The Crown 5: The Duke of Windsor’s beloved valet

In its five seasons The Crown spanned 50 years of British royal history, occasionally stepping away from the main protagonists – kings, queens, princes and princesses – to linger on the staff members who serve them. (The juiciest story downstairs is probably that of the squire from King George VICaptain Peter Townsendwho has an unfortunate romance with the Princess Margaret. In the second season, so too squire of Prince Philip causes scandal). But in the season 5 episode Mou MouNetflix’s period drama surprises viewers with a tender story dedicated to Sydney Johnsona real-life staff member who served the deceased Duke of Windsor for over 30 years and which the former king is said to have “loved like a son”.

Johnson had made a fleeting appearance in the episode The man in the balance of the third season, during which the prince Charles he visits his uncle, the duke and former king, for the last time Edward VIIIwhose abdication in 1936 it will pave the way to the Crown a Elizabeth. Brief as Johnson’s cameo was – the dying Duke of Windsor literally shouts “Sydney!” – the presence of a black character in the historically flawless sea of ​​white of The Crown was enough to create quite a stir on the internet. In Season 5, however, the creator of The Crown Peter Morgan proposes Johnson in a story that suggests how the strict British royals – including one with alleged Nazi sympathies – are capable of moments of sweetness.

The episode refers to the years in which the Duke of Windsor (Alex Jennings), then governor of the Bahamas, takes Johnson under his wing (Joshua Kekana), a local teenager, teaching him how British gentlemen dress («for the countryside, jeans and shirt – freedom and comfort») and how to hit with a golf club. In real life, according to the New York Times, Johnson began working for the former king at the age of 16, shortly after the duke’s move following his abdication. The real Johnson looked after every need of the royal, traveled abroad with him and eventually moved in with the duke and his wife Wallis Simpson, in Paris, where the couple lived their exile in a 14-room villa in the park of the Bois du Boulogne. As seen in The Crown, the uniform by Johnson was perfect for Buckingham Palace: a scarlet double-breasted suit with gilt brass buttons bearing the royal monogram and cuffs trimmed with gold braid. Johnson cared for the duke at “Villa Windsor” until his death in 1972.

In Wallis in Lovethe royal biographer Andrew Morton he notes that Johnson was also present when the duke spoke his last words, evoking the “mama”. In an interview released decades later, Johnson recalled one of the last tasks he performed for the duke, after his death. “I remember that they came to embalm him and I chose the dress for him to wear,” he told the New York Times in 1989. «But they told me that he would not wear anything: “As it comes, it goes away”. textual words”. Though it’s unclear whether or not the duke left Johnson anything in his will in his will willa number of jets of 1954 carried the news that the duke had given Johnson “a considerable property in the Bahamas upon which to build a house.”

Although Johnson was a valuable element of the duke’s daily life, the footman apparently was not as popular with Simpson. After the Duke’s death, Johnson allegedly asked Simpson to change his schedule following the death of his wife so he could look after the children at night. “Having been unable to find a nurse or housekeeper, he asked to be able to start going home at five,” she writes Andrew Lownie in Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor. “Wallis’ answer was, ‘If you leave at five, don’t come back.’ Johnson left and did not return.” According to another source, Simpson parted ways with Johnson after more than thirty years of service by simply saying, “I never want to see you again.”

In a surreal next chapter, beautifully depicted in Mou MouJohnson (Jude Akuwudike) eventually returns to the same house in Paris where he had served the duke. After the duke’s death in 1972, as seen in The CrownJohnson went to work as a waiter at the Ritz hotel in Paris, bought and renovated in 1979 by the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw). Later, Johnson was hired as butler of Fayed at the Anglophile billionaire’s Paris home on the Champs-Elysees and helped Fayed get Fayed through a royal restoration project that would have garnered the businessman further plaudits.

In 1986, Al-Fayed made international headlines when he leased the rundown Villa Windsor for fifty years and bought most of the furnishings. Over the next three years, according to the timesspent 14.4 million dollars to restore the villa to its former glory, thanks largely to Johnson, who led the restoration works and made sure that every detail was correct, to the point of indicating the places where the golf clubs were stored , walking sticks and the duke’s hats.

When Al-Fayed completed the restoration in 1989, he told al times that he was fascinated by the story of the duke’s abdication had always fascinated him and that he felt the “duty to preserve something that unites US and British history in an extraordinary story of love”. Al-Fayed transformed the top floor of the three-story mansion into a private apartment for his own use and, according to the timeshe planned to open the rest of the building to scholars, historians and members of the British royal family.

Al-Fayed publicly acknowledged Johnson’s contribution: “Sydney is a dictionary,” al times in 1986. «He is a very cultured man. He has taken all these things out of boxes and safes and warehouses and he knows the history of each one.’ At the housewarming party, Johnson donned his scarlet livery, greeted visitors, and spoke proudly to the press. “I feel on top of the world,” he declared. “The restoration it is so authentic that I expect at any moment to see the duchess coming down the stairs asking: “How am I?”».

In early 1990, just weeks after welcoming guests to the newly restored Windsor Villa and completing that last tribute to the duke, Johnson died. His death made international headlines, with the Associated Press reporting: “The Duke of Windsor’s valet dies at 69.”

Although Al-Fayed has never spoken about his personal relationship with Johnson – The Crown it shows him caring for Johnson in his final days – the Egyptian businessman gave his fond recollection of the faithful butler to the press, declaring: ‘He was a real gentleman. We will miss him very much.”