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What to Know About the Royal Yacht Britannia Featured on 'The Crown' Season 5

The Royal Yacht Britannia served as the official royal yacht of the British monarchy for 44 years

The Crown is diving into royal events from the '90s in season 5 , and that includes the decommissioning of Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia, also known as the Royal Yacht Britannia.

In the first episode of the new season, Claire Foy ( who portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in seasons 1 and 2) reprises her role as the monarch as a flashback shows the yacht's official launch in April 1953.

At the time, the new yacht held special significance as it was launched by the Queen just before her own coronation in June 1953 .

Through the years, the vessel sailed over 1,000,000 nautical miles on 968 state visits with the royal family as they entertained prime ministers and presidents, per the Royal Yacht Britannia website. It also served as the venue for several royal honeymoons , including Princess Diana and Princes Charles in 1981 .

From when it was commissioned to where the Royal Yacht Britannia is now, here's everything to know about the royal yacht.

When was the Royal Yacht Britannia commissioned?

As shown on The Crown , Royal Yacht Britannia was officially launched on April 16, 1953 , at the shipyard of John Brown & Co. Ltd in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, where Queen Elizabeth unveiled the yacht's official name.

Following Queen Elizabeth 's coronation on June 2, 1953, the Royal Yacht Britannia was commissioned into the Royal Navy on January 11, 1954, before sailing her first overseas port on April 22.

How big is the Royal Yacht Britannia?

The Royal Yacht Britannia is about 412 feet long , with a beam width of 55 feet and five decks , and weighs over 4,000 tons.

Who used the Royal Yacht Britannia?

The yacht was described as the royal family's "floating residence" during its 44 years of service. As it was used to host "magnificent state receptions and banquets, and guests ," numerous world leaders boarded the yacht over the years, including Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan and Rajiv Gandhi.

Per the Royal Yacht Britannia website, the yacht also " allowed the Royal Family some rare privacy away from their public duties and was famously described by HM Queen Elizabeth II as 'the one place I can truly relax.' "

Furthermore, the Royal Yacht Britannia was the venue of four royal honeymoons : Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. All four royal marriages ended in divorce, which Queen Elizabeth famously reflected on in her 1992 speech where she referred to the past year as her "annus horribilis ," or horrible year.

When was the Royal Yacht Britannia decommissioned?

The yacht's retirement was announced in 1994 as a result of the substantial costs needed to repair the ship. It was estimated that the cost would £17 million, which would only prolong the yacht for another five years.

On December 11, 1997, the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned during an official ceremony that was attended by most of the senior members of the royal family. It was been reported that Queen Elizabeth was seen uncharacteristically shedding a tear during the decommissioning.

"Looking back over 44 years we can all reflect with pride and gratitude upon this great ship which has served the country, the Royal Navy and my family with such distinction," the Queen said at the time .

Where is the Royal Yacht Britannia now?

Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, people can now visit the Royal Yacht Britannia at Port of Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland. Visitors are able to see various parts of the yacht including Britannia's five decks, the state apartments, as well as the Sun Lounge, which was the Queen's favorite room in which to have her afternoon tea.

Does the Royal Yacht Britannia have a successor?

Plans for a successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia first began in 2019 when it was reported that the late Sir Donald Gosling had donated £50 million to pay for the construction . In 2021, the yacht was commissioned by Boris Johnson to host trade fairs and diplomatic events and it was expected to go into service in 2024 or 2025.

However, in November 2022, it was reported by BBC that plans for the yacht were being scrapped as the government "searches for spending cuts." The new yacht was estimated to cost up to £250 million.

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What Happened to the Royal Yacht Britannia?

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The Crown season five begins and ends with the same plot point: The Royal Yacht Britannia. The vessel serves as a—fairly obvious—metaphor in the first episode, where Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth describes it as “a floating, seagoing version of me.” The problem with her metaphorical marine self? It’s in desperate need of multi-million dollar repairs.

She asks British prime minister John Major, played by Jonny Lee Miller, whether the government might be able to help foot the bill. He, in turn, asks if the royal family might front the cost, given the public pushback they both might receive if such a seemingly extravagant project was approved. In the final episode of the season (a note to the reader: spoilers will follow), Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth agree to decommission the yacht after Prince Charles’s trip to Hong Kong.

The Crown is known for taking much of its plot material from real-life events. In the case of the Royal Yacht Britannia, though—what really happened to the boat, and how much political controversy did it really cause?

To go back to the beginning, King George VI first commissioned the royal yacht that would become the Britannia in 1952. It was an exciting project, as the previous official boat had belonged to Queen Victoria, and was rarely used. (Queen Victoria, for one, did not like the water and never sailed.) Then, during the early 20th century, England was mostly at war, and making a massive, slow-sailing luxury ship would be a massive security risk in international waters.

The Royal Yacht Britannia, George decided, should both be an extravagant vessel and a functional one, able to double as a hospital if times of war were to arise again. In 1953, the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth christened the ship with a bottle of wine, as champagne was still seen as too extravagant post-war. In 1954, she set sail for the first time.

The Royal Yacht fulfilled many functions, most of them leisurely. Over the years, the boat hosted four royal honeymoons, including that of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, as well as many family vacations. In 1969, after his investiture as the Prince of Wales, Charles hosted an intimate party on board to celebrate. (Newspapers at the time wrote that he danced with his dear friend Lucia Santa Cruz —the very person who eventually introduced him to Camilla Parker Bowles.)

Image may contain Person Diana Princess of Wales Charles Prince of Wales Formal Wear Tie Accessories Adult and Suit

It also served as a grandiose mode of transport for many royal visits. In 1959, for example, Britannia sailed to Chicago to celebrate the recently-opened St. Lawrence seaway in Canada, and President Eisenhower joined her on board. Twenty years later, she sailed to Abu Dhabi for her first official visit to the United Arab Emirates, where she held a grand dinner for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

And although Queen Elizabeth's reign was not during wartime, the royal yacht did execute a humanitarian mission, as King George VI had always planned for: In 1986, it sailed to Aden to evacuate over 1,000 refugees from the civil war in Yemen.

The New York Times once described the 412-foot Britannia as “an ordinary yacht what Buckingham Palace is to the house next door.” It wasn’t an exaggeration—Britannia was essentially a floating palace. It had a drawing room, a dining room, two sitting rooms, as well as galleys and cabins for all the officers. The stateroom interiors were just as ornate as any other royal estate, while the bedrooms—which all had their own bathrooms and dressing rooms—were designed to feel surprisingly personal.

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“Within the royal apartments, however, the regal elegance gives way to the homey, patched elbow chic of an English country house, with flowered chintz slipcovers, family photographs, and rattan settees, interspersed with the occasional relic of Empire—shark's teeth from the Solomon Islands here, a golden urn commemorating Nelson's victory at Trafalgar there,” the New York Times found when it boarded the ship in 1976.

Image may contain Indoors Waiting Room Room Reception Room Reception Home Decor Building and Living Room

The cost of running Britannia was always an issue. Politicians raised questions about its financial value as far back as 1954, when two MPs lobbied for an investigation on why the yacht’s refurbishment would cost 5.8 million pounds, accusing the royal family of waste and extravagance. A government committee later dismissed the accusations. In 1994, the Conservative government ruled the yacht too costly to refurbish, when repairs came in at a whopping 17 million, but then briefly walked back on their decision a few years later.

However, when Tony Blair’s Labour government won the election, and the new government once again declined to pay for Britannia. Britannia’s final journey was to far-flung Hong Kong in 1997, as Prince Charles turned over the British colony back to the Chinese at the end of Britain's 99-year lease. When they finally decommissioned the boat that summer, the queen cried—one of the few times she’s shown emotion in public. The boat had logged over one million nautical miles.

Today, Britannia sits permanently docked in Edinburgh. Visitors can take tours of its grand galleys, or even rent it out for events. Yet, despite its retirement, the concept of the royal yacht lives on: In 2021, Boris Johnson floated the idea of a new boat. However, a mere eight days ago, Rishi Sunak has scrapped the project—showing that, even now, the concept remains a controversial one.

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What really happened to Royal Yacht Britannia from ‘The Crown’ Season 5?

LONDON — The much-hyped fifth season of “The Crown” opens with a heavy-handed metaphor weighing approximately 4,000 tons.

It’s 1953, and a young Queen Elizabeth II, a month before her coronation, is in Scotland to launch the new royal yacht, the Britannia. “I hope this brand-new vessel, like your brand-new queen, will prove to be dependable and constant, capable of weathering any storm,” she declares to great applause.

And so the queen and her ship are inextricably linked as the Netflix TV show fast-forwards to 1991, when questions about costly repairs for the Britannia are presented in parallel to questions about whether the 65-year-old queen is too old for her role.

King Charles III wants to look ahead. ‘The Crown’ drags him back.

There is no missing that this is a narrative device in a series now labeled a “fictional dramatization.” But the episode’s release this week has renewed interest in the history of the royal yacht and ignited a debate about how the British monarch interacted with her government. It also happened to coincide with a modern-day echo of 1991, as new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, facing a recession, sank plans for a replacement royal yacht.

What to know about Britannia, ‘the floating palace’

There is a real Royal Yacht Britannia, and, as in the show, the young queen really did announce its name and christen it with a bottle of Empire wine. (Though not with a self-referential speech.)

The Britannia was the latest in a series of royal yachts dating back to 1660 and King Charles II . In 44 years of service, the ship sailed more than 1 million nautical miles — equivalent to more than 40 circumnavigations of Earth — calling at more than 600 ports in 135 countries and projecting British influence around the world.

The Britannia was used for state visits and receptions, royal family holidays and honeymoons. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all spent time on board, as did Boris Yeltsin and Nelson Mandela. When civil war broke out in South Yemen in 1986, the yacht was rerouted to help evacuate civilians.

“The Crown” suggests the yacht was the queen’s favorite “home,” cherished even more than Balmoral in the Scottish highlands. Biographers don’t dispute that this could have been true. In his book “Queen of Our Times,” Robert Hardman writes, “There were few places where the Queen would be happier.”

Although served by a crew of 220, the ship was a place where the royal family could relax and escape the watchful eye of the public. Hugh Casson, who designed the interior, once recounted, “the overall idea was to give the impression of a country house at sea.” Prince Philip, the queen’s husband, was fascinated with the birds he saw during voyages in the 1950s and even published a book titled “Birds from Britannia.”

Did the queen lobby for repairs?

The controversial part of “The Crown” portrayal centers on whether the queen actively lobbied Prime Minister John Major for the government to pay for extensive repairs — which could have amounted to inappropriate interference in politics by a constitutional monarch.

She says in the show: “Here I am, coming to you, prime minister, on bended knee, for the sign-off, but I’m hoping that will be a formality.”

The character of Major, who was prime minister during a tough recession, responds by suggesting the royal yacht is “something of a luxury” and that spending public money on it while the economy is in the tank would not be good for the government or the royal family.

The queen persists, arguing that the yacht is “a central and indispensable part of the way the crown serves the nation” and “a floating, seagoing expression of me.”

The queen-ship metaphor is dragged out in a later conversation, when the character of Prince Charles — impatient to be king — tells Major about the Britannia: “Sometimes these old things are too costly to keep repairing.”

So did any of that actually take place?

The real-life Major has called the show’s imagined conversations “a barrel-load of nonsense.”

Robert Lacey, a historical consultant on “The Crown,” defended the depiction. He told The Washington Post that the subject of the yacht would have inevitably come up between the queen and the prime minister, who met once a week to discuss matters of state.

“She certainly spoke about it to the prime minister,” Lacey said. “Obviously, the royal family would have lobbied for it. The queen did want another royal yacht.”

Hardman, the royal biographer, insisted that while the queen no doubt would have been interested in repairs or a replacement, she would not have “leaned on her prime ministers for money.”

In a letter written in 1994, later stored in the National Archives, the queen’s deputy private secretary Kenneth Scott wrote to the cabinet office that “the Queen would naturally very much welcome it if a way could be found of making available for the nation in the 21st century the kind of service which Britannia has provided for the last 43 years.”

Scott noted, however, that “the question of whether there should be a replacement yacht is very much one for the government” and “the last thing I should like to see is a newspaper headline saying ‘Queen Demands New Yacht.’”

The Times of London headline when the letter was uncovered in 2018: “ I want a new yacht, Queen told Whitehall in secret letter .”

What happened to the Britannia?

Major’s government wasn’t swayed by arguments to repair or renew the ship. Even with a retrofit costing an estimated 17 million pounds, the Britannia would be expensive to run and hard to maintain. It was hard to justify when air travel was a readily available alternative for royal trips and trade missions.

The yacht’s final voyage abroad was to Hong Kong in 1997, when the territory was handed back to China. A few months later, the Britannia undertook a farewell tour of Britain, calling at six major ports and blasting its sirens as it passed the shipyard that built it, before returning for a decommissioning ceremony in Portsmouth, England on Dec. 11, 1997. The ship’s clocks were stopped. The Royal Marines band played. Lacey noted: “The only time the queen was seen to cry was when the royal yacht was de-commissioned.”

