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December 2019 | REDONLINE.CO.UK

H

ow is it? Is it good? How does the

transition from the old cast to new faces

feel?’ Tobias Menzies is asking me for

my honest opinion on the new series of

The Crown. He has taken the reins from

Matt Smith as Prince Philip in Netflix’s

hit drama about the royal family

throughout Queen Elizabeth II’s rule.

The drama has been recast – an unusual

move for a successful show – and,

naturally, Menzies is eager to discover

how it plays out to viewers.

I tell him they’ve nailed it. His first

scene, in which he is irritated by the Queen buttering her toast

loudly while he’s watching TV, is kitchen-sink drama gold. The series

opener has our new Queen, Olivia Colman, reflecting on a portrait

from the Royal Mail, while, to her left, Claire Foy is in profile as

the Queen on a series of stamps. It’s a clever segue from old to new.

I tell Menzies this and he beams. ‘It’s nice, isn’t it? It’s very graceful;

a great piece of writing,’ he says.

Even so, there are nerves. ‘There’s definitely some trepidation

about it,’ he admits, gently setting down his coffee on the small table

before us in a London hotel suite. With the previous two series of

The Crown making household names of Claire Foy and Vanessa

Kirby (Princess Margaret) and further elevating Matt Smith’s profile,

Menzies is justified in feeling anxious about the gilded baton being

passed on to the ‘new faces’. As well as the mighty Olivia Colman,

there’s the iconic Helena Bonham Carter, who plays a scene-stealing

Princess Margaret. The involvement of these

acting legends makes for quite a different starting point to that

of the original ensemble.

He was a fan of the previous two series, and was really excited to

discover he’d landed the role of the Duke of Edinburgh. ‘I was a great

admirer of the show anyway,’ he says. ‘I liked it because, for me, it

wasn’t that you had to be interested in the royal family particularly;

it was bigger than that. It was an investigation of those institutions

about leadership and what it’s like to exist inside a ceremonial

position. I really like that about the show. I was pretty pumped.’

PR INCE

CHARMING

Cast as Prince

Philip in the

new series

of The Crown,

actor Tobias

Menzies talks

to Jen Crothers

about his

latest role, his

republican

roots and

what it’s like

to work with

Olivia Colman

‘THIS ISN’T A

WORLD I SPENT

A LOT OF MY

LIFE THINKING

ABOUT’

,