The Crown – A Netflix Period Drama

Claire Foy in The Crown

I love Netflix, I’ve had it for a couple of years now and love being able to dip into a wealth of films, documentaries and tv series whenever there’s nothing on normal television. As with other streaming services, Netflix produce their own TV series that are proving to be massive hits and I absolutely loved the first series of Jessica Jones. However, one thing Netflix hasn’t tackled so far is period dramas, but that’s all about to change.

The Crown, a 60 part(!!) series that traces the life of the Queen from her wedding in 1947 to the present day, has had $100 million poured into it by the network and is the most expensive drama ever made by Netflix. It stars my most favourite actress Claire Foy, recently seen as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall, as the younger Elizabeth II and Matt Smith as her ever devoted husband Philip. I will literally watch these two in anything, so even if this didn’t look absolutely brilliant, I’d still watch it!

Claire Foy in Netflix's The Crown

The tagline to the series “Two houses, two courts, one Crown” hints towards the relationship between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street and the Queen’s influence on both. Thankfully, unlike any other Netflix produced show, The Crown is made in the UK so there shouldn’t be any sort of American spin on the story, but I really do hope they stay as close to the truth as possible. I’m not really sure about US actor John Lithgow playing Winston Churchill but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Claire Foy and Matt Smith

John Lithgow as Winston Churchill

The Crown Royal Wedding Scene

Of course, as vintage enthusiasts, we’ll all be desperate to see the costumes from 1947 and throughout the following few decades and as the image of the crowd outside Westminster Abbey shows, we’re not really going to be disappointed. Just look at that purple dress!! This excitement is further heightened by the fact that Netflix have admitted to spending a huge part of the budget on costumes alone. Hmm, I can see a lot of vintage envy happening all over the world when this finally hits the screen!

The Crown - Netflix

This show already has a lot of connections to royalty with the script being based on The Audience, a recent West End and Broadway hit, which featured Helen Mirren as the Queen, and the show’s creator, Peter Morgan, penned the Oscar-winning The Queen which also starred the wonderful Helen Mirren. She does do a good Elizabeth! Perhaps she’ll be in the running for the older version of her in later seasons as this hasn’t actually been cast yet.

The first two seasons have already been confirmed as starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith and it’s set to start some time very soon in the UK, although there is no official date yet. You can, however, already add The Crown to your Netflix wishlist so it’ll appear as soon as it’s released, you’ll just need to search for it. I personally cannot wait to see this as I love anything to do with the Royal Family and I’m sure once you’ve watched the full length trailer below you’ll be just as excited as me!

Do you subscribe to Netflix? Are you going to watch The Crown?

Cate

Just a vintage gal suffering from the Golden Age syndrome. A lover of all things old, especially the 1930s, seamstress, crocheter, maker of hats and enjoys rummaging at flea markets.

16 Comments

  1. Oo, one to watch! I am not actually subscribed to Netflix, we always end up waiting ages for stuff to come on TV, or I just can’t take the suspense and buy DVD boxsets. I admit that I watch a lot of stuff just for the costumes, how shallow I am! But this does sound quite interesting too. xx

    • Yeah, I watch things just for the costumes too but will generally only stick with it if I enjoy it. xx

  2. How exciting! Its a Yes and Yes from me!! This looks like it could be really fabulous, the photos and trailer are very tantalising, those outfits! Oh and I am also about to start watching Jessica Jones (I’ve been saving it), glad to here its as good as it looks! xx

    • Oh, I think you’ll enjoy Jessica Jones and if you’re a fan of David Tennant you’ll like it even more. He is absolutely brilliant in this! xx

    • You’re welcome! As soon as I know when it’s being released I’ll put it up on my social media profiles to make sure no one misses it.

  3. I do have Netflix, though I’m not sure if I’ll be watching this one. I’ll have to sneak it past the Mr, who will groan and roll his eyes.

    I’m a bit of a Royal watcher on the sly. The Queen is the absolute master of occasion dressing – right from the start of her reign, if she’s doing anything official you can bet your boots that the colours, motifs or jewels all pay a compliment to the other parties involved. My very favourite dress of hers from the 1950s was a white satin evening dress with a green waterfall ruffle down the back, worn on a state visit to Pakistan – the country’s national colours. So simple, so beautiful. And her brooches! She has an entire language of brooches. When she opened the new Crossrail line this week, you could tell she’d known everyone else would be in orange safety vests, so she showed up in purple, no missing the Queen in that. She’s the most interesting dresser since the first Elizabeth, I reckon.

    • Blimey, you really do keep a close eye on what she’s wearing! I think both her and her mother have/had great taste in clothes. They really consider what they’ll be seen in when out in public and I think so many people need to take inspiration from this. Obviously not us vintage wearing types, mind you, we’re already good at that! 🙂 x

    • It hasn’t started yet, but is on it’s way so keep an eye out for it. i can’t wait for it to start! x

  4. Thank you for flagging this up, it sounds very interesting. I do like an historical drama and any opportunity to watch great costuming is good with me.

    • Yes, I’m looking forward to the costumes too and knowing how much they’ve spent on them they should be good! x

  5. That looks awesome! I watch anything period, although I love stuff from the past 100ish years the most. Or Jane Austen era. They had such nice manners back then! Must admit I’m not a Claire Foy fan, but I think that’d be worth overlooking for this 🙂

    • Ooo, yes, I love Jane Austen too. I love the simplicity of their lives back then, having tea, reading, taking a stroll, a bit of needlework and then dinner and a ball in the evening. Sounds like bliss!

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