The ship is now a visitor attraction site in Edinburgh, Scotland. On the day of the queen’s state funeral in September, a lone piper played a lament on the deck.

What about plans for a replacement royal yacht?

The possibility of a replacement yacht gained some traction during the 1997 general election, but the incoming Labour government nixed the idea.

More than two decades later, as part of a campaign to promote a reinvigorated “Global Britain” in the aftermath of Brexit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposed a new royal yacht . There was a push to name the ship after Prince Philip, who died last year, though it would be more for the government than for the royal family. In Johnson’s vision, the ship would tour the world as a “floating embassy,” where officials would host summits and cement trade deals. It would cost an estimated 250 million pounds to build, plus 30 million pounds a year to run.

But once again, the economic climate is not favorable for big yacht projects. The new Sunak administration announced this week that it was terminating the royal yacht plan and would instead procure a surveillance ship that could protect energy cables and other infrastructure. The prime minister’s spokesman said it was “right to prioritize at a time when difficult spending decisions need to be made.”

The true story of the Royal Yacht Britannia from The Crown Season 5

What really happened to the floating palace?

Season 5 of The Crown calls the Royal Yacht Britannia the Queen’s favourite home as viewers watch the family try to save the floating palace. But what really happened to the royal yacht and what did the royal family truly think of it?

After watching The Queen and her family fight to save their Royal Yacht, Britannia, the Crown's fifth season has viewers wondering what happened to the real Royal Yacht
Using commentary from biographers, we break down how much of The Crown's storyline is based on fact and which parts are completely made up
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The blurring of fact and fiction in Netflix 's The Crown has viewers once again asking if its portrayal of royal life is true to fact, slightly exaggerated or completely made up. This time the speculation surrounds the story of the royal yacht, the Britannia.

Season five uses the yacht as a heavy-handed metaphor, with questions about the costly repairs needed to keep the ageing Britannia up to par are presented alongside questions about whether the ageing queen, who is then 65-years-old, is too old for her role.

Clearly the narrative here is used to enhance the storytelling, but there is a lot of truth behind the quarrels over the royal family's beloved yacht.

The Queen and prince Philip on The Royal Yacht

There is a real Royal Yacht Britannia, and, just like in the show, the young queen announced its name and christened it with a bottle of Empire wine. In it's 44 years of service, the Britannia was used for state visits and receptions, hosting Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton as well as Boris Yeltsin and Nelson Mandela, and was also used for royal family holidays and honeymoons.

When civil war broke out in South Yemen in 1986, the yacht was even rerouted to help evacuate civilians.

In The Crown, the yacht is presented as the queen’s favourite “home,” a fact that real-life biographers agree with. In his book Queen of Our Times, Robert Hardman explains, “There were few places where the Queen would be happier.”

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The ship, though served by a huge crew of 220, was a haven for the royal family to relax and escape the scrutinising eye of the public. According to The Washington Post, Hugh Casson, who designed the interior, once said, “the overall idea was to give the impression of a country house at sea.”

The Crown episode centres around whether the Queen lobbied the then Prime Minister, John Major, for the government to pay for the boats extensive repairs while the country was facing a tough recession. She says in the show, “Here I am, coming to you, prime minister, on bended knee, for the sign-off, but I’m hoping that will be a formality.”

The real-life John Major called the show’s portrayal of his conversations with the Queen “a barrel-load of nonsense.” But Robert Lacey, a historical consultant on The Crown, defended the depiction.

Speaking to The Washington Post, he argued that the subject of the yacht would have undeniably come up between the Queen and the PM, who met once a week to discuss matters of state. He said, “She certainly spoke about it to the prime minister. Obviously, the royal family would have lobbied for it. The queen did want another royal yacht.”

Robert Hardman, the royal biographer, also gave his opinion on the matter, saying that the Queen would 'no doubt' have been interested in repairs or even a replacement for the yacht, but that she would not have “leaned on her prime ministers for money.” A letter written in 1994 by the queen’s deputy private secretary that was sent to the cabinet office, and was uncovered in 2018, backs up Hardman's opinion.

So what happened to the Britannia? John Major’s government decided against paying for the 44-year-old ship's repairs and, after a final voyage abroad to Hong Kong and a farewell tour of Britain, a decommissioning ceremony took place in Portsmouth on December the 11th, 1997.

The ship’s clocks stopped, the Royal Marines band played and, according to Robert Lacey, “the only time the queen was seen to cry was when the royal yacht was decommissioned.”

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Charlie Elizabeth Culverhouse is a news writer for Goodtoknow, specialising in family content. She began her freelance journalism career after graduating from Nottingham Trent University with an MA in Magazine Journalism, receiving an NCTJ diploma, and earning a First Class BA (Hons) in Journalism at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. She has also worked with BBC Good Food and The Independent.

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'The Crown' Season 5 Finale Recap: God (or Anyone!) Save the Queen

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Like a ship coming into shore for the final time, The Crown Season 5 says adieu (or maybe cheerio?) until Season 6 next year with its season finale, “Decommissioned.” As the title and my clunky intro suggest, this episode concludes the season-long storyline/ham-handed metaphor regarding the fate of the Britannia, the royal yacht that the Queen ( Imelda Staunton ), Phillip ( Jonathan Pryce ), and every other character tell us repeatedly is symbolic of the monarchy. It’s a title that tells you everything you need to know about the ship's fate and how the monarchy feels about its relevance as they approach the new millennium.

For the Royals, it’s all doom and gloom, but for Dodi Fayed ( Khalid Abdalla ), it’s all California sun. After Chariots of Fire ’s success, Los Angeles is his home now, and Dodi is on the hunt for an actual home to call his own. Unfortunately, when he finds the perfect one in Malibu, it’s a little out of his price range (and Michael Douglas is gearing to outbid him). He calls Daddy-Warbucks Mohammed “Mou Mou” Al-Fayed ( Salim Daw ) back in London for a couple of favors: the deposit, their private jet, and an audience so his father can meet his new girlfriend, Kelly Fisher ( Erin Richards ). Fayed’s incredulous at it all but ostensibly concedes; our first glimpse that Fayed’s patience wears thin at his son’s frivolity.

Speaking of frivolity, the population of Britain openly votes on whether they think the monarchy is pointless in a primetime TV debate/telethon titled “Monarchy, the Nation Decides.” Princess Diana ( Elizabeth Debicki ) watches at home alone (she’s always alone these days) as citizens debate the validity of the monarchy; when it’s time to call in to vote, Diana hilariously (if not a tad pettily) calls in to vote “no” over and over again. The open debate does not go unnoticed by the Royals, who discuss it over lunch at Elizabeth’s birthday party. The results worry Prince Charles ( Dominic West ) but not anyone else; the only result they joke is notable is how 100% voted they do not want a King Charles III. It’s the second time we see Charles’ precarious standing within the family, the first earlier when Prince Andrew’s (James Murray ) gift of a Big Mouth Billy Bass (of course) overshadows Charles’s birthday present of a painting he made. Charles is even more concerned about the family’s standing due to another political development: the landslide election of Tony Blair ( Bertie Carvel ) and the Labour party. He fears that with a new progressive government in power, “wholesale change is afoot.” This brings the group’s discussion to another government coming into power: Hong Kong’s transfer from Britain’s rule to the Chinese. After some racist jabs from the Queen Mother ( Marcia Warren ) (“the great Chinese takeaway!”), it’s decided that Charles should go in the Queen’s place to oversee the proceedings. After all, as Philip asserts, a monarch should never be present when a “colony cuts ties.” The Queen Mother and Philip each unknowingly prove Charles’ point: the monarchy looks as outdated as ever.

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While the monarchy is listless, our boy Dodi is in the prime of his life. Daddy Mou Mou sent the jet, which Dodi uses to rail lines of cocaine and his swimwear model girlfriend at 35,000 feet as he flies to London. Aping Tony Montana in his monogrammed silk robe, Dodi pours over blueprints for renovations on his new home and strategizes with Kelly how they can get his father to foot the bill. Dodi’s ten years in Hollywood have shaped him into a far cry from the man we met in Episode 3 , but hey — that’s showbiz, baby. Kelly’s nervous about meeting Fayed (she craves his approval and money for the house), but Dodi (perhaps naively) doesn’t seem concerned. What’s not to like, he says? In his defense, I also wouldn’t be too concerned (of anything) if I was blown out with a naked model on a G5.

In London, Charles plans a less glamorous trip to China to oversee Hong Kong’s transfer. It’s pretty far for a three-day trip, he whines, but… it could be worth it if he tacks on a pleasure cruise on the Britannia with Camilla Parker Bowles (hubba hubba). This extended itinerary would also give him a chance to score a private audience with the new Prime Minister — a man with whom Charles hopes he can forge a partnership. Strong relations with Blair will be paramount for the future of the Crown in these uncertain times, as well as Charles’ own Royal ambitions. Slick-rick PR man Mark Bolland ( Ben Lloyd Hughes ) agrees that Charles and Blair could be a match made in heaven and moves to covertly set the plan into action. A private audience with the Prime Minister on the Queen’s yacht is unlikely to go over well with Mummy.

Elsewhere, the comedown is real for Dodi, as Kelly’s introduction to his Dad is not going well. Fayed acknowledges she’s cute over dinner but doesn’t understand why Dodi sees anything more here. In the first of a series of brutal retorts, Fayed asks, “Can’t you just fuck her?” — even with Kelly and Fayed’s wife at the table, oblivious as Dodi and Fayed bicker in Arabic. Fayed digs in: who is this woman’s family? Do they have money? Are they their equals ? Fayed’s suspicious of Kelly’s intentions and even more suspicious of Dodi’s plans. Having bankrolled a series of Dodi’s recently flopped films, Fayed scoffs at Dodi’s suggestion that he’ll make the necessary money for his and Kelly’s life together. Then Fayed goes in for the kill: the only talent Dodi has ever had is for women, and he knows his son can do better than this. Kelly may not speak Arabic, but she senses something is up. She reaches to Dodi with a consolatory “you ok, baby?” to which Fayed quips in Arabic, “you are right… ‘ baby .’” Ice-cold, Daddy Mou Mou, ice-cold.

Former Prime Minister John Major ( Jonny Lee Miller ) ain’t exactly feeling the love either, forced to face the facts that the public overwhelmingly voted him out of a job. He sits with the Queen, quietly dejected, as she admits he was one of her favorites. A consolation prize for Major and another sign Elizabeth is increasingly frustrated by the change swirling around her. Major apologizes for never being able to address the issue of the Royal yacht, but promises he will backchannel with the new government to try and salvage the Britannia. At the mention of the new government, Elizabeth can’t help but pry. What is Major’s opinion of the new PM? After pointing out the common criticism Blair is young, and his success is due to image over substance, Major also devastatingly points out another truth. Despite Blair’s age, he has achieved a great deal, including capturing the country's mood. Something Major “clearly failed to do.” Can someone please hug this sad, sweet man?

Almost immediately afterward, Elizabeth finds herself face to face with Major’s replacement, Tony Blair. The Queen appears to be a single-issue voter and promptly brings up the Britannia, for which Blair has a progressive solution. They will get the Royals a brand-new yacht! The Queen seems quietly tickled until Blair explains that it will be new but not theirs per se. He proposes they seek private funding for the boat and then lease it back to the Royals whenever they want it (aka, a rental). To add insult to injury (and crash a hammer over our heads with the metaphor), Blair suggests they name the new ship “New Britain,” - which just so happens to be the political slogan he ran on. Incensed, Elizabeth relays the update to the family in private, and they all agree it’s ridiculous. Well, except for Charles, who points out that the arrangement is pretty standard for commercial tankers and that he doesn’t hate the name. After a collective eye-roll from the room (STFU, Charles!), the Queen announces her surrender on the issue. If Blair’s proposal is to be the fate of the Britannia, she would rather see it decommissioned. In private, Charles expresses how obviously distressed his mummy is at the symbolism, “like she felt she was being decommissioned” (THANK YOU, PETER MORGAN, WE GET IT!). But Charles’ distress for his mummy then turns to himself when he learns that he will have to fly business (GASP!) to China while the PM and his cabinet will be flying first class. If it weren’t enough heavy-handed metaphor, we watch Charles longingly look ahead to first class on the flight as Blair’s cabinet pops champagne and closes the curtain on Charles. Yes, Peter, we see — the curtain is closing on the monarchy!

Later, Fayed’s wife suggests that Fayed was too hard on Dodi. After all, wasn’t she a model when Fayed married her? Fayed affectionately (and laughably) points out she wasn’t a model, as was a socialite . We all know where this is going, as there happens to be a particular single, lonely, beautiful socialite from an esteemed family currently aimless and forsaken in London. And what do you know — she’s attending the same stuffy Swan Lake performance as Fayed and his wife that night! Seeing Diana at the concert, Fayed playfully signs across the room to Diana that she should come out with them after the show. After some polite refusals, she accepts, and on the way to dinner, speeding paparazzi hound them through the streets of London (some grim foreshadowing). At dinner, Diana, for the millionth time, bemoans her grief and loneliness in the wake of her separation and subsequent divorce (I’m kind of with the Queen at this point, haven’t we heard this enough?). Fayed sympathizes and invites Diana and her boys to join them in St. Tropez for a summer holiday. There will be speedboats, jet skis, a giant yacht — it will all be very “Egyptian and vulgar,” and she’ll love it (maybe the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree). Diana promises to think about it, but who would turn that down?

