Nairobi. February 1952. Laughing children brandishing sticks are driving an indignant bustle of ostriches up a rudimentary 1950s-Africa semi-bush runway towards the camera, when — WHOOSH! — right over their heads skims the exact BOAC aircraft in which the actual soon-to-be Queen Elizabeth flew to Kenya, as painstakingly rebuilt by the world’s top aircraft restorers at a cost of only $27 million…
Actually, I made up the last detail. But if you want to know why the drama departments at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV are quaking in their boots just watch a couple of episodes of Netflix’s sumptuous, leisurely and immaculate recreation of the Queen’s early years on the throne. It’s like the moment when America entered the war: ‘Such materiel! Such manpower! Never again will we be in a position to call the shots.’
Can you believe — I still can’t — that Netflix now has a budget of $6 billion to play with? So even though The Crown may be one of the most expensive TV series ever made, its rumoured $100 million budget still counts as a drop in the ocean for the subscription channel, leaving plenty spare for a projected four more series after this ten-parter (which ends in 1965 with the death of Winston Churchill).
Sometimes, you do wonder whether The Crown is not a victim of its own superabundance and attention to detail — such as the moment in episode one where they recreate the surgical operation on George VI with such gory fidelity it would come as no surprise to learn that the actor playing the king (Jared Harris) was actually required to have a lung removed as part of the contract.
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