The Crown (season 1)

The first season of the British-American web television series The Crown, which follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, consists of 10 episodes and was released on Netflix on November 4, 2016.

Claire Foy stars as Elizabeth, along with main cast members Matt Smith, Vanessa Kirby, Eileen Atkins, Jeremy Northam, Victoria Hamilton, Ben Miles, Greg Wise, Jared Harris, John Lithgow, Alex Jennings, and Lia Williams.

Premise
The Crown traces the life of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 through to the present day. The first season, in which Claire Foy portrays the Queen in the early part of her reign, depicts events up to 1955, with Winston Churchill resigning as Prime Minister and the Queen's sister Princess Margaret deciding not to marry Peter Townsend.

Main

 * Claire Foy as Princess Elizabeth and later Queen Elizabeth II
 * Matt Smith as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth's husband
 * Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, Elizabeth's younger sister
 * Eileen Atkins as Queen Mary, Elizabeth's grandmother
 * Jeremy Northam as Anthony Eden, Churchill's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, who succeeds him as Prime Minister
 * Victoria Hamilton as Queen Elizabeth, George VI's wife and Elizabeth's mother, known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother during her daughter's reign
 * Ben Miles as Group Captain Peter Townsend, George VI's equerry, who hopes to marry Princess Margaret
 * Greg Wise as Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Philip's ambitious uncle and great-grandson of Queen Victoria
 * Jared Harris as King George VI, Elizabeth's father, known to his family as Bertie
 * John Lithgow as Winston Churchill, the Queen's first Prime Minister
 * Alex Jennings as the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, who abdicated in favour of his younger brother Bertie to marry Wallis Simpson; known to his family as David
 * Lia Williams as Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, Edward's American wife

Featured
The below actor is credited in the opening titles of a single episode in which they play a significant role.
 * Stephen Dillane as Graham Sutherland, a noted artist who paints a portrait of the aging Churchill

Recurring

 * Billy Jenkins as young Prince Charles
 * Grace and Amelia Gilmour as young Princess Anne (uncredited)
 * Clive Francis as Lord Salisbury
 * Pip Torrens as Tommy Lascelles
 * Harry Hadden-Paton as Martin Charteris
 * Daniel Ings as Mike Parker
 * Lizzy McInnerny as Margaret "Bobo" MacDonald
 * Patrick Ryecart as the Duke of Norfolk
 * Will Keen as Michael Adeane
 * James Laurenson as Doctor Weir
 * Mark Tandy as Cecil Beaton
 * Harriet Walter as Clementine Churchill
 * Nicholas Rowe as Jock Colville
 * Simon Chandler as Clement Attlee
 * Kate Phillips as Venetia Scott
 * Ronald Pickup as the Archbishop of Canterbury
 * Nigel Cooke as Harry Crookshank
 * Patrick Drury as the Lord Chamberlain
 * John Woodvine as the Archbishop of York
 * Rosalind Knight as Princess Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark
 * Andy Sanderson as Prince Henry
 * Michael Culkin as Rab Butler
 * George Asprey as Walter Monckton
 * Verity Russell as young Princess Elizabeth
 * Beau Gadsdon as young Princess Margaret
 * James Hillier as Equerry
 * Jo Stone-Fewings as Collins
 * Anna Madeley as Clarissa Eden
 * Tony Guilfoyle as the Bishop of Durham
 * Nick Hendrix as Billy Wallace
 * Josh Taylor as Johnny Dalkeith
 * David Shields as Colin Tennant
 * Paul Thornley as Bill Mattheson
 * Richard Clifford as Norman Hartnell

Guest

 * Michael Bertenshaw as Piers Legh, Master of the Household
 * Julius D'Silva as Baron Nahum
 * Jo Herbert as Mary Charteris
 * Joseph Kloska as Porchey
 * Amir Boutrous as Gamal Abdel Nasser
 * Abigail Parmenter as Judy Montagu

Release
The series' first two episodes were released theatrically in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2016. The first season was released on Netflix worldwide in its entirety on November 4, 2016. Season 1 was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2017 and worldwide on November 7, 2017.

Reception


The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported 90% approval for the first season based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 8.72/10. Its critical consensus reads, "Powerful performances and lavish cinematography make The Crown a top-notch production worthy of its grand subject." On Metacritic, the series holds a score of 81 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

The Guardian's TV critic Lucy Mangan praised the series and wrote that "Netflix can rest assured that its £100m gamble has paid off. This first series, about good old British phlegm from first to last, is the service's crowning achievement so far." Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Ben Lawrence said, "The Crown is a PR triumph for the Windsors, a compassionate piece of work that humanises them in a way that has never been seen before. It is a portrait of an extraordinary family, an intelligent comment on the effects of the constitution on their personal lives and a fascinating account of postwar Britain all rolled into one." Chief television critic Jaci Stephen of The Mail on Sunday lauded the series as "faultless" and complimented its "exquisite writing and magnificent acting". Writing for The Boston Globe, Matthew Gilbert also praised the series saying it "is thoroughly engaging, gorgeously shot, beautifully acted, rich in the historical events of postwar England, and designed with a sharp eye to psychological nuance". Vicki Hyman of The Star-Ledger described it as "sumptuous, stately but never dull". The A.V. Club's Gwen Ihnat said it adds "a cinematic quality to a complex and intricate time for an intimate family. The performers and creators are seemingly up for the task".

The Wall Street Journal critic Dorothy Rabinowitz said, "We're clearly meant to see the duke [of Windsor] as a wastrel with heart. It doesn't quite come off—Mr. Jennings is far too convincing as an empty-hearted scoundrel—but it's a minor flaw in this superbly sustained work." Robert Lloyd writing for the Los Angeles Times said, "As television it's excellent—beautifully mounted, movingly played and only mildly melodramatic." Hank Stuever of The Washington Post also reviewed the series positively: "Pieces of The Crown are more brilliant on their own than they are as a series, taken in as shorter, intently focused films". Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times said, "This is a thoughtful series that lingers over death rather than using it for shock value; one that finds its story lines in small power struggles rather than gruesome palace coups." The Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg said the first season "remains gripping across the entirety of the 10 episodes made available to critics, finding both emotional heft in Elizabeth's youthful ascension and unexpected suspense in matters of courtly protocol and etiquette". Other publications such as USA Today, Indiewire, The Atlantic, CNN and Variety also reviewed the series positively.

Some were more critical of the show. In a review for Time magazine, Daniel D'Addario wrote that it "will be compared to Downton Abbey, but that .. was able to invent ahistorical or at least unexpected notes. Foy struggles mightily, but she's given little...The Crown's Elizabeth is more than unknowable. She's a bore". Vulture's Matt Zoller Seitz concluded, "The Crown never entirely figures out how to make the political and domestic drama genuinely dramatic, much less bestow complexity on characters outside England's innermost circle." Verne Gay of Newsday said, "Sumptuously produced but glacially told, The Crown is the TV equivalent of a long drive through the English countryside. The scenery keeps changing, but remains the same." Slate magazine's Willa Paskin, commented: "It will scratch your period drama itch—and leave you itchy for action." Writing for The Mail on Sunday, Hugo Vickers, an English biographer of the Royal Family, argued that "while [The Crown] certainly holds the attention, it is marred by a series of sensationalist errors and some quite remarkable lapses into vulgarity."