In Hong Kong (which looks to be on the same backlot they film all of Marvel’s generic Asian locales), Charles gives a farewell speech dripping in melancholy, literal rain, and, you guessed it — metaphor! Afterward, he finally gets a one-on-one meeting with Blair aboard the Britannia. After a long-winding analogy, Charles states his intention: he hopes he and Blair can be brothers, united in their desire for a reformed, modern Britain. Blair had wrongly assumed this meeting was about the Britannia, which he admits he partially regrets decommissioning. Charles doubles down — after witnessing the transfer in Hong Kong, he couldn’t be more confident it’s time for Britain to chart a new path forward. That includes letting go of the Britannia and some of the monarchy’s outdated traditions. Which leads Charles to show all of his cards, as his true motivation comes to light: maybe it’s time for the Crown to allow a certain divorced Prince to seek re-marriage, too. Blair, a politician through and through, refuses to show his cards as Charles did. But in private, he admits to his wife that Charles impressed him. Especially in how willing he was to shit-talk his family. Blair, sympathetic to Charles’ plight, may prove to be the ally Charles so desperately wants him to be.

It’s not welcome news to Mummy, who requests a meeting with Charles after she hears he had a private chat with Blair on the Britannia. When he arrives, the Queen politely expresses her dissatisfaction with his recent actions. It was inappropriate for Charles to have an open “affair” with Camilla on the Royal yacht of all places. Charles can’t believe his ears — an affair? They’re both divorced and “willing” (gross); what is the big deal? She’s even less enthused about his private meeting with Blair (no doubt threatened) and stresses it’s not his territory to have a personal relationship with the Prime Minister. Digging the knife further, she even alleges Charles may not be as in touch with the public as he claims to be. She reminds him that in that televised debate, the public voted in favor of the monarchy but not him. Some tough love from Mummy! In one last plea, Charles gets down to the heart of why he feels there’s an urgent need for reform. Because if they don’t change and move with the times, the public may throw the monarchy away as Hong Kong did. And selfishly, nothing would be left for him to rule when he becomes king.

But perhaps it may already be too late. The episode closes with a mournful montage of Elizabeth silently saying a solo farewell to the Britannia, grieving not only for its passing but also for the end of the era it represents. The post-war era, where the Crown reigned supreme. Her era. As Elizabeth reminisces on this closing chapter, Diana’s unaware she’s about to enter her next (and final) one as she prepares to sail out on Fayed’s yacht. On this fateful trip, Dodi reconnects with Diana, leading to the beginning of their relationship and the end of Dodi’s with Kelly Fisher. It marks the beginning of Dodi and Diana’s end, another nail in the coffin of the monarchy’s grip over Britain.

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The Crown (2016)

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In Season 5, <i>The Crown</i> Is Richer Than Ever—Despite a Disappointing Queen

In Season 5, The Crown Is Richer Than Ever—Despite a Disappointing Queen

F inally, it’s the ’90s. After four seasons of ceremonies, scandals, and endless hand-wringing over the future of the monarchy, the episodes that House of Windsor obsessives have been anticipating since before The Crown premiered will arrive on Nov. 9. Charles and particularly Diana take center stage as their marriage unravels in shockingly public fashion. Camilla, Dodi, Panorama , Tampongate—creator Peter Morgan delves into all of it. What he doesn’t spend much time on in the show’s fifth season is the Queen herself. And frankly, that’s for the best.

Like the guards at Buckingham Palace, stars of The Crown rotate in and out at regular intervals, to much choreographed fanfare. Claire Foy ’s tentative, frustrated young Elizabeth gave way to Olivia Colman ’s stubborn, middle-aged horse girl—both compelling portrayals. Imelda Staunton, a doyenne of stage and screen so accomplished that her list of awards has its own lengthy Wikipedia page , seemed a solid choice to portray the monarch in her golden years. In practice, though, Staunton’s Elizabeth is impassive to the point of opacity. A stiff upper lip comes with the royal territory, but Foy and Colman accessed layers beneath that surface. Staunton’s performance isn’t embarrassing, but it lacks interiority. Even in an emotional episode framed by the Queen’s infamous 1992 “annus horribilis” speech , the character doesn’t feel entirely present.

To be fair to the great actress, that remoteness seems to reflect Morgan’s inert vision of Elizabeth in her fifth decade on the throne. Season 5 is bookended by episodes that draw parallels between the Queen and an increasingly decrepit Royal Yacht Britannia , which made its maiden voyage just a few years into her reign and was decommissioned, over her objections, in 1997. Mentions of “ Queen Victoria Syndrome ” haunt the palace corridors. In a rare moment of self-awareness, as a young Prince William (Senan West, the real-life son of Dominic West, who takes over the role of Charles) tries to fix the ancient, simple TV set his grandmother prefers to newfangled cable and satellite options, she jokes that “even the televisions are metaphors in this place.” As if all the comparisons to objects and dead people didn’t paint a clear enough picture, at one point Elizabeth comes out with her own interpretation of the season’s events: “Charles is angry because the Crown has many of the functions of an inanimate object. He prefers to be animate. But there’s a danger in that. One can end up undoing more than doing .”

Be that as it may, the tempest surrounding Charles and Diana saves a show that’s spent most of its run stuck in a holding pattern, as the Queen has reliably chosen tradition over change and allowed anyone who wished to live differently to be crushed by the Firm. Morgan doesn’t lose sight of these casualties in season 5. The scope of the damage is quite clear, as the once-vital Princess Margaret (a magnificent Lesley Manville) takes stock of a life derailed by her sister’s refusal to evolve. One of the show’s sharpest, saddest ongoing story lines traces Elizabeth’s perpetual failure to comprehend the suffering she’s inflicted on Margaret over the years.

Read More: As King Charles III Sets Out to Win Hearts and Minds, The Crown Dredges Up His Darkest Chapter

But one reason that Diana, portrayed here with an exquisite mix of grace, grit, and vulnerability by Elizabeth Debicki, remains iconic a quarter-century after her death is that she was the first major player in this royal saga to break the cycle of repression and self-sacrifice. Two insightful episodes devoted to her soul-baring interview with Martin Bashir (Prasanna Puwanarajah) on BBC One’s Panorama illustrate just how much courage that took. Instead of restaging much of the telecast, which seemingly everyone in the world watched when it aired and which remains viewable on various platforms today, Morgan wisely focuses on adding context. Bashir comes out looking fully evil. More artful and considered is the show’s snapshot of the BBC as an institution in the ’90s, where journalists battle aristocrats bent on protecting the Queen and debates rage over whether the Waleses’ separation is a serious news story or tabloid trash.

From the beginning, when Emma Corrin played an impish teenage Diana Spencer, The Crown has resisted depicting the People’s Princess as anything so simple as a secular saint, a narcissistic media manipulator, or the spiraling martyr of Pablo Larraín’s unhinged Spencer . There are glimpses of all these Dianas in Debicki’s performance, a highlight of the season, but mostly she comes across as a sincere, kind-hearted, and lonely, if socially ambitious, woman who got married too young, to a man whose heart belonged to someone else, while cameras rolled and minders hovered and the people who isolated her from any remnant of her previous life expected her to pretend to be OK. One grounding scene has Diana continuously redialing a TV debate show to register multiple no votes on the question of whether the British monarchy is worth keeping. The pettiness in the face of powerlessness only enhances her likability.

A maximalist actor with an imposing physical presence, West is miscast as the aloof Charles. (He’s also, at 53, significantly closer in age to Staunton than he is to Debicki.) But his predicament is compelling enough that, by mid-season, I started to believe him as, well, some fictional prince whose biography bears a stunning resemblance to that of Britain’s new King. Here is a guy promoting a much-needed vision for modernizing the monarchy—for making it more progressive, humane to the royal family, and useful to the public—yet no one will take him seriously because he’s made a mess of his marriage. “I have enormous sympathy for a man in his position,” Morgan recently said of Charles. That is, if anything, a bit too obvious in one episode that devolves into a commercial for his charity work with the Prince’s Trust.

More than half of the season’s episodes center around Charles and Diana, which might sound like pandering if you prefer The Crown in high-minded-historical-drama mode. Yet Morgan often uses them as a vehicle for doing what the show does best: braid together the lives of the Windsors with stories that take place far outside the palace walls. A full episode devoted to the rags-to-riches story of Dodi Fayed ’s (Khalid Abdalla) father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Dau, excellent), feels refreshing after a plodding start to the season, which follows up the Britannia saga with an extended account of Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) making a new friend. (The show does seem a bit too eager to dismiss Dodi as a debauched playboy. A scene involving sex and cocaine on a private plane could’ve come straight out of Entourage .) When Charles and Diana finally get divorced, the episode is peppered with exit interviews from regular couples who split in the same courtroom on the same day. Their everyday problems—money, growing apart, disagreements over whether to have kids—put the royals’ rarefied ones in perspective.

Read More: How a Sprawling Drama About Elizabeth II Became Netflix’s Crown Jewel

The Crown has always been both a pleasure to watch, thanks to its lush production design and soapy undertones, and a more mixed success from an artistic standpoint. Season 5 is the same, but for different reasons. While the acting is no longer stellar across the board, and a vividly evoked Queen Elizabeth no longer dominates the story, the narrative itself becomes richer than ever. It works on the macro level, connecting the family’s intergenerational tension with the youthful insurgency of Tony Blair’s New Labour, and in small moments, like Diana’s tearful speech to her paramour Dr. Hasnat Khan (Humayun Saeed): “You forget I already had a prince. He broke my heart. I’m just looking for a frog to make me happy.” Her loneliness reverberates through the season, echoed by that of Charles, Margaret, Philip, Camilla (Olivia Williams), and the rest. Ironically, it’s in isolation that she truly becomes a Windsor.

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The Crown season 5 recap: The beginning of the end

The royal family — portrayed by a brand-new cast — navigates several scandals in the 1990s.

Although The Crown is a historical drama based on Queen Elizabeth II's life, season 5 focuses on different branches of her immediate family tree. In ten episodes, viewers are transported back to the 1990s as they witness how the royals navigated the fall of the Soviet Union, multiple scandals, and the inevitable end to a fairytale marriage.

Read on for EW's recap of the first five episodes of The Crown season 5, featuring a new cast including Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Jonny Lee Miller as Prime Minister John Major, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Dominic West as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker-Bowles, Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne, and James Murray as Prince Andrew.

Episode 1: "Queen Victoria Syndrome"

We begin the season with a flashback of a young Queen Elizabeth christening the royal yacht Britannia , intermingled with a current-day Elizabeth receiving a physical from her doctor. The fact that showrunners chose to have a bunion pad on the Queen's toe was everything. Royalty: they are just like us!

But the point is not to feature the Queen's strong heart rate or slight weight gain. The underlying issue is that Elizabeth is getting old. Especially when a poll conducted by the Sunday Times claims she is irrelevant and out of touch. Charles is modern, young, and energetic. More than half of Britain thinks he should be on the throne.

Do you know who else thinks Charles should be king right now? Camilla Parker-Bowles. But that's neither here nor there, since she wasn't invited on the "second honeymoon" with Charles' wife Diana and their sons. To Diana's chagrin, Charles also invites a few cousins along on holiday, which means, once again, Charles wants nothing to do with her on an intimate level. Of course, that doesn't mean they can't fake it in front of the paparazzi. They put on a remarkable show with big smiles and enthusiastic waves for all the photographers.

While the Prince and Princess of Wales are partying it up in Italy, the Queen is chugging along on the Britannia with Prince Philip, who delivers some distressing news to his wife. The Britannia is old and worn down. She's antiquated and stubborn. It's time to replace the royal yacht.

This metaphor provides a through line throughout the entire episode. As one might suspect, the Queen has no interest in adopting the notion of "out with the old and in with the new." And her staff goes above and beyond to keep that Sunday Times article from gracing her presence.

Diana is devastated to learn that Charles is cutting their holiday short in Italy due to a "scheduling conflict." We then see him with Prime Minister John Major. Charles teases the "Queen Victoria Syndrome" idea mentioned in the article, which means the public thinks the queen has been on the throne too long. However, John reminds Charles that this was just a poll and it's dangerous to be guided by them.

Charles presses harder. He informs John that his great-grandfather Edward VII waited in the wings for sixty years because Queen Victoria had no confidence in him. After all, the man was a free thinker. But when his time came, Edward proved doubters wrong. Charles believes it was a waste that Edward's voice wasn't incorporated earlier. Charles then invites John to Scotland to attend a ball to see first-hand if the institution is in "safe hands."

