The Crown Recap - Episode 5 'Smoke and Mirrors'

Finally we get to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. But first we have the obligatory flashback to 1937. George VI is rehearsing in his office when Princess Elizabeth comes for a visit. He immediately ropes her into playing The Archbishop of Canterbury. It is a lovely scene, not only between father and daughter but also between monarch and future monarch. Jared Harris is so lovely as he explains the word inviolate to her. I don’t know who the young actress who plays the 10 year old Princess but she certainly resembles the real Princess at that age. You can just feel the love between father and daughter. I love the flashbacks because we get to have a glimpse of what the Queen was like as a child and more of her relationships with others like her father. George tries on St. Edward’s crown and we cut to the Queen trying it on.  She asks if she can borrow it for a few days to practice and the man from the Tower looks flabbergasted that she would even ask. He points out that she has more right to it than anyone.  With the children trailing behind her, she goes to show off the crown to Philip who is off doing god knows what.

This scene is contrasted later with The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in the present day, welcoming a reporter into their home outside of Paris. The article is clearly a puff piece as the reporter asks for their tips on entertaining and what makes a well-dressed man. There is a montage of the couple wearing one fabulous outfit after another. Someone on another blog pointed out that the Duchess seems to stick to a 1930’s silhouette in these scenes.  In reality, she did wear more current fashions. The point seemed to be that they were a couple stuck in the past while the Queen represents the future. The scene takes a turn when the Duke takes the reporter to his inner sanctum where he keeps one of the government red boxes, the one that held his abdication papers. The reporter shows her ignorance by asking why are there no photos of the Duke wearing the crown. He has to point out to her that he never had a coronation, hence no photos with the crown. It is a terribly awkward moment followed by another awkward moment when the Duke mentions that he plays the bagpipes when he’s melancholy for England. That night he tells Wallis, as they are lying in bed, that he has to go back to dreary England because his mother is dying. He then asks Wallis if she wants to have sex! That’s not the word he actually used but it was quite a leap to go from his mother to wanting sex, particularly since in real life at this point Wallis was hanging out with Jimmy Donahue.

Philip and Elizabeth are dressing to go to some charity premiere or something that requires a tiara. Apparently he was out all afternoon flying, trying to get his pilot’s license in the shortest amount of time ever. Yes, that is basically all Phil has going for him right now while Elizabeth is out ‘Queening’ as he puts it.  She tells him that she’s decided to make him head of her Coronation committee despite the fact that the Duke of Norfolk is normally in charge. Phil tells her not to ‘matronize’ him which had me rolling on the floor. He will only agree to the plan as long as he has full autonomy. Elizabeth tells him not to go mad.  She then has to inform everyone of this change in plan which does not go down well, particularly with Tommy Lascelles and his mustache of doom.

The Duke shows up to spend time with Queen Mary.  There is a somewhat poignant scene of him sitting on the bed with her, she asks him not to leave and he tells her he won’t, calling her ‘Mummy.’  Of course, it’s ruined by a voice over of his letter to Wallis where he is awful about his relatives yet again.  The Archbishop of Canterbury calls to set up a meeting. The Duke realizes that since he is no longer King, he has to go to the Archbishop, not the other way around.  Yet another reminder of what he has given up since he abdicated. The meeting, which includes Jock Colville and Tommy Lascelles, is basically to tell the Duke that he is persona non grata at the coronation and under no circumstances is Wallis invited.  Instead of acting like an adult, the Duke proceeds to insult the Archbishop by repeating a rather horrid poem that he wrote about his predecessor. He really doesn't know how to read a room. It has been 17 years since he abdicated, as the Duke points out, one would think that he would have gotten used to the attitude of the establishment. 

The meeting is called to a halt by the death of Queen Mary.  So we are treated to yet another similar funeral scene where Philip spends his time criticizing that fact and how Elizabeth’s coronation has to be modern and up-to-date and not stuffy and traditional. His timing is awful.  I know that Prince Philip was considered reckless and a bit coarse by the powers that be, but I sincerely doubt that he would spend his time critiquing his wife’s grandmother’s funeral.

