Judi Dench Wins Royal Rumble With Netflix Over “The Crown’s” Disclaimer

Netflix knows its famous series “The Crown” is a reimagined retelling of royal events and yet they want to treat it as historically accurate. That is, before Judi Dench, and the admirable royalists, pulled out the big guns and backed Netflix into a corner.

Now, the streaming giant has done the right and honorable thing by adding a disclaimer to their “The Crown” content. Sheesh, I can’t believe there had to be a backlash before one was added, but I guess we shouldn’t doubt the omniscient power of Netflix to read thoughts and spy on private conversations.

Dame Judi Dench Writes Personal Letter Criticizing Netflix’s Failure To Add Warning To Their “Fictionalized” The Crown Series

It’s hard to argue with the fact that Netflix has made a lot of money – and continues to do so – with sweet sweet tales of the Royal Family’s lives. In the 21st century, the words Queen, King, Princess and Prince apparently still means a lot and people are fascinated by the lives of the people bearing such titles. There’s a reason Hallmark’s royalty movies are still highly sought after.

But even as Netflix tries to stay true to the Royal Family’s actual reality, we have to be honest, we’d all tune off five minutes in if it wasn’t dramatized to interest us.

However, this blurring of the line between reality and fiction is becoming more exaggerated as the series marches into our modern times.

Apart from reincarnating old demons, Netflix faced backlash for their Season 5’s episode 1, where they portrayed Charles as someone who once sought to remove the Queen from the throne. Immediately after the episode aired, former Prime Minister John Major lashed out at Netflix for promoting what he called “malicious nonsense”.

In a letter to The Times, Dame Judi Dench, 87, wrote: “Sir John Major is not alone in his concerns that the latest series of The Crown will present an inaccurate and hurtful account of history (News, Oct 17).”

“Indeed, the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.

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“While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true.”

A few hours after Judi’s letter was made public, Netflix added a disclaimer to the show’s trailer on YouTube: “Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign.”

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Editorial credit: Denis Makarenko / Shutterstock.com