Netflix drama The Crown has entered the most riveting part of the British royal saga, with the first four episodes of the final season trying to recreate the final days of Princess Diana. At the heart of Part 1 of Season 6 is Princess Diana’s relationship with Egyptian film producer Dodi Al-Fayed and the events leading up to her death in a Paris tunnel.
A restless and tumultuous summer
Season 6 depicts Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) embarking on a new phase of her life, and show creator Peter Morgan focuses on Diana finding her voice amid the schemes and pressures mounting on her.
A year after her divorce from Prince Charles (Dominic West), Diana is slowly coming into her own person, shedding the formal constraints of royalty. She is as graceful as ever, breaking away from the formal mould and negotiating her newfound freedom, symbolised by bold swimsuits and comfy sweatshirts.
The first episode of Season 6 begins with a man walking his dog along the Seine in Paris at night, as a car zooms past them at breakneck speed with a string of photographers on their tail. The scene foretells the impending tragedy that awaits Princess Diana and her friend Dodi Al-Fayed (Khalid Abdalla), who are in the car vrooming towards the Pont de l’Alma tunnel. Morgan avoids showing a whirlwind romance between Diana and Dodi, portraying instead a comforting friendship that gives a renewed sense of purpose.
Diana's resilience and transformation
Debicki, who gets the nuances of Diana’s body language and vibe spot on, had delivered an intense performance in Season 5, foregrounding the complexities of Diana’s relationship with Charles, her mental health struggles and her tumultuous interactions with the media.
In Season 6, Debicki masterfully conveys Diana’s attempts to leverage her platform for causes like the Landmine Survivors Network while being a target of relentless paparazzi harassment. A sense of foreboding permeates these scenes, particularly in the recreation of the iconic image of Diana perched on a diving board alone, captured a week before her death.
The Queen is relegated to the sidelines
With the central focus on Diana, Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton), Prince Charles and Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) play supporting roles. The royals grapple with the “Diana problem”, with Charles immersed in a campaign to rehabilitate his love interest, Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams).
In the fourth episode of Part I, The Aftermath, the emotional cracks in the royal family members begin to show, setting the stage for a roller-coaster climax. This episode has imagined conversations between Charles and Diana on the royal plane, as he carries her dead body back to London.
A similar imaginary conversation happens between the Queen and Diana at Balmoral, featuring Diana in her iconic black turtleneck from Season 5, offering a glimpse into what might have been going on in the minds of these two personalities that have clashed until now. In a pivotal moment, the monarch decides to issue a public statement of support for a public funeral for Diana, influenced by her discussion with Diana’s ‘ghost’ rather than Charles, who had been advocating for it for days. The scene unfolds as the Queen and Diana are seated on a couch, watching on TV the outpouring of grief of people outside Buckingham Palace.
A relatively lesser-known aspect of the Diana-Dodi story emerges through the contrast between Diana’s desire for freedom and the ambition of businessman Mohamed ‘Mou Mou’ Al-Fayed (Salim Daw), Dodi’s father, aiming for acceptance by the aristocracy using Diana as a pawn. To earn his place among the who’s who, he forces his son to court Diana.
The scene with Dodi’s ghost visiting his father post-funeral is a poignant moment, showing Mohamed’s genuine grief and disappointment over the royal family’s silence, and seeking forgiveness from his departed son.
The second part of The Crown Season 6 will drop on Netflix on December 14.