Dowden is expected to write to Netflix this week
to express his view. Netflix did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
Questions of historical fidelity were not a major
issue during earlier seasons of the show, which
debuted in 2016 and traces the long reign of
Queen Elizabeth II, which began in 1952.
But the current fourth season is set in the 1980s,
a divisive decade that many Britons remember
vividly. Characters include Conservative Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose 11-year
tenure transformed and divided Britain, and the
late Princess Diana, whose death in a car crash in
1997 traumatized the nation.
Former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter
has called the series a “hatchet job” on Prince
Charles, the heir to the British throne, and his
first wife Diana. The troubled relationship of the
couple, played by Josh O’Connor and Emma
Corrin, is a major storyline in the series.
Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, has also said
the show should carry a notice that “this isn’t
true but it is based around some real events.”
“I worry people do think that this is gospel and
that’s unfair,” he told broadcaster ITV.
Some Conservatives have criticized the
program’s depiction of Thatcher, played by
Gillian Anderson. Britain’s first female prime
minister, who died in 2013, is portrayed as
clashing with Olivia Colman’s Elizabeth to an
extent that some say is exaggerated.
“The Crown” creator Peter Morgan, whose work
also includes recent-history dramas “The Queen”
and “Frost/Nixon,” has defended his work, saying
it is thoroughly researched and true in spirit.