Queen Elizabeth's former secretary slams 'The Crown' for 'glum' portrayal
Dickie Arbiter was press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II and doesn't have praise for her portrayal by Imelda Staunton and Olivia Colman
December 17, 2023
In a surprise scene, the three actresses who have portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown - Imelda Staunton, Olivia Colman, and Claire Foy - united in the Netflix drama's moving penultimate episode.
However, the monarch's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter remains a harsh critic of how the series has portrayed his former boss.
While praising Foy's "brilliant" early take, Arbiter was scathing of Colman's "drawn" performance and said Staunton played the Queen as too gloomy, failing to do her justice.
“I don’t remember her being glum and boring. Glum if there was a death in the family or one of the dogs had to be put down, but she was playing glum and boring right the way through.”
Only Staunton's delivery of Elizabeth's speech after Diana's death earned Arbiter's approval, given his role in the real event.
He has more broadly slammed creator Peter Morgan's use of "dramatic license gone bonkers" in season 6's handling of Diana's death scenes.
Arbiter found the depiction of Charles telling William and Harry disrespectful considering their loss is still raw. “The sequence of Charles telling his sons of their mother’s death was so insensitive, it was so unnecessary,” he said. “The death of their mother is still raw with both of them.”