Never fear. The crown is in excellent hands. When Elizabeth finally reads the now-infamous article, she walks the corgis, straightens her spine, and considers it a compliment. In her opinion, the poll claims she's constant, stable, and dutiful. What more could you want in your Queen?

And to be clear, nothing is going to pasture, including her beloved Britannia . Elizabeth gently but firmly lets the Prime Minister know that the royal yacht is the one thing she has not inherited from generations before. It is a floating expression of Queen Elizabeth herself and the government will be paying for its refurbishment, thankyouverymuch .

Cut to the Ghillie Ball, or the "gamekeepers ball" in Scotland. A quiet yet confident Prime Minster takes in the various generations of royalty, noting that the senior members seem dangerously diluted. In contrast, the younger generations are thankless and entitled. What's worse is that the Prince of Wales fails to appreciate his one great asset (hello, Diana). John can't help but feel that the country's stability is about to erupt on his watch.

Spoiler alert: It does.

Episode 2: "The System"

At age 50, Prince Philip gave up the love of his life.

Wait. Scratch that from the record. Prince Philip gave up the sporting love of his life. Yes, that sounds much better.

Bumbling through an interview, Prince Philip manages to bore most people to tears by explaining the wonder of carriage driving. And in the process, we see him adopt an entourage with this newfound hobby.

One unlikely friend is his godson Norton's wife, Penny Knatchbull (Natascha McElhone). After her daughter Leonora dies of kidney cancer, Philip visits Norton, only to comfort Penny while she's grieving. He encourages her to find an escape to help with her grief. Eager to impress the Prince, Penny unveils a disheveled carriage in the barn. Philip welcomes her into the fold and offers to teach her how to carriage drive.

Is this odd? You bet, but sometimes biographical facts are random, and we must go with it. Philip is an adrenaline junkie, and if carriage riding fills his heart with joy, so be it.

Speaking of joy, Diana has very little in her life. But she is intrigued when her good friend James Colthurst (Oliver Chris) relays a message from journalist Andrew Morton (Andrew Steele). Rumor has it that someone is writing a book about her life, which will be a hatchet job. Morton is interested in telling Diana's real story. And the best part is that no one has to know she was involved.

James is the middleman. Morton will provide questions to James to hand over to Diana. Diana will speak into a tape recorder and hand the tapes back to James to give to Morton. And boy, does she spill the beans. Diana discusses Camilla and the Queen's refusal to acknowledge the problem. She speaks of her insecurities and how the crown can take custody of her children as legal heirs. Diana even confesses her eating disorder and previous suicide attempts .

The tapes go on to reveal that Camilla was the subject of many nightmares. Charles was never committed to their marriage. Diana simply couldn't compete with his one true love. The broken woman put every emotion, frustration, and question into hours of recordings.

Days later, James is run off the road on his bicycle, Morton's apartment is trashed, and Diana is convinced someone is listening on her personal phone line. Is it a coincidence that Prince Philip comes calling soon after? I think not.

At first, Philip is cordial, speaking of the importance of privacy and confidentiality. He eases into his argument by reassuring Diana that he has always felt protective of her and even shared her frustrations with Charles at times. But the news of this book has him thinking differently.

She's been in the royal family for more than a decade now and knows how things work. They are not a family. They are a system. For better or for worse, they are stuck in this system, and they can't err their grievances like a normal family. The damage can be more extensive than she knows.

Philip encourages Diana to be creative and do whatever she needs to do to be happy. (One can only presume that he had this same conversation with Charles, which is why Camilla isn't even tucked away in shadowed corners anymore.) The one rule Diana must abide by is to remain loyal to the family and her husband in public.

Diana questions if this means that she is to be silent. The answer is yes. Do not rock the boat. Take everything to the grave.

We all know that Diana did rock that boat. Andrew Morton's book , Diana: Her True Life Story , depicting a deeply unhappy woman behind the fairytale facade, sold millions of copies. And as a result, the royal family spirals into genuine crisis.

Episode 3: "Mou Mou"

It's 1946, and "the best salesman in Alexandria" is peddling Coca-Cola in the streets of Egypt. His name is Mohamed Al-Fayed, and his dream is to be just like British royalty, because they are treated like gods.

Fast forward to 1979, when Mohamed (Salim Dau) and his son Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) travel to France to purchase (and rescue) the notorious Hotel Ritz Paris. Claiming he wants to make her great again, Mohamed is discouraged when he and his colleagues are treated with contempt and discrimination, even though they have more money than the asking price.

With a sudden change of heart, the hotel business people agree to a deal, and we find the Al-Fayeds celebrating in high fashion the following night. Sadly, Mohamed instructs his son to immediately dismiss a Bahamian waiter based on nothing more than the color of his skin.

Dodi obliges and later laments to his father that it was a mistake. The man, Sydney Johnson (Jude Akuwudike), had been the personal valet of the Duke of Windsor (Edward) for thirty years until his death. Hearing royal terminology, Mohamed changes his mind and requests an audience with Sydney. We learn that Sydney took care of every aspect of the Duke's life, from when he woke to when he retired for the night.

Mohamed is sold. He hires Sydney as his own personal valet to help him be a British gentleman. Sydney agrees and hands Mohamed a stack of books to read. Then he schools him on the finery of life, including the proper clothes to wear, the importance of polo, and that tea is a ritual to be savored.

At a polo match, Sydney settles a frustrated Mohamed when he's not sitting directly by the queen in her box. When Mohamed learns that the man with that privilege owns the department store Harrods, he decides to buy the "heart of British society" for six hundred million pounds.

Then he tosses some money to Dodi so he can finance a small motion picture called Chariots of Fire . You may have heard of the Oscar-winning film.

Finally, when the Duchess of Windsor dies (Edward's American wife, Wallis Simpson), Mohamed purchases the Duke and Duchess' home to restore it to its glory. He claims money is no object and gifts the villa back to the British royal family, hoping this will land him an audience with the queen.

Knowing that all manner of valuable possessions is in the house, the Queen sends people over to collect paintings, jewelry, furniture, and the Duke's personal diaries... which may contain correspondence with Nazis. Yikes! Sydney, Dodi, and Mohamed watch as piece after piece of history leaves through the front door without a word of thanks.

Sydney whispers in Mohamed's ear that whatever he's feeling, the former Duke thought the same thing once upon a time. Mohamed did a great thing by saving the house and deserved more respect from the Queen. At the very least, she should have sent a thank you note.

A confused Mohamed looks at Sydney and replies that he's just made the queen very happy. Why should he be upset? Sweet Sydney nods, and it's clear that these two have a special friendship. It's even more evident when Mohamed nurses Sydney and stays by his side until he passes away.

We see Mohamed at Sydney's grave, mourning the loss of a dear confidant. And then we see him in the Queen's box at a polo match, right by Her Majesty's chair, which is the one place he always wanted to be. Sadly, the Queen opts out of sitting next to the man who now owns Harrods and asks her team to sub someone in for her as she chats with her family.

Who might that lucky royal be? None other than Diana, who charms Mohamed immediately, affectionally calling him by his pet name Mou Mou. When she briefly meets Mou Mou's son Dodi, there's a spark that is quickly extinguished.

This is chilling foreshadowing, considering Dodi and Diana will fall in love, and their lives will be extinguished in just a few years.

Episode 4: "Annus Horribilis"

Any episode that features Princess Margaret, the Queen's wayward sister, is one to be remembered. While being interviewed on the radio, Margaret shares that music is her first love, and the song "Stardust" has special meaning.

That particular meaning has a name, and it's Peter Townsend (Timothy Dalton). Remember, he's Margaret's soulmate and the one Elizabeth forbade her from marrying. Now, deacdes after they were forced apart, he's written Margaret a letter informing her that he will be at a reception in London and would like to see her.

Elizabeth is hesitant to share her feelings that it's probably best for Margaret not to attend this reception. Still, she has bigger problems at the moment. Prince Andrew wants to discuss his marriage and how the mother of his children was featured in a trash magazine with another man sucking on her toes. To quote Andrew, "It's embarrassing, Mummy!"

Andrew wants to talk about the d-word. No, Mummy, the word is not duty. The word is divorce, and he wants one. And he feels terrible about it, too. Fergie was supposed to be the fresh, modern, fun one, and they destroyed her because she was different. Andrew claims no one with character, originality, or spark has a place in the system.

Cut to Margaret meeting Peter Townsend after 35 years apart. But first, let me just say that Margaret's fuchsia dress with the shoulder pads and bows was everything my '90s heart loved.

The old Margaret is back! The one who sings, wears the hats of other men, and smokes like a chimney is turning on the charm. But, after dancing with Peter, her hopes are slightly dashed when he divulges that he doesn't have long to live, and he'd like to return the letters she wrote him, lest they fall into the wrong hands after his death.

The next day, the Queen's daughter Anne visits her mummy. She tells Elizabeth that she will marry Commander Tim Lawrence, even though the ink is barely dry on her divorce from her first husband. When Elizabeth balks, Anne quickly reminds her mother that she has dedicated her life to her role as a royal and she's been bound by duty before all else. Including happiness. She's done and will be marrying Tim. The end.

Next, it's Prince Charles' turn to complain about his marriage. Unfortunately, as the future king, he is in his own category. You see, God's law is marriage for life, and being happily married is a preference. Not a requirement.

Charles reminds his mother that Diana is hell-bent on blowing up the crown. Oh, and here's a quick tally: Margaret, Anne, and Andrew are all divorced. Their family is the opposite of proper moral examples.

Finally, there's a fire at Windsor Castle. Way to kick a queen while she's down! We watch as Elizabeth witnesses her home burn around her.

On a walk with Peter, Margaret gives the rundown of the damage. More than one hundred rooms were destroyed, including the crimson drawing room where they spent an entire day together. That afternoon, Peter made plans for their future. And, like the drawing room, those plans went up in smoke. Peter turns to Margaret and asks if their love was lasting.

We learn the answer when Margaret bursts into Elizabeth's drawing room to inquire how the fire started. Even though Elizabeth blames a blown fuse, Margaret wonders out loud if it was foul play. You see, there are multiple suspects who would want to burn the place down. Diana comes to mind after years of neglect. Andrew is furious at his mother. Charles would like a divorce.

And what about Margaret? Of course! She has every reason to torch her sister's house. Because she denied Margaret of her one true love. Peter was her sun. Peter was her water.

Elizabeth calmly tells Margaret that the Queen denied it, not her sister. But Margaret is quick to rebuff that the exact same prohibition was not extended to Anne. She gets to marry her average guy without question. The situation is identical in every way. Anne's story ends happily. Margaret's does not. Even after 40 years, why can't Elizabeth admit her part in what happened?

This brings us to "annus horribilis," or "horrible year." On the Queen's 40th anniversary of her succession, she blatantly shares with everyone that "1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure." She publicly admits the errors of the past and hopes for reconciliation. Then she pays tribute to her family, particularly Margaret, by noting that they have been her sun and water for 40 years.

The episode ends with Elizabeth and Margaret chatting on the phone before bedtime. First, Elizabeth apologizes for the system being horribly hard on the rest of the family. Then Margaret asks Elizabeth to come over and get a little bit tipsy. Elizabeth refuses, of course, and Margaret says she has to get sloshed on her own with Rum.

When Elizabeth compares her sister to a pirate, Margaret laughs. Rum is her dog. Elizabeth giggles back like a schoolgirl, noting her dogs' names are Brandy and Sherry.

The news that Elizabeth and Margaret have both named their dogs after alcoholic beverages might make me happier than the fuchsia dress.

Episode 5: "The Way Ahead"

Everyone is listening. And everyone wants to make a quick buck. With that said, it's still shocking to learn that a very intimate phone conversation between Charles and Camilla could be intercepted, recorded, and sold to a newspaper for no telling how much money.

It all starts with an innocent call to the Parker-Bowles household, where Andrew Parker-Bowles answers the phone only to hear Charles' voice on the other side. Awkward. Camilla races to the other room to chat with her lover, and I realize just how jacked up the details are to this romance.

Charles asks Camilla to listen to a speech, and the scene moves from his manor, across the city, to a van in a neighborhood where a man is dialing into different frequencies on a transmitter. Recognizing a familiar voice, the man hits record just in time for the juicy bits.

The man runs straight to the newspaper, where he's paid a handsome sum. But the editors hold onto the tape, fearful that they would be responsible for breaking up a royal marriage if they publish the story. It's held for safekeeping for another day.

Skipping ahead three years, we find that the Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate. It officially gives everyone great sorrow, but behind closed doors, a task force called the Way Ahead Group is assembled to help save the monarchy. According to Charles, the group's "modern changes" are a joke.

Charles takes matters into his own hands and gathers his own little group of followers. When he reaches a bit of momentum, the Daily Mirror publishes the tape from three years prior, and all hell breaks loose. The self-destruct button has been pressed, and something must be done.

The solution is to air a television special where cameras follow Charles. The public needs to see a future king at work. One who is preparing the monarchy for the upcoming millennium. In the piece, Charles promises that the crown will flourish by adapting and being open to the idea of reform. He also claims that as the future head of an established church, he is not a defender of one faith. On the contrary, he's in favor of faith in general.

