calherewecome

A couple of nights ago Paula and I started watching the TV series “The Crown” on Netflix. We’re not doing it at break neck speed but we are moving along. We saw S1E1 on Friday and S1E2 last night. Eight more episodes for season 1.

“The Crown” is the story of reign of Queen Elizabeth II in England.

Okay, we’re hooked. S1E1 starts off with marriage of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Phillip. Phillip never knew what hit him.

A couple of comments. John Lithgow is superb in his portrayal of Winston Churchill. Great image of Winston taking a bath and smoking a cigar. There sure was a lot of smoking going on. Smoking surely killed King George VI. It seems that everyone took baths. Showers must have been an American invention. It took almost another twenty years for scientists to convince people that tobacco kills.

This is the second movie that we’ve seen in recent years about the British Monarchy. In 2010, we saw Colin Firth play King George VI in “The Kings Speech“. That movie received four Oscars including Best Actor for Firth and Best Picture.

The series stars Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth and Matt Smith as Prince Phillip. Foy is known for appearance in “Season of the Witch”. Smith is probably best known for his appearance as the eleventh “Dr Who” on the BBC. Episode 1 is in 1947 when Prince Philip renounces his Greek and Danish titles and proceeds to marry Elizabeth.

Episode 2 jumps forward to 1952 when Elizabeth and Phillip are off touring the African countryside in Kenya when Elizabeth’s father King George dies. Oh my, things get intense. So the aides keep telling her that the “Crown” comes first.

Other thoughts.

The movie shows King George having surgery to remove his diseased lung at Buckingham Palace. Kings don’t go to the hospital, the hospital comes to them. They also show the embalming being done at Buckingham.

Here’s an interesting piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune about fact checking the series. Interesting read. Click here.

PS.

Quick update on Mary. She has been able to go to church on the last two Sundays. Her memory is failing fast. She couldn’t remember the church that she goes to. Everyone was happy to see her. We did lunch at the Gaffey Street Diner. Diner has improved. Waitress gave me extra bacon. I told her that she was my new favorite waitress.

This entry was posted on December 17, 2017 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Films, Television. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Elizabeth, George VI, Netflix, Queen Elizabeth 2, The Crown