THE Crown actress Emma Corrin has branded calls to specifically label the Netflix show as fiction as “mad.”
The star, who plays Princess Diana in the fourth series of the streaming show, insisted adding a disclaimer to the programme – which is fiction, based on factual Royals – would do “a disservice to creativity, and imagination, and screenwriting, and scriptwriting.”
- The best series on Netflix
- The best movies on Netflix
- New on Netflix: What to watch this week
British actress Emma‘s comments come after the government’s Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden praised The Crown as a “beautifully produced work of fiction”, but said viewers could be in danger of mistaking it for fact without a warning at the beginning of each episode.
Broadcaster Netflix responded by insisting they would not put any kind of warning ahead of the controversial series 4 action, which plays out Princess Diana’s bulimia battle and her turbulent relationship with Prince Charles, including his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
But some scenes – including the false suggestion that the affair between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles continued throughout his marriage to Diana – have been invented.
Emma, 25, has now insisted to The Daily Beast: “The Crown is accurate insofar as it’s about a family over a period of time, and we have factual information about what happened to the country—and to the family.
“So, you can write down all the facts as if it were a timeline, but all the substance is fictitious.
“We can know that Diana and Camilla went to a restaurant called Menage A Trois, which is hysterically ironic, but it happened, but we obviously don’t know what was said, so that is fiction. But that’s how a lot of series operate.
“It’s mad that they want to label it as “fiction” when you have Diana: In Her Own Words where she talks about everything, and it’s much more harrowing.”
After writing to the government’s culture secretary to reject the inclusion of a disclaimer, Netflix revealed a fresh statement on The Crown‘s controversy in line with Emma’s views.
Its head honchos stated to Mail on Sunday: “We have always presented The Crown as a drama, and we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events.
“As a result, we have no plans – and see no need – to add a disclaimer.”
Netflix does add disclaimers to some of its series, including gritty teen suicide drama, 13 Reasons Why, so it is not a blanket ban policy.
Meanwhile Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, is another who recently called for a disclaimer on the show.