Of course, the Queen gets a call from Churchill that Philip has gone made with the coronation, wanting it to be televised, and trying to do away with some of the pageantry.  The royal couple has a huge showdown in the vestry of Westminster Abbey. Philip manages to get his point across about televising the coronation but blows it by suggesting that instead of kneeling to take the oath, he stand beside her. Elizabeth is not having it. She is a traditionalist above all. The coronation means something to her and she is not willing to budge on this point. Philip pouts.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor are having a viewing party at their chateau (in real life they watched the coronation at a party thrown by a rich American acquaintance.) The Duke can’t resist revealing his inside knowledge to the crowd. Although he abdicated, he still respects the awe and majesty of the crown and what it means. The title 'Smoke and Mirrors' I'm assuming refers to the magic of the coronation, that the monarch enters the coronation an ordinary person but leaves anointed by God. When a guest asks him why he turned down the chance to ’be a god,’ the Duke turns to the Duchess and replies it was for love. Later, Wallis finds Edward on the veranda playing the bagpipes, tears streaming down his face.

I watched a documentary about the coronation after watching this episode and they managed to recreate it very well. Philip manages to kneel to his wife, although the look on Elizabeth’s face indicated that she wasn’t sure what he was going to do on the day. There is no indication of the lapse of time between their argument and the coronation, so the viewer has no idea if they made up later, if they have spent the past few days glaring at each other over their tea and toast. I would also have liked to have seen some behind the scenes from the day of the coronation such as the moment the Queen is about to walk into the Abbey and she tells her Maids of Honor 'Ready Girls?'. More intimate moments and not just the pageantry, although it is magnificent don't get me wrong. 

I know this series is called The Crown, not The Queen, but I think it is a mistake to focus so much on the institution. I would love to have seen more happy moments between the Queen and Prince Philip before she became Queen. Perhaps if the series had given us a glimpse of their honeymoon at Broadlands or more of their life on Malta before she became Queen, it would make the scenes of the distance in the marriage more poignant. I was hoping that perhaps the writers would treat us to some flashbacks of Philip and Elizabeth's courtship but alas it seems that all the flashbacks we are getting are simply regarding The Crown. 

The Crown Recap: Episode 4 ‘Act of God’

This episode was all about the Great Smog of 1952 which I had never heard, but was apparently a really big thing.  Having experienced a little bit of London Fog in my lifetime, I can’t imagine what it must have been like to have to deal with the vat of pea soup that was served up in 1952.  I’m not going to lie, this episode felt like a bit of a placeholder, as if the writers wanted to hold off getting to the coronation as long as possible. I wasn’t sure where they were going with it.  What we got was a bit of a deeper glimpse at some of our main characters, particularly Sir Winston Churchill who does not come off very well in this episode.

We learn at the beginning of the episode that the whole thing could have been prevented.  Churchill was apparently warned by UK scientists that a great smog was a possibility. Instead, Churchill ignored the warnings by recommending that people continue to burn coal for fuel in an effort to boost the economy. Good intentions, bad idea.  Churchill is like the politicians who like to pretend that climate change isn’t really a thing. Unfortunately for Churchill, one of the government employees decides to go rogue and let former Prime Minister Clement Atlee know what’s what. He even throws Churchill under the bus by showing Atlee minutes from a Cabinet meeting that showed that Churchill ignored previous suggestions for precautionary measures or setting up a Clean Air Service.  Luckily for Churchill, Atlee tells Collins that they should sit on this information because they have no guarantee that the Great Smog is going to actually happen.  Cue smog! The entire city, not to mention the entire country, is blanketed in it.  The smog effectively grounded all the planes and halted any transportation save for walking It is so bad; they warn people to stay home because of the lack of visibility. A national crisis has arisen, and no one is prepared to deal with it.