Suddenly the reporter switches gears to Charles' failed marriage and asks specifically about Camilla and if she was a deciding factor in the collapse. With the newspaper article fresh on everyone's minds, Charles cannot help but admit that Camilla is a dear friend. He pledged to uphold his wedding vows until it became obvious that the marriage could not be saved. But when nothing could be done, old friendships were rekindled.

Charles bares his soul to the nation, and the PR stunt works. Younger people seem to be delighted by his response. The other two outcomes from the special are Camilla leaving her husband (finally) and Diana stepping out in public wearing what is infamously known as her black off-the-shoulder "revenge dress."

Anne visits her brother and notices his confident behavior. She reminds him that they are not in the business of creating rival courts. Instead, they are to walk behind the sovereign and not criticize.

Then we see Anne in front of an audience of family members. She warns them that Charles is not as weak as everyone thinks. In fact, he's setting up his own Camelot with advisors and a progressive agenda. Moreover, he's showing them what a future King of England looks like, which is a tribute to those who have been overlooked.

Episode 6: "Ipatiev House"

Not since the depiction of the coal disaster in season 3 has an opening of The Crown been so traumatic. The year is 1917. The last emperor of Russia, Nicholas Romanov, and his entire family were abdicated to live under house arrest.

The scene switches from Siberia to England, where King George has been given a letter from his cousin Nicholas requesting safe passage out of Russia. George asks his wife her thoughts, and the scene abruptly returns to a voice shouting for the sleeping Romanovs to wake. They must get dressed immediately because they are being transferred.

Before they can leave, the local officials escort them to the basement of the house to take a photo of the family, proving that they are alive and well. But the men pull out guns and bayonets instead of cameras and flashbulbs. They shoot and stab every single member of the family, pour acid on their bodies, and bury them in the woods.

Thank goodness for a flash forward. Showrunners give us a pallet cleanse by introducing Boris Yeltsin, who we know served as the first president of the Russian Federation. The Prime Minister reports to the Queen that Yeltsin may not be sober most of the time, but he is straightforward and likable. It appears the Russian people love him for not wavering in uncertainty.

Elizabeth hosts Yeltsin at the palace, and one of Yeltsin's first requests is for the Queen to return the favor and visit him in Russia. Naturally, Elizabeth feels this is a hard pass since the beloved cousins of her very own grandfather were famously murdered. Plus, Yeltsin gave the orders to demolish that house (Ipatiev House), which seems like it would be a good thing. Still, Elizabeth receives it as disrespectful to her family's memory. The Romanovs deserve a decent burial.

Yeltsin agrees and promises to do everything he can to restore their memory. After ordering an excavation of the forest, the team does locate the bodies, but authorities want to be confident that these are the remains of the Romanovs. You see, acid poured on bodies makes that hard to define, but luckily, DNA matching is a thing now, and all Russia needs is some of Prince Philip's blood.

Prince Philip is the grandnephew of Alexandra Romanov, Nicholas' wife. This spurs Philip to become obsessed with DNA, his Russian roots, and connecting to his past by restlessly searching for who he is. Once his DNA is confirmed a match, Philip is downright eager to visit Russia with Elizabeth to pay their respects to the Romanovs.

Unfortunately, the burial does not occur because a few bodies remain unidentified. That news, coupled with the fact that Elizabeth and Philip have barely spent time together, displeases the Queen. However, Philip defends his time in Russia, pointing out that he's been exploring the injustice of his relatives with her relatives.

Oh, it is on. The Queen wants her husband to explain his random outburst, and Philip lets it all out. He's given up so much in this marriage, including his career, his faith, and his autonomy. He wishes Elizabeth was more energetic and curious. Instead, her desire for calm and stability has left him lonely. So he's found intellectual and spiritual companionship elsewhere.

Elizabeth is stunned. Her brain automatically goes to the worst-case scenario. Philip assures Elizabeth that he has a "gang" and a community of friends who love carriage driving and house parties. And the closest comrade he has is Penny .

The Queen's jaw drops to the floor. When she picks it up, she haughtily responds, "Your godson's wife? She's half your age!"

I genuinely do not believe that Philip had any illicit behavior concerning Penny. It seemed like the friendship leaned more toward father/daughter than an affair. Whatever the case, Philip is unwilling to grant Elizabeth's wish to end this companionship. In fact, he takes it a step further and asks his wife to befriend Penny. He wants them to be seen in public together to legitimize the friendship.

The Queen obliges and meets Penny at the horse stables back home in England. She's eager to hear Penny's theory on the Romanovs and is shocked that Penny believes King George refused to send a ship to rescue his cousin because his wife Mary was jealous of Nicholas' wife, Alexandra.

According to Penny, she read the diary of George and Mary's son Edward, where he recalls his father asking his mother if they should send a ship to rescue his cousins. Edward remembers his mother answering no when asked. It's a bitter rivalry between two aristocratic women.

Elizabeth looks Penny directly in the eyes and tells her she is dead wrong. The decision had nothing to do with rivalry. Asylum for the Romanovs presented a threat since Alexandra was seen as pro-German, and at that exact same time, England was at war with Germany. Queen Mary was devastated when she learned the entire family had been killed.

But when you're a sovereign, you take that devastation to the grave. You can't show those emotions. They become part of your DNA.

The Queen mic drops Penny and thanks her for showing so much interest in Romanov history. Then Elizabeth invites her to attend church so the public doesn't jump to any wrong conclusions when they see her out and about with Prince Philip.

She dismisses Penny, turns back toward the barn, and stuffs her emotions deep inside.

Episode 7: "No Woman's Land"

That screaming you hear is the sound of several dozen adolescent teenagers scrambling for the chance to see young Prince William enter the gates of Eton College, where he will attend boarding school in the upcoming years. The scoff you hear is Prince Charles irritated by his wife doting on her firstborn as he signs his name on official school papers in front of a smattering of photographers.

It's hard to tell who is having a more challenging time with this transition between Diana and William. As they look out the window of the 13-year-old boy's dorm room, Diana jokingly tells her son that if he's lonely, he can wave to Granny across the way.

William copes with his sadness by trying to make friends. Diana chooses a different route. She agrees to tell her story to the BBC Network.

Martin Bashir is a journalist at the network who figures out a way to secure Diana's story. Knowing that American networks are eager to scoop each other, Bashir thinks he can get to Diana through her brother by creating a bit of drama that is too scandalous to ignore.

Bashir manages to speak with Charles Spencer, who has just been the victim of a phone hacking story. Diana's brother is all ears when Bashir claims he has procured documents that prove close confidants of the royal household have been paid through a separate account that is a front for the crown's security services. Spencer is led to believe that Diana's private secretary is actually a spy being paid to report on her private life.

What Spencer doesn't know is that Bashir forged these documents as a way to get close to Diana. Was it wrong? Yes. Did it work? You bet it did.

Diana leaves her home to visit her brother. On the way, her brakes give out, and she nearly has a wreck. The fact that she hears clicking every time she's on the phone, the (forged) bank statement, plus the mechanical failure she just experienced gives Diana every reason to meet with Bashir. Spencer promises he'll be right there with her through thick and thin.

Meanwhile, William pays Granny a visit, and they bond over Eton traditions. It's an adorable little relationship they have, but things turn cold when Elizabeth asks how William is doing with his parents' separation. William admits that his mother asked him to "put in a good word" because she never sees the Queen anymore.

Jokingly, Elizabeth replies that there's a flag on every building she enters. This makes her very easy to find, and Diana is welcome to visit whenever she likes. But it's clear that the Queen is worried about the future sovereign and how his life feels fractured. William speaks freely. All he wants is for his mummy to be happy.

Well, Diana is heading down that path because she suddenly develops a relationship with a local heart and lung surgeon named Hasnat Khan after visiting a friend in the hospital. The good doctor notices Diana visiting his patients and thanks her for making people feel happy in a very depressing place. Then he invites her for a date near the third-floor vending machine.

What's more adorable than a romantic dinner made entirely of junk food? The Princess of Wales sneaking out to catch a movie with an extremely ordinary man from Pakistan, that's what.

When she's not sneaking into cinemas, Diana agrees to meet with Bashir, who convinces her that people are listening in on her conversations because they see her as a problem. She's powerful and popular, which is a dangerous combination according to the crown.

Diana agrees. She knows things. She's a threat. And the bigger the threat, the more lies are created to silence the problem. The best thing Diana can do is go public with her story. Even though Oprah and Barbara Walters are interested, the BBC would give her full control. Additionally, she would be protected by a network with journalistic integrity.

Back at the palace, Elizabeth questions her sister about Diana. She assumes Margaret and the Princess talk since Margaret has always been sympathetic toward the Princess.

Although Margaret doesn't ever converse with Diana, she does understand her plight. Diana is an outsider. She's emotionally complex. She has flair, character, and star quality. The system isn't easy for people like them.

People who have a story to tell.

Episode 8: "Gunpowder"

Once again, Prince William is having tea with Granny, but this time, he's advocating for the Queen to upgrade to satellite television. Elizabeth scoffs. Watching anything but the BBC would be treason.

Oh, the foreshadowing. At that exact moment, Bashir argues with a colleague when he informs Bashir that the Diana interview will have to be approved by the higher-ups at the BBC. Cut to Chairman of the Board Marmaduke "Duke" Hussey's wife and dear friend of the Queen, asking her husband to put together a fun 70th birthday celebration special to show the BBC's appreciation of their sovereign.

Meanwhile, John Birt, the Director General of BBC, who is in charge of programming, is having a small aneurysm as Bashir details Diana's agenda for the interview that is just days away. Yes, she will be critical of the monarchy. Of course, she's going to go after Charles. Birt is concerned that Diana is airing her personal agenda on a national platform. In short, Birt predicts this will be a massive mistake, and their own chairman will more than likely object.

Speaking of Duke, while hosting Birt for a quick lunch, he pulls weight and asks for a favor. Duke wants Birt to whip up a fun tribute for the Queen. She's the best, and it's up to the BBC to let everyone know just how lucky they are to have such a remarkable sovereign. Birt rolls his eyes and asks if it's necessary to "kiss the ring."

Duke warns Birt that for better or for worse, they have a monarchy. This isn't new Britain. This is GREAT Britain. The BBC exists thanks to the royals. It's time they celebrate their greatest asset.

Birt leaves the meeting annoyed and throws himself head first into the deep end of the Diana interview, which will be recorded on November 5. It's Guy Fawkes Night, a British holiday commemorating a failed assassination attempt on King James I and his parliament more than 400 years ago. Everyone, including the Queen and her immediate family, will be galavanting around a bonfire to celebrate that the monarchy is still alive and kicking. No one will even consider what Diana is doing.

We see Charles and Camilla kissing as we hear Diana tell the sordid details of her marriage. The Queen is laughing with her husband as the Princess admits she is the equivalent of an invisibility cloak. She will no longer remain silent.

In fact, Diana personally gives the Queen a head's up that a "rather frank interview" is airing on November 20. A rattled Elizabeth wonders if a public forum is the best place to clear a few things up regarding her marriage. Diana notes that she tried to do this, per the system, on many occasions, but the Queen has never been available to discuss matters.

Elizabeth does not back down. On the contrary, she addresses her daughter-in-law with resolve. Not once has Elizabeth ever said Diana was a mistake. She is a valued member of the royal family, and the Queen has defended her as such for years. Diana's feelings of being an outcast are a figment of her imagination. Also, is it too late to stop the interview from airing?

That would be an affirmative.

Diana is somewhat crushed to hear that the interview will air on the Queen's wedding anniversary. Ugh. Although it wasn't intentional timing, there is an element of uneasiness, and one has to wonder if Bashir picked this date with purpose.

To make matters worse, Birt informs Duke that he will not be churning out any special on the Queen's birthday or anniversary. Instead, the Princess of Wales will give a tell-all interview that will define the BBC.

This is an accurate statement. We watch and listen to Diana in the interview, admitting that the best way to break down a personality is to isolate it. We cringe when she delivers her bombshell, now-infamous line: "There were three of us in this marriage. It felt a bit crowded."

Diana isn't speaking out of bitterness or anger. She's sad because her marriage has failed. And even though she will never be the queen of the country, she would like to be the queen of the people's hearts.

Mission almost accomplished.

Episode 9: "Couple 31"

With the BBC interview swirling the airwaves, Queen Elizabeth has no choice but to write a personal letter on Her Majesty's stationery to the Prince and Princess of Wales. The termination of their marriage is not only inevitable but preferable at this point.

Showrunners set the stage by depicting a day in the life of a handful of average British couples who have also decided to get a divorce. We see the monotony of the decision unfold in the courthouse. Everything is proper, brisk, and punctual. What once was a loving marriage is stamped broken in minutes.

It's the part leading up to the two minutes it takes to legally dissolve a marriage that's time-consuming. Diana has demands. Charles has demands. Camilla is holed up in her home, thanks to the paparazzi living at the end of her driveway. The volcano is rumbling, and Queen Elizabeth thinks Prime Minister John Major should act as a mediator between all parties to ensure nothing explodes.

