A thread on the previous season: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=844235
Official website: Watch The Crown | Netflix Official Site
Wiki page: The Crown (TV series) - Wikipedia
FWIW, Buck House denies vetting the show: 'The Crown:' British royals deny vetting Netflix series 'The Crown' | CNN
To be released Nov. 17. I liked the first two seasons a lot and am looking forward to the next!
I watched the first episode. This show makes me dive into Wikipedia to find out more. It looks like they skipped over the Profumo scandal, which I would have liked to have seen.
After seeing Tobias Menzies on Outlander I am impressed with how he’s portraying Philip. The voice, accent, and inflection are different from Frank/Black Jack, so it’s clear he did research on how HRH speaks.
I keep seeing Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix, so I’m going to have to watch more to get past that.
The Profumo affair was covered in the last episode of Season 2, iirc.
I have thoughts about Season 3, but I’ve still got a couple of episodes to go, so I’ll not say much other than it looks like they’ve skipped one of the more dramatic things that’s ever happened to one of the Queen’s children.
Did they? I’ll have to go back and watch.
The whole thing with Philip being the “mystery man” etc. Although the focus was more on Stephen Ward than John Profumo, I guess.
Watched the first three episodes and liking it a lot so far. One of the pleasures of watching the show is reading about the real events and learning what is invented but also what is left out, some of which is often quite dramatic.
For example in the Aberfan episode they seemed to underplay the heroism of some of the staff. For example(from Wiki) " Nansi Williams, the school meals clerk, used her body to shield five children, who all survived; Williams did not, and was found by rescuers still holding a pound note she had been collecting as lunch money". Perhaps they felt this would distract from the larger story line which as much about the political response as the tragedy itself.
I had never heard of Princess Alice before watching episode 3 and damn, that woman led an eventful and heroic life, much of which is not mentioned in the episode. For example she hid a Jewish family in Nazi-occupied Greece. She was even interviewed by the Gestapo and apparently used her deafness and pretended not to understand their questions until they let her go. She deserves an entire mini-series of her own !
Enjoyed the Alice story a lot. I never knew about that aspect of Phillip. Tobias Menzies is doing a good job of not being Brutus in Rome or Edmure Tully in GOT, but I still see him in those roles.
if it is anne, that happened after she was married.
the actress who plays anne is very, very good.
the brown eyes are a bit annoying.
the aberfan episode was heartbreaking.
Like I said, I’ve got a couple of episodes to go. They’re running out of time to even show Anne’s marriage, mind you. Also did she really shag Andrew Parker-Bowles!?! 
Totally excellent. The actor playing Charles too, I think.
I was a little worried about that episode, but I thought the programme makers did a good job.
I think most of the cast have been a masterclass in acting - in the close scenes between Bonham-Carter and Colman, I forgot they were even acting. They should show the series in all acting classes.
So I just have one more episode to go this season, and I have to say I am a bit disappointed in Colman’s Elizabeth. I think Foy just played the role better.
However, Menzies’ Phillip is amazing. Much better than Smith’s.
Anne and Charles are great in this season as well.
Also it appears they’ve cast Elizabeth for Seasons 5 & 6 - Imelda Staunton:
I’ve felt very moved by Charles. This series has every danger of restoring his reputation.
Anne is a scream. I always thought she was.
anne is a pip.
anne and Phillips married a handful of months after Camilla and parker bowles.
Here’s an interview (in three parts) Anne did with Terry Wogan in the 1980s.
There’s more there there than most of the other royals demonstrate.
I’m a bit disappointed that they didn’t include this incident. It certainly fell in the time line of the season and would have cemented Anne’s status on the show as the coolest royal. I guess it didn’t fit in with the narrative they wanted to tell.
Finished the series last night. The episode about Edward VIII’s illness and death was a tour de force for Derek Jacobi and Geraldine Chapman. Most of this cast deserves an Emmy nomination. I didn’t care for the attempted rehabilitation of Edward and Wallace’s characters, as they were both Nazi sympathizers, but the acting was superb.
We finished the series as well. I remarked during the first Charles episode that they seemed to be trying to make him into a sympathetic character, but it wasn’t working. I’ve liked Olivia Colman since first seeing her in Broadchurch. While her Elizabeth was good, I couldn’t get it out of my head that it was Olivia Colman. Helena Bonham Carter, on the other hand, was magnificent. In fact, the casting was spot on for the most part. This season didn’t match up to the first two, but it was still very good.
I can’t help but think that Charles Dance was miscast as Mountbatten. Not that he wasn’t excellent, as always, but he should have been held in reserve to play the next older iteration of Prince Philip.
Princess Margaret’s friend Anne - mostly in the last episode - is Anne Glenconner. She’s still alive at 87, and was recently on the Graham Norton Show along with Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter. Here’s her bit:
It includes a frankly really quite mental story about her honeymoon...They might bring in James Cromwell who was pretty good in the role in The Queen. I wonder if they are considering having Hellen Mirren who has done a fair amount of television including QE1 in a mini-series. While I imagine she would be expensive, I don’t think it would bust the budget and it would certainly draw a lot of attention.
I am guessing most of you have seen it but the Queen is excellent, one of the best political films ever made IMO, and I am looking forward to show exploring the same events in greater depth.