Lord Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, has said that The Crown season 2 was “unfair” to His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
Speaking on the Katie Couric Podcast, Fellowes chatted in a fair bit of detail about his thoughts and feelings surrounding The Crown, and the general practice of writing dramas about living people.
“It was beautifully acted, beautifully written,” Fellowes made sure to mention when speaking of The Crown, before going on to detail his concerns. He also stressed at a later point that he is a “big fan” of Peter Morgan, The Crown‘s creator, who Fellowes “considers the best writer on television at the moment.”
But Fellowes didn’t hold back when he got into this critique of The Crown:
“For me, I’m not completely comfortable with dramatising people who are still alive and still living their lives. Because I think it’s possible to be unfair.
“And in the second series, I didn’t think it was fair to Prince Philip, to the Duke of Edinburgh, based on very little.”
He added, “I don’t know. I think when people are still alive, living their lives, doing a good job and popular and loved, do they deserve it? And in that sense, I’m not sure they do.”
And Fellowes also said this:
“I think that a lot of it was based on obviously very good research, but some of it was not. Some of it was extrapolation from a rumour or someone’s rather prejudiced account. And then it was presented as fact. I’m not sure that’s just.”
Filming is expected to start on The Crown season 3 next month, and we’ll be sure to keep you furnished with plenty of updates.