Charles hires a "spin doctor" or PR expert, Mark Bolland, to help Camilla navigate her part in this play. His advice? Charles and Camilla need to get married. Sure, remarriage while the first wife is still alive is treason in Charles' book. Still, it's the only way to get the public to accept Camilla as a person who isn't going anywhere. She needs to be in the spotlight. People need to know her as a future sovereign.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister tries to gently convince Charles to accept Diana's request for a financial settlement with zero fixed terms. It's liberating! On the flip side, he asks Diana to be more flexible. She will receive a healthy sum if she refrains forever from speaking of the marriage, the monarchy, or anything that can be considered damaging to the crown.

Cut to Bolland encouraging Charles and Camilla to get ready. History proves that he can't help their image until the divorce is resolved. Diana has been perceived as disloyal to the crown, so they need to be the reasonable ones. In public, they must be stable, settled, and mature. No matter what Diana requests, sign the papers, take the high ground, and get it done. Then Camilla can come out into the open.

Charles does just that. And then he finds himself at Kensington Palace, knocking on Diana's door. For a moment, things are awkward, but the couple soon sinks into a natural rhythm. Emotions flow differently when it's just the two of them.

Charles compliments Diana's appearance and follows up the kind statement with an apology that he didn't say enough nice things when they were together. He makes sure to inquire about Diana's rumored relationship with a doctor, but she quickly shuts that conversation down with a curt, "I scared him off." The BBC interview fractured many of Diana's relationships.

When the Prince pops a handful of stale nuts in his mouth and grimaces, Diana offers him something to eat. I'm delighted by the Prince and Princess of Wales sharing a serving of scrambled eggs at the kitchen table where they never sat as a family.

The pair lays it all out on said table and perform a painful autopsy on their relationship. Charles thinks Diana was too shy and difficult at times. Diana claims he never tried to bring her out of her shell, opting to be surrounded by other people who made him more comfortable. But there was always love and respect. Everyone thought so. Did you see their fairytale wedding? The entire world placed a ton of pressure on both of their shoulders. And they couldn't bear it together.

Diana's soulful eyes meet Charles, and she whispers, "I never stood a chance with Camilla." Charles doesn't argue. He simply states, "Neither did Camilla."

Things turn south when Charles reminds Diana that she told the entire world he wasn't fit to be king. Diana understands his frustration but informs the Prince that her words were twisted. She thinks the monarchy will stop him from doing what makes him happy.

Charles whines that it's not about his likes and dislikes. He was born into this role! So was William. She knew what she was getting into when she married him!

Nope. Diana married a man. A man she loved dearly. Not a monarchy in waiting. And she had a son with that man.

Charles looks stunned. His expression doesn't change when Diana asks the question on everyone's mind. "Why did you marry me?" You can hear a pin drop when Charles honestly answers, "I had no choice. My parents were perfectly aware I loved someone else."

There it is.

Diana lands a low blow by wondering if his parents chose a younger, more popular wife to help him succeed in his reign. That popularity has clearly been transferred to William, who everyone prefers to see as king. Not Charles.

Charles receives this punch to the gut without flinching. He's heard this a thousand times. The Prince straightens his spine and declares that he is more certain than ever that he will find the happiness that has eluded him for 16 years now that Diana is out of his life.

The next thing we see is the stagnant courtroom filled with photographers. Finally, the case is called for couple number 31. The man with the powdered wig consents to grant the divorce decree.

And just like that, the royal relationship is severed forever.

Episode 10: "Decommissioned"

The final episode for season 5 opens with a very eager Dodi Al Fayed on the phone with his father, making two requests. First, can he give him a few million dollars to buy a house in Malibu before Michael Douglas swoops in? Second, can he send the family jet to the United States so Dodi can bring his new girlfriend to meet Mohammed?

The girlfriend is American model Kelly Fisher. According to the subtitles sprawling across the bottom of the screen as the Al Fayeds bicker over dinner in Arabic, she's not good enough for Mohammed. He wants his son equally yolked to someone who is their equal. Mou Mou compares Kelly to a swimsuit model. She will bring shame to the family, just like Dodi's joke of a movie career. The Al Fayeds deserve royalty.

Speaking of royals, it's the Queen's birthday, and everyone has gathered to celebrate her with original artwork, and that singing mounted bass that was so popular in the late nineties. My ultimate wish is that the Queen hung the fish in her guest powder room in Buckingham Palace.

At lunch, Charles brings up the televised "monarchy debate" that pretty much threw the royals under the bus. The crown's response is to send Charles to Hong Kong, where the colony is cutting ties with the monarchy. Moreover, it will be the final voyage on Britannia since the new Prime Minister Tony Blair is uninterested in restoring her to her former glory.

If Tony Blair is in, that means the calm, dependable John Major is out. He's lost his position to a young, successful guy who made the labor party cool again. The new guy wants the Britannia to be privately financed, which sends Anne over the edge. The royal yacht can be rented? Will McDonald's sponsor the starboard side?

The royal family shuts it down and are all appalled when Charles is the only one who admits to liking the idea. Queen Elizabeth would rather Britannia be decommissioned before she's passed on to others.

So it's settled. Charles will travel to Hong Kong, slumming it with business class, while the Prime Minister lives it up behind a velvet curtain in the front of the plane. He will deliver his speech in torrential rain and return on Britannia's last voyage.

As the Union flag is lowered, Charles' speech speaks of a new future, independence, and progress. He encourages the people of Hong Kong to preserve their liberties and invites the entire world to learn from their example.

Then he takes an undocumented meeting with Tony Blair on the Britannia, comparing the Prime Minister to his brother. Charles is giddy that new, young blood is in town and hopes Tony is not one to cling to the past. Much like the retirement of the royal yacht, Charles feels the family needs a similar transformation. Wouldn't the public like to see a happily married future king?

Mind you, Charles respects the old, blue-haired people who advise the Queen, but if they want to preserve what's best for the crown, Tony needs to get on board with the monarchy's future. Also known as the Prince of Wales' future.

I wonder if Queen Elizabeth felt that stab to her heart.

Back in England, Elizabeth is briefed that Hong Kong went well, but Prince Charles had a few side agendas on his itinerary. Not only did he have a holiday with Camilla, but he met with the Prime Minister to speak about the future of Britain.

Elizabeth: "Ask Charles to come see me as soon as he has a moment."

Somebody's in trouble.

While Charles heads over to Mummy's house, Diana and Mou Mou carry on a conversation using basic sign language from their opposing boxes at the ballet. Mou Mou asks Diana to meet him after for a bite. She begrudgingly agrees and is miserable as she sits with Mohammed and his wife in front of a restaurant window with a thousand bulbs flashing.

Diana has heard that Charles wants to throw a big party for Camilla's 50th birthday. She wants to take the boys to America for a summer holiday but isn't allowed. Mou Mou offers for Diana and her sons to join him on his yacht in Saint-Tropez. Won't that be fun?

It sounds tempting, yet Diana still has to get somewhat of permission from the crown to take the boys, even though it is her turn to have them for the summer. The Queen is informed, and even though she'd rather the future sovereign not galavant around on an Egyptian man's yacht for two weeks, her hands are technically tied.

Next, Elizabeth must deal with Charles, who has just entered her chambers. She makes no mistake that she knows about her son's holiday with his girlfriend and the fact that he had a private audience with the Prime Minister. Charles is outraged. Can't his mother get on board with Camilla? This is happening! The people want him to be happy, and the Prime Minister agrees.

This is the moment when steam comes out of Elizabeth's ears. The sovereign is the only person in the family to have direct contact with Tony Blair. Charles laments that he will one day be the sovereign, and his tiny little mother barks, "Not yet."

Here we go again. The moment of truth. Charles stares his mother down and chokes out a straightforward question: When?

We all know how this turns out. Elizabeth curtly explains that the role of the sovereign is a role for life. Let the record show that the Queen was 96 when she passed away this year .

Charles' shoulders fall in defeat. He gets one last dig in before he excuses himself. Hong Kong easily removed itself from the monarchy. That's what happens when people fail to move with the times. If they continue to hold onto "Victorian notions" as a way to do business, the world will leave them behind. And those who remain will be left with nothing.

The crown is in a fragile state. What can save them from further public scrutiny?

The answer lies in a popular young woman packing for a trip to Saint-Tropez, the son of an Egyptian billionaire proposing to his girlfriend, and their inevitable demise that will bring a nation together through the act of mourning.

The Crown season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.

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What Happened at the End of The Crown Season 5?

The finale sets up the sixth and final season of The Crown .

preview for The Crown: Season 5 - Official Trailer (Netflix)

Ahead of The Crown season six , catch up on what happened last season. This may be obvious, but spoilers ahead for the entirety of The Crown season five.

Season five of The Crown was much darker than previous seasons. (Literally, the costumes were intentionally darker .) This chapter of the popular Netflix series focused on Queen Elizabeth's " annus horribilis ," Prince Charles and Princess Diana's messy, public divorce , and Prince Philip's relationship with Penny Knatchbull.

The final episode, too, is significant, as it signals where season six of The Crown is likely to begin. Here's where season five leaves off:

Dodi Al Fayed's relationship with American Kelly Fisher.

Episode three of season five introduced viewers to Mohamed Al Fayed and his son, Dodi Al Fayed . The father-son duo reappear in the final episode, with Dodi hoping to buy a home in Malibu with his girlfriend, Kelly . He flies her to London to meet his father, and Mohamed does not hide his dislike for the American model. "Do you know her family? Are they our equals? We have to be careful," Mohamed cautions Dodi over dinner. The same scene also features Mohamed questioning Dodi's career path, telling him he's making flop after flop.

"The one thing you have always had a talent for is women," Mohamed tells his son. "The one area where I think, 'He might still hit the jackpot.'" Clearly, Mohamed doesn't think Kelly is a "jackpot," to use his crass terms. However, the viewer knows that Dodi's next romance will likely be approved by his father. Near the end of the episode, it seems as if Dodi proposes to Kelly. In real life, when news of Dodi and Princess Diana's relationship broke, Kelly told the press she was engaged to Dodi. Dodi, at the time, said they were never engaged.

Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister and Prince Charles goes to Hong Kong.

The Crown doesn't just focus on the royal family, it also weaves in British politics through the years. In the final episode, John Major loses the election in a landslide to Tony Blair. The fictional Blair proclaims, "Well, a new dawn has broken, has it not? We have been elected as New Labour, and we will govern as New Labour. And as we head into the millennium, we have the opportunity to change Britain." During Queen Elizabeth's reign, she worked with 15 prime ministers ; Blair served as PM for a decade, from 1997 to 2007—he will surely be a factor in the final season of The Crown .

In 1997, UK transferred sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, ending 156 years of British rule. Both Blair and Prince Charles were in attendance at the handover ceremony, and after, The Crown shows Charles speaking to the new Prime Minister privately. He tells him, "the royal family needs a similar renovation," referring to the upcoming decomissioning of the Britannia .

When Charles gets back to the UK, he is chastised by Queen Elizabeth, and they have this telling exchange:

Queen Elizabeth : I do want to make clear that the only person in this family to have a direct relationship with the first minister is the sovereign. Prince Charles : Which will one day be me. Queen : One day. But not yet. Charles : When? Queen : You should know the answer better than anyone because, God willing, you will one day take the oath yourself. This job is for life. Charles : Let's hope there's still an institution for me to take the oath for.

The two clearly have different views of the monarchy. Charles tells the Queen how in Hong Kong he saw "how easy it was to dispose of us," and ends their conversation with, "I'm just worried, Mummy, that... if we continue to hold onto these Victorian notions of how the monarchy should look, how it should feel, then the world will move on. And those who come after you will be... will be left with nothing. "

Princess Diana packs for vacation.

After bumping into Mohamed and his wife at a theater performance, Princess Diana agrees to join them on vacation on their yacht in Saint Tropez. This is where her romance with Dodi begins.

"Everyone focuses on the crash," Khalid Abdalla, who plays Dodi, tells Town & Country . "And strangely, as a result, what they miss is this fabulous summer that Dodi and Diana had with each other. From an acting perspective, that's the real challenge—and that's also been the real joy to explore. They're falling in love, but you know what happened afterwards. You look at the images of Diana at that time, and she was really happy. It's been a real pleasure as Dodi, as a character who makes Diana happy, having those scenes with a happy Diana." Season six will clearly show their burgeoning romance before their tragic deaths in August 1997.

Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Diana , viewed the final scene of her packing as a "really hopeful beat." As she tells Tudum , "There’s a huge amount of sadness, but also this sense of making a choice to move through something and create a new chapter, a new experience. And then, on a really practical level, [to get to] be with your children and go on vacation and have a nice time — that’s precious when you can do that with the people you love. For me it was about packing [her] kids’ clothes to go on vacation. It’s very simple, but moving. Sometimes the simplest things are the things that get us the hardest."

The Royal Yacht Britannia is decommissioned.

