played Queen Elizabeth in her 20s. Then the role was taken over by Olivia Coleman who gave a just as powerful performance of the same role. 

Also Read: Harry Potter fans reacted to Imelda Staunton’s look from The Crown

But before we look forward to Imelda Staunton’s version of the titular role, we must rewind to the first four seasons of the show!

Season 1: A Princess becomes a Queen

The first time we see Queen Elizabeth in The Crown is not when she was a Queen. She was her dear papa’s Princess Lilibet who was ready to marry the love of her life, Prince Philip. The season starts with her father, King George VI’s illness, to establish that while the end of an era is near, and a new sovereign is on the horizon. Elizabeth learns of her father’s death while she is on a tour of the commonwealth with her husband. She along with her sister Margaret and the Queen Mother mourn the loss of the rock that kept their family together. 

Soon after, The Queen’s coronation takes place when she was just 25. But Prince Philip has a rather tough time having to accept that he has to kneel to his wife or obey her as a subject. Tensions increase between the two and they are even captured by the paparazzi in the middle of an argument. As a leader, Elizabeth learns much more about the British Parliament and world politics from her first Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Season 1 also shows the Great Smog of 1952 in which London is engulfed by a poisonous gas. When Churchill eventually steps down due to his health, Anthony Eden takes over but quickly gets into a scandal over the ownership of the Suez Canal. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. This is clearly portrayed when Queen Elizabeth was torn between giving her sister and Peter Townsend’s controversial relationship her blessing but only at the cost of asking her sister to give up all her titles. Princess Margaret who is way too dependent on her royal privileges, ends her relationship and is left heartbroken. 

Season 2: Prince Philip’s troubled past

The Queen and Prince Philip seemed to have hit a rocky patch after he went on tour for five months and the pair were separated. It addresses Prince Philip’s alleged affair and how The Queen reminds of his duties as a husband and a father. We get to see more of Prince Philip’s traumatic childhood where his mother, Princess Alice of Greece was put in a mental asylum due to her paranoid schizophrenia and he loses his elder sister in a plane crash. His difficult days at his boarding school, Gordonstoun where he was bullied and forced to do labor adds to why he has such a stiff personality. He now expects his eldest son, Prince Charles to go to the same school but having been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Charles couldn’t last there for too long. 

The man who criticized The Queen, Lord Altringham is called in for a meeting with the royals. He became a huge reason for the modernisation of the Royal family and the introduction of the annual Christmas address. In season 2, the Queen was also visited by US President John F. Kennedy along with his wife Jackie Kennedy. While The Queen looked jealous of her looks in the beginning, Jackie eventually made an impact on the young sovereign. 

In a bid to outdo her former lover, Peter Townsend revealed he was getting married. Princess Margaret got together with photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones and the pair were quickly engaged and then married. Season 2 ended with the Profumo scandal, when the married Secretary of State for War was revealed to be having an affair with model Christine Keeler. Keeler was seeing John Profumo while also having relations with Yevgeni Ivanov, the senior naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy. This was controversial given that it was during the height of the cold war with fears that national security has been compromised. 

Season 3: 25 years on the throne

Season 3 begins with the death of Winston Churchill, closing a major chapter of British history. Harold Wilson becomes the new Prime Minister and also the first labor PM to serve since The Queen ascended the throne. After a frosty start, the two leaders form a friendship based on mutual respect. Meanwhile, the Duke Of Edinburgh is fascinated by the 1969 moon landing. He is in the middle of a midlife crisis, questioning his own existence but even meeting with the astronauts does not cure that. He finds comfort in his friendship with the new Dean of Windsor, Robin Woods instead. 

Due to budget cuts, Lord Mountbatten is asked to step down as Defense staff, which makes him come up with a coup to overthrow the current government but that is stopped by the Queen as soon as she learns of it. Another thing that is stopped before it can even breathe was Prince Charles’ romance with Camilla Shand. His lover is married off to her other beau Andrew Parker Bowles by Lord Mountbatten and the Queen Mother. While love is stomped, the marriage of Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones comes to an end as well because they have been unfaithful to each other. This takes a toll on Margaret’s mental health and she attempts suicide. The season ends with the celebration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee while personally her family is in shackles and her Prime Minister has resigned. 

Season 4: The Diana and Charles show

Season 4 covers the Thatcher years from 1979 to 1990. The entire nation begins to feel the impact of their first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The two leading ladies are at constant disagreement with each other and that only gets worse when Thatcher’s divisive policies lead them into the Falklands War, and conflicts within the commonwealth. Meanwhile Charles, who is the future of the sovereign, is still unmarried but his blossoming romance with Lady Diana Spencer provides a fairytale romance to not only the public but for Diana herself. Being married at such a young age, all Diana knew about love was through Charles. But little did she know that she would be deprived of it so soon. What looked like a perfect family on the outside, only became increasingly divided behind closed doors. Charles' clear frustration of bottling up his feelings for Camilla all these years begins to burst out and that leads to him having an affair with her. This became the root cause for Diana’s unhappiness, her eating disorder and made her see the monarchs for who they really were. 

The trailer for season 5 hints that we will only get to see more of what happened between Princess Diana and the royal family. Season 4 portrayed a more young and naïve Diana, season 5 shows her after her divorce with Prince Charles. The ultimate showdown will be ready for streaming from November 9.

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