Meanwhile Prince Philip is having a grand old time taking flying lessons with his new BFF Peter Townsend. This irks Churchill to no end. Instead of worrying about the smog and the damage it might cause, he spends an entire meeting with the Queen, informing her that Philip needs to give up his new hobby. The Queen puts her foot down and tells him that her family’s private lives are in no way a concern of the Cabinet.  Even the Cabinet wonders why Churchill is wasting their time on something so trivial.  They think the old man has finally lost his marbles. Meanwhile Atlee is still dithering about what to do. He’s totally in danger of throwing away his shot. Instead he prefers to wait for it (obligatory Hamilton references). This is why people get frustrated with politicians! It’s left to Lord Mountbatten to pay Elizabeth a visit, stating that no one has any confidence in Churchill anymore, not even his fellow politicians.  Unlike her father who refused to ask Churchill to resign, Elizabeth is made of sterner stuff, and is fully prepared to make the change.

In this episode, we spend a bit of time with Churchill’s secretary Venetia Scott and her roommate as they deal with the smog.  If this were any other series, Venetia would be our plucky heroine. She soldiers on to work every day despite the smog, while her roommate succumbs to illness and stays home. Venetia has a bit of a crush on the Prime Minister.  She finds a copy of one of her books and spends a delightful evening reading it.  I’m surprised that she didn’t sleep with a picture of him under her pillow, although she does gaze rather fondly at a photo of him as a young man at various points in this episode. She’s such an intriguing character, so of course, she doesn’t make it through the episode. Apparently I’m not allowed to have nice things.

Somehow the Queen manages to find her way through the fog on foot to Marlborough House to have a deep conversation with her grandmother Queen Mary. Elizabeth asks her grandmother if this smog is an Act of God, and what role the divine plays in the monarchy. Queen Mary gives her a speech about how “God Put Us Here to Give Ordinary People Something to Strive for.” Which is great in the long run but not very helpful in the here and now. It is a prime example of just how little actual power the Queen has. I suppose nowadays, her press people would have suggested that she do a broadcast or something to assure the people. 

Churchill must have been born under the luckiest star on the planet, because just when you think he is done for, he manages to pull a rabbit out of the hat.  After he learns about what happened to Venetia, he high tails it to the hospital and is appalled by what he finds.  London’s hospitals are understaffed and under equipped to deal with the influx of patients. He calls an impromptu press conference, writes his speech on a prescription pad, and delivers an uplifting speech to the nation, saving his bacon once again. It’s inspiring but one gets the sense that Churchill has just used up his last lifeline. The sad thing is, if Venetia hadn't died, would Churchill have done anything? The episode implies that he was so out of touch, that the answer might have been yes! Of course now the Queen can’t ask him to resign, but she does manage to get him to let up on Prince Philip and the flying lessons although he has to have permission from the Cabinet before he does anything crazy.

And like a miracle, just as Churchill and Elizabeth finish their meeting, the smog lifts.  I ended up liking this episode a lot after initially being like ‘WTH?’  It was a nice respite after the gloomy atmosphere of the past two episodes.  The viewer is left wondering, like Elizabeth, what would have happened if the fog hadn’t lifted when it did, if it had gotten worse before it got better? What if Atlee had acted on the information that he’d been given, instead of acting like a gentleman? One of the nicest bits in the episode is when Venetia quotes Churchill to the man himself, reminding him of who he once was.  I got the impression that Churchill felt that the people of England had survived worse during the war, so how much could a little smog hurt compared to the Blitz! In this episode, Churchill is clinging to power by his fingernails. I get it, he led the country admirably during WWII, only to be turfed out of office after the war.  And now, once again he held the highest political office in the land but times had changed and it is not clear that Churchill had changed with them. I wasn’t sold on John Lithgow as Churchill initially, he’s way too tall, but this was his episode and he knocked it out of the ballpark.