The royal yacht was a major theme of this season. "From the beginning [of the season], we start with the concept of relevancy, specifically through the relevancy of the Queen," director Jessica Hobbs tells Netflix's Tudum . "By the end of the season, we are questioning the relevancy of the institution itself. That is really the arc."

Season six, too, will perhaps see Queen Elizabeth grappling with how to modernize the monarchy.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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Cast & crew
User reviews

Queen Victoria Syndrome

Episode aired Nov 9, 2022

A much-needed update to the Royal Yacht draws scrutiny to the Queen's reign. Hounded by the press, Charles and Diana have a second honeymoon in Italy. A much-needed update to the Royal Yacht draws scrutiny to the Queen's reign. Hounded by the press, Charles and Diana have a second honeymoon in Italy. A much-needed update to the Royal Yacht draws scrutiny to the Queen's reign. Hounded by the press, Charles and Diana have a second honeymoon in Italy.

Jessica Hobbs
Peter Morgan
Meriel Sheibani-Clare
Daniel Marc Janes
Imelda Staunton
Jonathan Pryce
Dominic West
46 User reviews
3 Critic reviews

Lesley Manville in Queen Victoria Syndrome (2022)

Top cast 42

Queen Elizabeth II

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Charles

Princess Diana

Princess Anne

Princess Margaret

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Camilla Parker Bowles

Prince William
Prince Harry

Young Queen Elizabeth II

Penny Knatchbull

Norton Knatchbull

Robert Fellowes

Richard Aylard

Timothy Laurence

Patrick Jephson
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

Trivia As season 5 begins, the cast turns over for a second time. Most cast members are replaced by considerably older actors. For example, Imelda Staunton is 18 years older than Olivia Colman , Dominic West is 21 years older than Josh O'Connor , and Jonathan Pryce is 27 years older than Tobias Menzies . However, in the role of Diana, Elizabeth Debicki is only 5 years older than her predecessor Emma Corrin .
Goofs At 35:27, one of the pipers wears a modern sport watch.

[last lines]

Norma Major : What's the matter?

John Major : When you imagine the problems you might be confronted with as prime minister, you imagine tricky sessions at PMQs. The economy in free fall. Going to war. You never imagine this. The House of Windsor should be binding the nation together. Setting an example of idealized family life. Instead, the senior royals seem dangerously deluded and out of touch. The junior royals, feckless, entitled, and lost. And the Prince of Wales, impatient for a bigger role in public life, fails to appreciate that his one great asset is his wife. It's a situation that cannot help but affect the stability of the country. And what makes it worse is it feels it's all about to erupt. On my watch.

Connections Featured in Javo & Temoc: Top 10 Series: Lo 'mejor' del año (2022)
Soundtracks Emotions Performed by Mariah Carey Written by David Bryon Cole, Mariah Carey & Robert Manuel Clivilles Produced by David Bryon Cole, Mariah Carey & Robert Manuel Clivilles

User reviews 46

Nov 9, 2022
November 9, 2022 (United States)
United Kingdom
The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Chatham, Kent, England, UK (Dockyard)
Left Bank Pictures
Marzano Films
Sony Pictures Television Production UK
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 55 minutes
Dolby Digital

More to explore

The Crown season 5 ending explained – why does Charles meet Tony Blair in private?

the-crown-season-5-episode-10-ending-recap

We give a royal recap of the Netflix series The Crown season 5, episode 10, “Decommissioned,” which will contain spoilers and the ending, so be warned!

Considering this is the season finale, this is one of the most straightforward chapters, leaving the audience on a lukewarm cliffhanger. It feels like the writers have purposefully left the next phase of this saga for the next season, which we expect to be equally as divisive as seasons 4 and 5. Queen Elizabeth II ( Imelda Staunton ) and Prince Charles ( Dominic West ) take center stage in the finale as their power struggle continues.

The Crown season 5, episode 10 recap

The finale of The Crown season 5 opens with Dodi Al-Fayed ringing his father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, and telling him how he’s met the perfect girl . Meanwhile, on TV, there’s a debate on the monarchy, with the public deciding whether there’s a use for it. Princess Diana continuously rings in and votes “no.” The next day, Prince Charles agrees with the Royal Family that he should forge an alliance with Hong Kong. There are also murmurs that Tony Blair is the favorite to be the next Prime Minister.

Dodi introduces his father, Mohamed, to his new partner, and he wants reassurance from his father that he likes her. His new partner is irked that they are speaking Arabic, so she cannot understand them.

John Major loses to Tony Blair in the General Election; Queen Elizabeth II praises Major for his dependable presence and lists him among her top Prime Ministers. Elizabeth breaks rank and asks John his views on Tony Blair; he provides a genuine, honest assessment, and he is fair to the new incoming Prime Minister.

And then Elizabeth makes a big step; she decommissions the Royal Yacht . Charles sees this as pivotal, believing The Crown has taken a toll on his mother in recent years. Afterward, Charles takes a trip to Hong Kong to be there for the facilitated handover to China, and he has to take business class rather than private. Camilla reassures him that he will survive.

Charles delivers a speech on Hong Kong, wishing the people a peaceful transition and a prosperous future.

Diana meets up with Mohamed and his partner for a meal. She admits that she still is not happy, despite the divorce. She’s still feeling in a depressive state. Noticeably, the press keeps following her, constantly flashing her with cameras. Mohamed offers her a trip, so she has company.

Charles meets Prime Minister Tony Blair. Despite rooting for the decommissioning of the Royal Yacht, Blair feels for Elizabeth for getting rid of a symbolic tradition. Charles tells Blair that he thinks the Royal Family needs refurbishment to live up to the standards of the modern day. Afterward, Tony Blair tells his wife that he is surprised that Charles is rebelling against his mother. Meanwhile, Elizabeth learns that Charles had a private audience with the Prime Minister, discussing the future of Britain. Elizabeth demands that Charles speaks to her as soon as possible.

The Crown season 5, episode 10 ending – why does Charles meet Tony Blair in private?

And so, Elizabeth and Charles talk, and they immediately bicker over his divorce and Camilla. The conversation turns to the Prime Minister. The Queen tells Charles that the only member of the Royal Family with a direct relationship with the Prime Minister is her. Charles raises his concern that the monarch will be no more if their values do not change. He doesn’t want the world to move on from them. Elizabeth does not respond to Charles, and the conversation ends abruptly. It’s not apparent why Charles decides to meet Tony Blair in private without his mother’s knowledge, but it’s transparent that he has ulterior motives. He wants the throne.

Before the decommissioning, Elizabeth visits the Royal Yacht one last time. She is proud of it and is sad to let it go.

As The Crown season 5, episode 10 ends, Dodi continues to enjoy his new relationship, Princess Diana prepares for her trip as proposed by Mohamed, and the Queen looks lost, almost as if she has an existential crisis.

The finale of season 5 is slightly underwhelming, but it is clearly a transitory chapter to the next season.

What did you think of The Crown season 5, episode 10, and the ending? Comment below.

Article by Daniel Hart

Daniel is the co-founder of Ready Steady Cut and has served as Editor-in-Chief since 2017. Since then, Dan has been at the top of his game by ensuring that we only produce and upload content of exceptional quality and that we’re up to date with the latest additions to the streaming and entertainment world.

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Netflix’s The Crown recreates iconic image of Diana aboard superyacht TITANIA

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By Nina Done 18 October 2022

The latest images from the popular Netflix drama have emerged, recreating the famous shot of Diana alone with her thoughts at the end of the diving board taken in Portofino , Italy just 6 days before her untimely death on 31 August 1997.

Filming has been taking place on the beautiful Balearic island of Mallorca around the port town of Andratx, where the show has been wrapping up final scenes over the weekend recreating Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed’s vacation from the French Riviera to Italy , which were shot on board the 71m (233ft) Lurssen yacht TITANIA .

Diana perched on edge of a diving board on board yacht BASH (ex-Jonikal) in 1997

The yacht is a replica of the elegant Codecasa yacht JONIKAL (renamed BASH) which once belonged to Egyptian businessman and former Harrods owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed. The yacht provides the backdrop for a number of pivotal scenes of the pair, mere days before their tragic car accident in Paris.

Superyacht TITANIA

Delivered in 2006 and refitted in 2020, she was designed by world-renowned naval architect Espen Oeino and offers a timeless and sophisticated appeal, perfect for recreating the iconic scenes in The Crown .

The lines have been penned to gently emphasise the yacht’s ample outdoor deck spaces, which play host to a swim-up bar and multiple alfresco dining spots.

Those lucky enough to step on board will have the chance to see all of these features, in addition to being instantly wowed by her sauve interiors. Her open-plan layout lends her perfectly to entertaining, and her Venetian-style opulence adds a level of grandeur to her social areas. Her guest cabins are equally luxe, while the owner’s suite boasts plush ivory carpets contrasted by glossy cherry wood and golden accents.

Netflix has also just released its official posters for the up-coming fifth season of The Crown , which – following a U-turn by the show's producers over the summer – will now be the penultimate series of the hit show, with the sixth and final series in the pipeline.

A stellar lineup for a new season. Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana. pic.twitter.com/6Dw7AS6vBU — The Crown (@TheCrownNetflix) October 17, 2022

Australian actress Elizabth Debicki has taken over from Emma Corrin as Princess Diana, with the British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdulla playing the role of Dodi Al-Fayed.

The Crown season 5 is set to air on 9 November 2022 on Netflix.

If you’d like to learn more about chartering motor yacht TITANIA, please contact a recommended yacht charter broker .

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'The Crown': What Happens Immediately After Season 5 Ends

Fans who have already binge-watched the latest season of Netflix series The Crown may not have long to wait until season 6, as the cast has already begun filming.

Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West star as Princess Diana and Prince Charles in Season 5, which charts the public disintegration of their marriage.

In the TV depiction , Charles' affair with Camilla, now the Queen Consort, brings scandal to the royal family through a biography that Diana contributed to by royal author Andrew Morton.

Both royals do sit down TV interviews and ultimately divorce in 1996, but the show stops in summer of 1997 while Princess Diana is about to depart for a vacation.

In reality, she was less than two months away from the tragedy that took her life in a Paris car crash that August.

Who is Dodi Fayed? Princess Diana's Lover Who Died Alongside Her

That July Diana had just broken up with heart surgeon boyfriend Hasnat Khan and started dating Dodi Fayed, son of businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed.

The Crown shows the Harrods owner inviting the princess to St Tropez for "sunshine and shopping and the big new yacht."

The Crown Season 5 ends with Diana smelling a child's baseball cap, suggesting she is missing William and Harry, while she packs for the holiday.

Dodi Fayed proposes to another woman while his father waits on board the boat for the arrival of his guests.

In real life, Diana brought Prince William and Prince Harry along to St Tropez in mid-July, but her boys then joined King Charles III and the royal family for their annual summer holiday in Balmoral, Scotland.

Diana, meanwhile, had a whirlwind summer romance which in the aftermath of her death was rumored to include talk of marriage, though some have argued the relationship was a fling for the princess and would have disintegrated when she returned to Britain.

Following St Tropez, she went on another cruise on al-Fayed's yacht, The Jonikal , before the events that took her life began with a visit to The Ritz in Paris.

Prince William and Harry's Last Phone Call With Diana

On the 20-year anniversary of her death in 1997, William and Harry described how they had a final phone call with their mother in August while she was in France with Dodi during ITV documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy .

Harry said: "I can't really remember what I said, but all I do remember is, probably, you know, regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was.

"And if I'd known that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother, the things that I would have said to her.

"Looking back on it now, it's incredibly hard. I have to sort of deal with that for the rest of my life.

"Not knowing that that was the last time I was going to speak to my mum, and how differently that conversation would have panned out if I'd had even the slightest inkling that, you know, that her life was going to be taken that night."

Prince William said: "Harry and I were running about, playing with our cousins and having a very good time.

"I think Harry and I were just in a desperate rush to say goodbye, see you later and we're going to go off.

"If I'd known now, obviously, what was going to happen I wouldn't have been so blasé about it and everything else. But, erm, that call sticks in my mind quite, quite heavily."

Asked whether he recalled what he said, the prince replied "I do, I do," but did not divulge the content.

Will Camilla be crowned "Queen" or "Queen Consort" at the coronation?
'The Crown' Season 5: King Charles and Camilla's real "tampongate" scandal
Who is Elizabeth Debicki? Everything about the actress playing Diana

Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed Killed in Paris Car Crash

On the night they died, Diana and Dodi were attempting to outwit a pack of photographers waiting outside the Ritz Hotel where they had dinner.

A plan was devised to send their main vehicle out without them in it in the hope the paparazzi would all follow the decoy, leaving them free to escape in another car.

However, some photographers stayed back and pursued the princess and her new boyfriend as they departed the hotel in a Mercedes S280, driven by Henri Paul, who was acting head of security at the Ritz.

Paul had been drinking at a Paris bar when he was called back to work to be the back-up driver, having already clocked off earlier in the night.

Diana and Dodi were not wearing seatbelts when Paul lost control in the run-up to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel and hit the 13th pillar.

Dodi and Paul were pronounced dead at the scene. Diana was resuscitated and taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris but died at 4 a.m.

