Tony Blair appears only in one shot of Consequencesthe sixth season episode of The Crown focused precisely on the consequences of the premature death of Princess Diana. The Prime Minister briefs the royals and their staff on the funeral arrangements and his desire for a relatively public commemoration; his words are, in the series, almost like background noise compared to the swirling family drama around which the episode revolves. This feeling is underlined by the abrupt change of scene. The family is informed that Diana’s eldest son, William, he has disappeared, and so an important meeting is interrupted for the frantic search for the heartbroken teenager, who fled the real borders to find space to grieve.
The almost impalpable presence of Blair it is noticeable anyway, if only because the creator of The Crown, Peter Morgan, he has already covered this same period of English history as an author, earning an Oscar nomination for his screenplay of The Queen in 2006. That film, with Helen Mirren in the role of Elizabeth II, she explicitly contrasted the Queen with Blair (Michael Sheen) in the moments following Diana’s tragedy. Is The Crown is The Queen highlight the Queen’s persistent reluctance to publicly acknowledge Lady D’s passing, despite astonishing global outpourings of grief and mourning. But in The Queen it is Blair – newly elected prime minister, Labor leader who put an end to over a decade of Conservative government and who promises new ideas – who pushes her to face the moment, to recognize a changing world and the role that the monarch must consequently play in it . The Crown maintains Blair’s perspective on the issue, faithful to the historical record. However, Morgan, who also wrote the episode, modifies the X-factor, claiming that it was the Prince Charles to convince his mother (played by Imelda Staunton) to finally talk about Diana. Blair, meanwhile, wields no overt influence.
This is a consequence of the increasingly intimate attention that The Crown reserve to the lives of the royal family – Princess Margaret in The Queen does not even appear – and, perhaps, of the ever-increasing affection that season after season is felt for the characters. The Charles of The Queen, interpreted by Alex Jennings, he mostly appears as an unserious character. His pain at the passing of the mother of his children is tangible, deeply felt, but after the necessary displays of emotion – which compared to The Crown they are almost staid – he ends up in the background, as a sort of caricature for Blair and his collaborators who define him as an aspiring modernizer trapped in royal clothes. It’s ineffective, even if his positions align with the man who, in this version, ultimately changes the Queen’s mind: Blair.
The Crown he has a more generous vision. The portrait of Carlo done by Josh O’Connor in the third and fourth seasons it was biting. But the last years of the series, with the role passed to Dominic West, the heir’s image has been softened, embracing his contemporary vision of the monarchy and giving credence to his version of the bitter separation from Diana. In The Crown, Carlo fulfills the function that Blair performed in The Queen in a rather orderly manner. In the latter film, Blair ominously and accurately predicts that Diana’s death will be an international event; Carlo does the same in the series. In The Queen, Blair explicitly explains to the Queen what she must do to win back public opinion that has turned against her, including a trip to London and a global speech. In The Crown it is Charles who gives these suggestions and the queen listens to him: «Perhaps Charles is right», Elizabeth of Staunton concedes at a certain point, far from the tone of Mirren in The Queen. “He urged me to give my contribution to calming the waters.”
The Queen Of Stephen Frears received widespread critical recognition, partly due to its lack of sentimentality. Mirren’s dry, Oscar-winning performance was matched by a script by Morgan that managed to blend the thorny perspective of real life and the minutiae of the political process into the dramatic core. ‘s version of events The Crown it doesn’t seem as clear or objective; she is interested in a more surreal, strong and sad reading of the moment. Charles’ silent reaction to the news of Diana’s death in The Queen couldn’t be a more stark contrast to that of The Crownwith his wail echoing through the walls of the Paris hospital as he identifies the woman’s body.
One could easily argue that these are not conflicting narratives, but rather complementary stories that differ in point of view: one more characterized, the other more saccharine. Consequences in fact, it opens on Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw), father of Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi, who was killed in the car accident next to her. Mohamed’s pain is another lacerating passage of the episode, which amplifies its overall emotional impact. In The Queen is not present.
In The Crown Diana herself takes the risk of engaging Charles and the Queen in long and intense conversations (Elizabeth Debicki) which returns as a ghost. For Carlo, this expedient allows, once again, to center his pain with a certain grace in the incessant examination of his character and his wounds. For Elizabeth, this imaginary and ghostly interaction gives her the space to really cry, to vent what she has inside her before returning to her rigid public role. Also The Queen offers her a unique, private explosion, but in this version we find her truly alone, immersed in nature and surrounded by silence. Observing her in her spotlight forces us to reflect more deeply on the monarch’s state of mind.
Is The Queen is The Crown they portray the Queen’s official speech, delivered after a long period of silence. The juxtaposition of these two versions clearly illustrates Morgan’s different objectives. In The Crown, his words are accompanied by a resounding soundtrack and images of people, known to us or not, in mourning. The sequence seems taken from a normal tearjerker film, an attempt, perhaps, to honor the feeling of that precise moment.
In The Queen, the feeling of words capable of speaking to the whole world returns, resonating on an almost epic scale. However, his rigidity is highlighted by live comments, delivered even as the monarch is speaking. The criticism comes from a cynical Blair aide, and while the film seems to technically agree with his assessment, Blair reads his stoicism differently: “What he’s doing is extraordinary,” he says. He is not praising her transparency or authenticity: her emotion does not include tears. With the amazed smile of a politician in his prime, she admires his acumen. You can sense that he makes the film too.
Source: Vanity Fair
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