The Crown Recap Episode 3: ‘Windsor’

This episode was slightly different from the previous two episodes with a focus on the Duke of Windsor.  We get a flashback to Edward VIII signing the act of abdication on December 10, 1936 with Wallis Simpson looking over his shoulder and then giving his radio broadcast to the nation. The Duke is played by Alex Jennings who played Prince Charles in the film The Queen (also written by Peter Morgan), as well as Anthony Eden in Churchill’s Secret. He does an excellent job of portraying a man who still acts like a small child even in middle-age, but it also shows some sympathy towards him, cut off from his family. He strikes a rather sad and pathetic figure. Historically, Wallis was not with the Duke when he made his radio broadcast, she’d decamped to the south of France to keep out of the line of fire. There are some lovely moments between the Wallis and Edward in this episode, and the actress playing the role is dressed divinely. 

Meanwhile the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret are freely playing with their parents, not aware yet of how their young lives are about to change. Flash-forward to 1952 and the Duke is heading to Britain for his brother’s funeral. This episode peels back even more layers of the onion by letting the audience in on exactly how the Royal Family felt about David’s decision to eschew his duty for love. It’s a nice bit of foreshadowing since later on in the series we will see Princess Margaret grappling with the same decision and making an altogether different choice. Things are still frosty between the Duke of Windsor and his family.  The Queen Mother blames the Duke for George VI’s early death.  Queen Mary is not feeling to warm towards her elder son either, she too blames him for George’s death and for shirking his duty.

They move on to the revelation of the Duke of Windsor’s secret nicknames for his royal relatives. The Queen Mother is ‘Cookie’ (ostensibly because of the rumors that Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the daughter of the family cook. Lady Colin Campbell goes into these rumors in more detail in her rather nasty biography of the Queen Mother. Also for being fat and common which is rich given that he married a twice- divorced woman!) and the new Queen is “Shirley Temple.’ When confronted by Queen, the Duke tries to save face by telling her that it was because she was so sweet, and cute and good just like Shirley Temple. Nice save HRH! When the Duke finally meets up with his mother, she spends most of their time together praising his younger, brother. “So wonderfully thoughtful and caring, an angel to his mother, his wife, and children.  I honestly believe he never thought of himself at all. He really was the perfect son.” The implication being that Bertie was everything that David was not. His meeting with the Queen Mother, Elizabeth and Princess Margaret is just as cold. The Queen Mother can barely stand to look at him, let alone let him touch her.  Afterwards, he writes a letter to Wallis, calling his family “a bunch of ice-flamed monsters,” and that’s one of the kinder things that he says about them! Still the Duke has an ulterior motive, he needs to try and keep communication open, because of his allowance, which the Queen Mother was just as soon end.

He tells his mother, Queen Mary, a sob story about hard it is for them to make ends meet. Living at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and in a mansion just outside of Paris is expensive! He and Wallis need to be kept in the style to which they have become accustomed. It’s rather sickening to see the Duke pleading poverty when England was still going through rationing in 1952. While the Duke is trying to mend fences with his relations, Elizabeth is about to have her first meeting with Churchill. Before the meeting, Philip reminds her of two things: 1) The children will have his surname and 2) They will continue living at Clarence House.  After all, he spent so much time renovating it.

Of course neither of those two things get discussed.  Instead, Churchill and Elizabeth disagree about her coronation.  Elizabeth would like to have it sooner rather than later and Churchill thinks that 16 months from now is a grand idea.  “A long period between accession and coronation was of great value to your father.”  Elizabeth reminds Churchill that actually her father had 5 months since the date of Edward VIII’s coronation had already been set.  Later in the episode, Elizabeth brings up the two matters with Churchill who is aghast at both of them.

