A TRAGIC time

IMELDA STAUNTON, DOMINIC WEST and ELIZABETH DEBICKI on telling the story of Princess Diana's last summer

-  SEAN MARLAND

THE CROWN
NEW FROM THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER, NETFLIX DRAMA

Since its debut in 2016, lavish hit drama The Crown has taken viewers on a tumultuous trip depicting almost 50 years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. But now the end is nigh for the award-winning saga as the much-anticipated sixth and final series launches on Netflix this week.

The new 10-part run will premiere in two parts, with the second half due on 14 December. Picking up the action where season five left off, the first four episodes are set in 1997, where, in their first summer as a divorced couple, Princess Diana (portrayed by Elizabeth Debicki) and Prince Charles (Dominic West) take their young sons, Princes William and Harry (Rufus Kampa and Fflyn Edwards), on very different holidays.

Princess Diana enjoys a visit to Saint-Tropez to stay with Mohamed Al Fayed (Salim Daw) on his luxury yacht, where romance blossoms with his son, Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla). Meanwhile, Prince Charles sticks to tradition and heads to Scottish royal residence Balmoral Castle.

As comparisons play out in the media, the whole world is soon rocked as news breaks that Princess Diana and Dodi have been involved in a fatal car accident in Paris, with the vast outpouring of public grief catching the Queen (Imelda Staunton) and Prince Philip (Sir Jonathan Pryce) off guard.

Here, in interviews conducted in April of this year*, stars Imelda, 67, Dominic, 54, and Elizabeth, 33, give us their take on bringing this chapter of history to our screens...

DOMINIC WEST

The Wire star Dominic has played Prince Charles since 2022, taking over the role from Josh O'Connor (seasons three and four)

Can you take us through the key events in this series?