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The Crown Season 6 Part 2 brings the entire series to a close, understandably beginning with Prince William now at boarding school, and trying to deal with the death of his mother, Diana, in what’s an incredibly slow episode, so I can see why they didn’t end with it last time, and just kept it to four episodes for part 1, and the remaining six for part 2.
In fact, as we’re now on the final lap, I was looking forward to see how the end of the first part would be followed, but before long, it felt like we’ve had the big ‘Diana moment’, but with practically none of the fallout, other than the Royal Family generally being thought very little of by the public. That said, we did have that in detail with 2006’s The Queen, led by Helen Mirren.
However, Season 6 Part 2 does feel rather flat now that Diana is basically out of the picture. Of course, while Netflix declare this is a drama, and not a documentary, the alternative would’ve been to have that Part 1 episode followed by Diana waking up and finding Prince Charles in the shower…
I’ll mention a few aspects without giving spoilers, starting with Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel) trying to get used to the job of PM, and the Queen (Imelda Staunton) looking for reform in the Royal Family, and looking to him for help; Prince Harry’s unfortunate choice of attire at a “Native and Colonial” theme party in 2005; plus the time when William first met Kate Middleton and how their relationship developed.
Alas, while I started with Season 4 (since that’s where I started paying attention to politics and seeing how this lot fitted in), and have enjoyed what I’ve seen until now, these last few episodes do rather feel like a trot through their lives, and not a great deal else, so I can see why Netflix are calling it a day.
You can’t really continue a drama if you’re just going to retread old ground, as there’s no point.
That said, if there’s one episode I’d definitely rewrite, it is the one largely centering on Wills and Kate, given that its structure feels more like a Channel 5 afternoon TV movie. Plus, when it comes to a scene where he’s looking for books in the library – yet Kate’s already checked them out – that’s straight out of the Simpsons episode Lisa’s Wedding, where 23-year-old Lisa’s trying to do the same, yet finds that British student Hugh Parkfield got there first!
There’s also a few surprises thrown in along the way, but no spoilers about those, because… then they wouldn’t be a surprise!
Hence, this last foray does feel a bit more of a whimper than a bang, sadly, although, finally, we fast forward to 2050, where Meghan Markle is Queen of the Universe… (not really)
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
The Crown Season 6 Part 2 is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from today.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 50-72 minutes per episode (Part 1: 4 episodes; Part 2: 6 episodes)
Release date: December 14th 2023
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.00:1
Directors: May el-Toukhy, Stephen Daldry, Erik Richter Strand, Alex Gabassi
Producers: Michael Casey, Oona O’Beirn, Andy Stebbing, Martin Harrison, Eve Swannell
Creator: Peter Morgan
Writers: Peter Morgan, Jonathan Wilson, Meriel Baistow-Clare, Daniel Marc Janes
Cast:
Queen Elizabeth II: Imelda Staunton
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: Jonathan Pryce
Princess Diana: Elizabeth Debicki
Prince Charles: Dominic West
Prince William: Ed McVey
Prince Harry: Luther Ford
Kate Middleton: Meg Bellamy
Tony Blair: Bertie Carvel
Cherie Blair: Lydia Leonard
Princess Margaret: Lesley Manville
Princess Anne: Claudia Harrison
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother: Marcia Warren
Camilla Parker Bowles: Olivia Williams
Dodi Al-Fayed: Khalid Abdalla
Prince Andrew: James Murray
Prince Edward: Sam Woolf
Robin Janvrin: Jamie Parker
Lord Chamberlain: Martin Turner
Timothy Laurence: Theo Fraser Steele
William’s PPO: Paul Sparkes
Guy Pelly: Oscar Lesage
Helen Asprey (private secretary): Gina Beck
Young Princess Elizabeth: Viola Prettejohn
Hugo (party guest): Tommy Rodger
Duke of Norfolk: Jonathan Hyde
Archbishop Williams: Richard Heap
David Stancliffe: Julian Wadham
Piper to the Sovereign: Paul Tinto
Tom Parker Bowles: Bert Seymour
Laura Parker Bowles: Clementine Blake
Newsreader (voice): Kirsty Lang
Charles’ PPO: Simon Tcherniak
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.