Meanwhile Lord Mountbatten is having a party where he exhorts his guests to raise a toast to the House of Mountbatten which is fairly cheeky and might smack of treason. Prince Ernst of Hanover (who is either the father or grandfather of the current Prince Ernst, husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco) scurries over to Queen Mary to tell her the news.  This scene is done partly in German as the Duke of Windsor listens in.  It was a nice reminder that not only Queen Mary but also the Duke were fluent in German. Queen Mary is also aghast that they should be drinking champagne when her son has just recently died! Tommy Lascelles tells Peter Townsend that the Queen Mother has asked for him to comptroller of her household.  He suggests not so subtly that Townsend should think about going back to the RAF. Apparently there are rumors that Townsend is a little too close to a certain brunette member of the household. Townsend basically tells him to stuff it. Later he informs Margaret that his wife is leaving him.

He tells her that it would be a grave mistake to change the name of the Royal House to Mountbatten. He reminds her that Prince Philip’s real last name was Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg of the Royal House of Greece and Denmark. Elizabeth is not one to be swayed, she may be a Queen but she is also a wife and a mother. Remember that she did promise to obey Philip at their wedding. Elizabeth is not dumb either, she knows that there are people who think that Churchill is past his prime and would like to see him resign, giving way to a young man like his nephew-in-law Anthony Eden. She tries to bargain with him, she will agree to the delay in her coronation, if he will support her in the matter regarding her husband’s name, and staying at Clarence House.  Good luck with that! The cabinet is totally not on board with either of those decisions.  Instead of telling the Queen himself, Churchill pawns off breaking the bad news to the Duke of Windsor.  In exchange, Churchill will push for Elizabeth to reinstate the Duke’s allowance.  Sneaky! Of course, the Duke has to ruin everything by trying to get Wallis the HRH.  He complains that it has been 17 years since the abdication, why are they still being so cruel to his wife? Edward really has no concept of what he did by abdicating, the lives he damaged. All he cares about his money and Wallis.

When the Duke meets with his niece, on the surface she is all smiles, but there is steel underneath. She gets her own digs in during their idle chatter, dissing his love of pugs and their gassiness and confronting him about the cruel nicknames like Shirley Temple.  The Duke realizes he has underestimated his niece, especially when she points out that he has never apologized to her for changing her life irrevocably. For the first time in the entire episode, The Duke is actually ashamed regarding his behavior.  He apologizes to her and then gently tells her that the two things that she wants (or really her husband wants) can’t be.  The House of Windsor will remain the house of Windsor and the whole clan must debunk to Buckingham Palace. The episode ends with the Duke heading back to his wife as crowds cheer him at the dock.  While his family may not love, the people still have some affection for him.

Philip is not please and acts like a whiny baby about the whole thing. “What kind of marriage is this? What kind of family? You’ve taken my career from me, you’ve taken my home, you’ve taken my name.” In real life, Philip remarked that he felt like a bloody amoeba. Upset by the whole drama, Philip convinces Peter Townsend to teach him how to fly.  See he really wanted to be in the RAF, but his uncle Mountbatten convinced him to join the Navy instead like his uncle and grandfather. Peter and Margaret had been having a rendezvous in his office when Philip arrives. Margaret hides but Philip notices a woman’s purse and teases Peter Townsend about it, not realizing that the woman in question is his sister-in-law.

This episode had pace and moved the story along nicely, as well as revealing more about the participants behind the scenes.  I still quibble with the portrayal of the Queen Mother, so far the portrait that we are given is of a very dour woman.  She has none of the joie de vivre that Helena Bonham Carter brought to the role in the Queen’s speech. Claire Foy is growing in the part as she assumes more of the mantel of responsibility.  The other big disappointment in this series thus far is also the portrayal of Prince Philip. Yes, Philip could stick his foot in his mouth, and yes being a Prince Consort had to suck at times, but I wish we could see more of him trying to find his footing in the role.  I mentioned this is my previous recap but Lord Mountbatten needs to be used for more than just a plot point. It’s real waste of Greg Wise, who thus far, has had little more to do than just show up and be handsome, which he does very well.

Other recaps: Tom and Lorenzo