(film whirring)
- [Host] The Crown Season 3 kicks off in 1964,
17 years after the start of Season 1.
Now, that's a lot of history.
The season ushers in a new era of Beatles, silver jubilees
and moon landings.
The Queen is now rapidly approaching her 40s,
Charles and Anne are coming of age
and Britain is a very different place.
Whether you're after a refresh or are brand new to The Crown
and want to jump straight in, this video is for you.
We're not recapping everything that happens
in Season 1 and 2, just the key parts of the story
that have a big impact on Season 3.
Quick reminder, the timeline of The Crown is factual,
but it is a drama.
So while The Crown is meticulously researched,
some creative license is used
to drive the personal stories.
Season 3 sees Elizabeth contemplate the life
she could have had
if she'd never become queen.
Because if you remember,
she was never really meant to wear the crown.
Her uncle, Edward VIII, great grandson of icon, legend
and star Queen Victoria ascended the throne
after the death of his father.
However, in a shock twist only the British monarchs
know how to serve, Edward abdicated that same year
because he wanted to marry
an American divorcee named Wallis Simpson.
- [Royal] His love for her has destroyed everything.
- It is love.
- [Host] You see, as the King of the United Kingdom,
he was also Head of the Church
and marrying a divorcee was out of the question.
So he chose love and moved to France.
There's a Madonna movie all about it for those interested.
But what does that mean for Elizabeth?
Now, with Edward gone, his little brother Albert
who had lived in his brother's shadow until now
stepped up to become King George VI.
With a new king came a new heir, enter Elizabeth.
Okay, let's fast forward to 1947.
Princess Elizabeth marries Philip Mountbatten
in a super understated ceremony.
In The Crown, we see Philip portrayed
as a very proud man.
He struggles from the off when it comes
to joining the royal family and being second to his wife.
That's the dynamic he continues to struggle with
throughout the show.
Though, as he approaches middle age in Season 3,
we see his concerns shift slightly as he comes to terms
with having lived a life of duty
rather than a life of passion.
After marrying, Elizabeth and Philip have four children,
Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.
In 1952, King George VI dies
following a lung cancer diagnosis.
Elizabeth, who remember was never really meant
to become queen, does just that.
At George's funeral, we see his older brother return
to the UK, which caused quite the pickle.
More than a year later
and it's time for Elizabeth to be crowned queen.
When we see this period in The Crown, we see Philip
ask to be excused from bowing to his wife at her coronation
and asks that his children not lose the name Mountbatten.
After some back and forths,
both answered with a big resounding...
- No.
- [Host] Now that we have our queen, this is a good time
to remind you that she had a younger sister,
a younger sister who lived in her older sister's shadow.
Sound familiar?
In Season 3, we see Margaret step into the spotlight
very publicly and here are some iconic limericks
along the way.
- And that asshole in Buckingham Palace.
(laughing)
- [Host] But we're also seeing a woman dealing
with marriage woes and forever being second fiddle.
Jumping back to the '40s and '50s, Margaret was often
said to be the louder, more rambunctious of the sisters.
She's certainly a lot of fun in The Crown.
And when she deputizes for the Queen
and goes totally off script...
- Our ambassador to the United States of America,
Sir Roger Makins,
the only honest thing to come out of Washington.
- [Host] She causes a stir with people
including the Prime Minister Winston Churchill
and the Queen herself.
That defiance of protocol continues in the new season.
In 1953, Margaret became involved with Peter Townsend
a former RAF Officer and later Queen's Equerry.
The public loved their relationship.
- [Reporter] Pressmen and sightseers
hoping for a glimpse of the couple.
- [Host] But Townsend is a divorcee,
which as we've learned is less than ideal.
Long story short, the Church, Parliament
and other senior royals do not approve of the union.
Townsend is sent away and ultimately the relationship ends.
(classical music)
Despite promising to never love again,
Margaret eventually pairs up with a fairly nice,
fairly boring man named Billy Wallace,
but eventually breaks it off.
In a very Love Island move,
Margaret then picks a sexy bad boy photographer
named Antony Armstrong Jones.
We see it all go down in Season 2
when he was taking official portraits of her
and true to form, she went loge
and sent a seemingly naked photo of herself
to the UK tabloids.
- [Reader] And she's naked.
- [Host] A lot of hoo-ha later and eventually in 1960,
the two got married and went on to have two children.
Keep an eye on that particular union.
It's a big and messy plot point in Season 3.
There are a couple of really incredible episodes in Season 3
that focus on Prince Charles and his coming of age.
In Season 2, we saw his father struggle
with a seemingly sensitive child.
- So we're not just becoming
a wet mandy-pandy monarchy twit.
- [Host] Philip believed his own upbringing made him tough.
So the same needed to be true of his eldest son.
We saw Charles struggle when his father insisted he attend
Gordonstoun School and the two continue
to have a troubled relationship
now that Charles is growing up.
(light music)
Back to the Queen for a sec, our story has seen some ups
and downs in her marriage over the years.
- Philip, don't you get ever back here!
- [Host] The power dynamic with Philip is a key thing
to keep in your mind and we've watched it play out
across many episodes.
The two are arguably more settled in Season 3.
And we see some real moments of love.
But there's no denying Philip is a complex character
with a lot of baggage.
The other thing to note is the way her stoicism
is portrayed in the show.
When she met Jackie Kennedy in Season 2, we saw her ability
to deal with bad behavior in a proper fashion.
Where others might have screamed and shouted...
- I'm quite sure that you meant no harm nor disrespect.
After all, why would you?
- [Host] In Season 3, we see key moments in her life
when you may expect a more emotional response
but after years of being on the throne,
she's learned as Margaret put it...
- Camera perfect.
- [Host] That's pretty much you need to know
about our story thus far.
There are a few other things you should probably know
about the UK in the 1960s,
one of which is the swing to liberal politics.
The Conservative Party had been hit by a sex scandal,
the Profumo Affair for those interested.
And that as well as a growing liberal movement
across the country led to a small
Labor majority win in 1964.
We see some of the ups and downs
of the politics in Season 3.
So we won't show a load of spoilers,
but with the growing liberal movement came a renewed sense
of anti-monarchy sentiment across the nation.
It's fascinating to see how it plays out in Season 3.
- They want our heads on stakes.
- [Host] One more thing
and then we'll leave you to it, miners.
The struggle of the miners in 1960s and '70s Britain
is well documented.
We had a national coal board trying to keep costs down
and a national union of mine workers
who wanted increased wages, fairer working hours
and a change to safety conditions, among other things.
The two got into many disputes over the years.
In Season 3, we'll see our monarchy react.
Finally, meet our cast.
We're 17 years ahead by now and everybody is a bit older.
In fact, the Queen herself is in her 50s
by the end of Season 3.
Olivia Colman is wearing the crown as Queen Elizabeth II,
Helena Bonham Carter is playing Margaret,
and we have Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip.
Ben Daniels plays Tony Armstrong Jones, Margaret's husband.
Charles Dance is Lord Mountbatten, Philip's uncle.
Marion Bailey is the Queen Mother,
while Josh O'Connor and Erin Doherty
play Prince Charles and Princess Anne respectively.
Okay, we're done.
You're all caught up.
Watch The Crown now streaming on Netflix.