Trevor Rees-Jones was seriously injured but survived, though his head injuries meant he has no memories of the crash.

Princess Diana and Dodi Before Car Crash

Aftermath of Princess Diana's Death

In the immediate aftermath, the royals were criticized for remaining in Scotland while the nation mourned and a debate developed in the media about whether Buckingham Palace should fly the royal standard at half-mast. By tradition, it only flies when the monarch is in residence.

A now famous front page of The Sun newspaper read: "Where is our Queen? Where is her flag?"

Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a famous tribute in which he referred to Diana as "the people's princess." Queen Elizabeth II and immediate family members ultimately returned to London.

She was photographed inspecting a sea of floral tributes, Harry and William were made to walk behind Diana's coffin at her funeral and Diana's brother Charles Spencer eulogy contained a swipe at the both the media and the monarchy.

He said: "It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this—a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.

"She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys William and Harry from a similar fate and I do this here Diana on your behalf. We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair.

"And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition, but can sing openly as you planned."

About the writer

Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles III, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—and hosts The Royal Report podcast . Jack joined Newsweek in 2020; he previously worked at The Sun, INS News and the Harrow Times. Jack has also appeared as a royal expert on CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ITV and commentated on King Charles III's coronation for Sky News. He reported on Prince Harry and Meghan's royal wedding from inside Windsor Castle. He graduated from the University of East Anglia. Languages: English.

You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page .

You can get in touch with Jack by emailing [email protected].

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Captain Glenn on Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 5 return and the Bayesian 'freak accident'

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Captain Glenn Shephard has been a familiar face throughout all four seasons of Below Deck Sailing Yacht, where he has commanded Parsifal III.

From dealing with the yacht's unpredictable challenges and managing onboard love triangles, to enjoying oversized crackers in the galley, the Bravo star has made the 177-foot vessel his second home for more than 15 years.

Usually catering to demanding guests as they charter through Greece, Spain, and Italy, it seems fitting that the 63-year-old chatted with us from the comfort of his own boat, Avalon, in Croatia.

Season 5 of Below Deck Sailing Yacht has been one of the most anticipated in the show's history. Viewers have been eagerly awaiting its release after photos confirmed filming took place last summer.

Initially slated for a February debut, fans have speculated that the latest season’s release has been delayed following allegations of sexual misconduct against first mate Gary King, made by a production member just days after filming wrapped. King has vehemently denied the accusations.

Despite the controversy, the Montreal native reassured fans that the new season is on its way. However, he remains unsure of exactly when viewers will see him alongside engineer Colin Macrae and chief stew Daisy Kelliher back on their screens.

He told The Standard: “They announced it at BravoCon in November. But then it didn’t air in Spring or Summer. I think it’s coming soon, but I don’t know exactly when. The network decides that. I get endless questions on social media about it, but all I can say is, 'It’s coming soon'.

“We just have to be patient.”

Though the delay is frustrating, it appears both Shephard and fans will have to wait a bit longer for the next season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht. In the meantime, UK fans can catch him at the Southampton International Boat Show 2024 later this month. The event, the largest of its kind in the UK, returns for its 55th year at Mayflower Park from 13th to 22nd September 2024.

Speaking about his involvement, he said: "It's pretty cool. I'm really excited."

The seasoned captain will participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony, host a meet-and-greet, and take part in a Q&A session. And he assured us that he’s ready for all questions, even tough ones regarding the recent Bayesian tragedy, which claimed the lives of British entrepreneur Mike Lynch , his daughter Hannah, and four others when their luxury yacht sank off Sicily.

Boat enthusiasts have been eager to hear Shephard’s perspective on the tragic sinking of Bayesian , especially given his experience with Parsifal III, a superyacht from the same manufacturer. Although that’s where the two vessels similarities end, with Parsifal boasting two masts, not one. It also doesn't have a lifting keel, meaning stability is always at its maximum onboard.

Speaking of the tragedy, Shephard added: “I know there's going to be questions, and I'm happy to address them, but I'm not going to speculate. All I can say is, my heart goes out to the family and loved ones of the people that perish. It's a horrible tragedy, and I'll also say it's definitely a freak accident. You know anyone thinking about going out on a boat and worried that's going to happen - that doesn't happen and I couldn't believe that it could happen.

“We're going to have to take steps to make sure it never happens again, obviously. But no one thought that that could happen. We're all blown away - people in the industry, naval architects - it was a freak incident. That's all I can say.”

Glenn stressed that the Marine Accident Investigation Branch will thoroughly examine the situation, avoiding “guesswork and conspiracy theories” amid the growing social media speculation. He also underlined the importance of safety onboard and reassured viewers that such freak accidents are uncommon.

“Safety is critical,” he said. “It's the most important thing at all times. And we're always keeping an eye on the weather, obviously, but that what happened was a very localised, I think was a very localised event.

“It probably came and gone in a matter of minutes. It's not a hurricane. It's not a storm that's lasting all night. It's something that blows through. I don't know I wasn't there, but that's what I think. And so you have to take all the precautions to be ready for anything, you know, and that's I think we will all learn from this.”

With his sailing knowledge sure to be challenged this weekend, Shephard can usually rely on the camaraderie of his fellow Below Deck captains to riff off of.

Since the debut of Below Deck Sailing Yacht in 2020, he has formed close bonds with Captain Sandy Yawn and Captain Lee Rosbach , whom he hopes will “take to the high seas again” after missing season 12 due to ill health.

However, Shephard's colleagues have had their share of drama. It all started when Yawn stepped in for Rosbach during Season 11 after he had taken ill. Their feud reached fever pitch when he publicly criticised her leadership and her decision to fire stew Camille Lamb without telling him. As a result, Yawn cemented their fallout by not inviting Rosbach to her wedding in May.

Despite the drama, Shephard has stayed neutral and hopes for reconciliation. He shared: “I always like to bring people together, but I don’t know the full story. There’s talk, and it seems they’ve confirmed they’re not the best of friends. But life’s too short for that.

“When we were all together on stage at BravoCon, they seemed fine. But personalities are tricky — especially in the yachting world, where square pegs don’t always fit into round holes. Strong personalities can mean conflict, and resolving that is a massive skill in any industry."

Looking ahead, the captain is contemplating his future with the show after five seasons. For now, fans can rest assured that Captain Glenn isn’t ready to retire from the captain’s chair just yet. He’s aiming to strike a balance between his work and personal enjoyment, signalling a move towards a more leisurely future.

“I’ll probably continue doing it as long as they keep asking me back. I love it. But because of my age, it’s time for me to stop and smell the roses a bit. My sailing days for work aren’t over, but I’m not going to do it full-time anymore. I’d love to do more seasons of the show.”

The Southampton International Boat Show 2024 takes place at Mayflower Park from September 13 to 22. More information available here .

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Screen Rant

8 reasons below deck sailing yacht season 5 should air gary king's dirty laundry (he should get a bad edit).

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Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Gary King has been publicly scrutinized over some major allegations, and his dirty laundry should be aired on the series to ensure viewers know what he may have done . Throughout the run of Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Gary has been one of the standout stars . Working as the First Officer of Parsifal III beneath Captain Glenn Shephard, Gary has been able to do decent work for years, but his attitude has been difficult for viewers to get behind. While his time on the show hasn’t been sparse, his behavior has been spotty.

There has been a fair share of problematic yachties on the Below Deck franchise over the years. From issues with crew members confronting one another to substance abuse problems sprouting up during charter seasons, Below Deck viewers are no strangers to issues on the high seas, but Gary’s behavior has been troubling for many because of the casual nature of it. Generally, Gary has been more of a typical playboy character on the series , which makes it more difficult to pin down his transgressions over the years.

Gary’s behavior has grown more troubling through the years, and the longer that Below Deck Sailing Yacht continues, the more he gets away with on the series. Early on, Gary simply seemed like a player, interested in all the women aboard the sailing yacht. Flirty and touchy, Gary was open about the fact that he didn’t like to settle down with just one person. While he was honest about his intentions, Gary was struggling to respect boundaries aboard the vessel . As the show’s continued, Gary has made more women uncomfortable with his actions and ignored the potential consequences.

With Gary’s behavior on Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 4 having brought viewers to a place of questioning with the First Officer when allegations of sexual misconduct were lodged against him in the show’s off-season, most weren’t surprised. Gary’s inability to take accountability for his actions was clear from the moment the allegations came out, especially after the story seemed to be corroborated by Bravo when they removed him from BravoCon’s lineup last summer. Despite knowing that many believed the brave woman who came forward about him, Gary didn’t change his behavior and instead doubled down on his attitude .

Now, with Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 5 looming in the distance, many are wondering what’s going to happen with Gary’s storyline. While some want the Bravo series to brush Gary’s wrongdoings under the rug, others hope that the show touches upon his abhorrent behavior . By holding Gary accountable for how he’s made women uncomfortable, it’s possible that things could change and he could make the decision to leave the series or, at the very least, investigate his own actions.

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8 Gary’s Behavior Has Been Tolerated Since The Beginning

He’s never been told no.

Although Gary’s been a longtime crew member of Parsifal III, his behavior has been difficult from early on in his Below Deck journey. While Gary has always passed himself off as a playboy who’s simply looking for women’s attention, his somewhat difficult way with women has been tolerated on the sailing yacht crew. Whether Captain Glenn simply isn’t aware of Gary’s nature or has deemed his behavior more appropriate than it is, Gary has always been allowed to be overly flirtatious with women aboard the sailing yacht.

While some of Gary’s behavior is likely just him attempting to be charming and charismatic, there’s been some odd behavior he’s displayed and gotten away with, too. The majority of Gary’s behavior during Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 4 with Stew Mads Herrera was uncomfortable, and she noted as much on the series. Even so, Gary’s interactions with Mads only got worse as the charter went on , and he never seemed to notice she wasn’t enthusiastically enjoying their time together.

7 Gary’s Ignoring The Implications Of His Actions

He doesn’t care that he looks bad.

While Gary may understand that some people don’t like his actions , he ignores the idea of that being a possibility no matter what happens to him on Below Deck Sailing Yacht. Gary’s behavior can be appropriate at times, but his inappropriate behavior has been at an all-time high in recent years. While he’s been working hard to ignore all of his red flags, Gary’s behavior and what’s been detailed about his alleged sexual misconduct should give him pause about his actions.

In the report explaining his sexual misconduct allegations, it was shared that Gary was loud and rough with the Below Deck makeup artist he allegedly assaulted. He didn’t realize he was crossing a line with her, but despite her repeated rejection, Gary continued to push and make light of what he was doing. While the allegations aren’t confirmed, Gary’s ignoring the implications of his actions , which makes it seem like he would cross lines to get what he wants despite how the other party feels.

6 Gary’s True Actions Deserve To Be Shown

Viewers deserve the truth.

Although Gary’s been on Below Deck Sailing Yacht for years and many viewers feel they’ve gotten to know him, his true nature deserves to be shown on the series. While some viewers haven’t glossed over the odd behavior Gary’s displayed in the past , others have managed to allow it to seem normal, writing Gary off as a player with eyes for every woman he sees. By acting so casually about Gary’s tendencies, some have failed to notice how predatory his behavior can be.

Gary’s true nature, which appears to be someone who doesn’t respect boundaries and feels compelled to take what he wants without remorse, should be revealed to Below Deck Sailing Yacht viewers. Rather than making it out to be a joke or a series of lighthearted flirtations, Gary’s actions should get the airtime to prove that he can be dangerous. Viewers of the series deserve to know who the true Gary is, regardless of what that may mean.

5 Gary’s Colleagues Deserve Justice In Their Dislike For Him

His fellow yachties deserve to be seen.

While there are some Below Deck stars, like his longtime friend Daisy Kelliher , who have been supportive of Gary after the allegations came out, others have had issues with him in the past. Like Mads and Lucy Edmunds from Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 4, there have been many female crew members who have taken issue with Gary’s behavior. Rather than relegating them to simply complaining about things on screen, the behavior in question deserves explanation and validation for Below Deck crew members.

Though Below Deck Sailing Yacht stars may not be interested in opening an old can of worms when it comes to Gary’s nature, those who have felt uncomfortable with him deserve to know that their feelings are valid. Gary should be held accountable for his actions , and his behavior should be something that is shown for what it is. The Below Deck Sailing Yacht cast should be able to feel justified in their dislike or disinterest in Gary, especially after he’s made them uncomfortable.

4 Gary’s Behavior Shouldn’t Be Hidden Or Edited Out

Ignoring his behavior is unnecessary.

While Gary’s behavior has likely been edited out in the past, his time on Below Deck Sailing Yacht has always seemed to be in his favor far more than it likely is now. After the allegations of misconduct, Gary should have to face his own actions on screen. Making it clear that he’s not exactly the man of honor that he makes himself out to be, Gary should have to face what he’s done and the public scrutiny that comes along with it.

While Below Deck Sailing Yacht, much like the other shows in the franchise, typically edits their episodes to bring a story to life, they should make sure the narrative they’re sharing includes some of Gary’s more troubling moments. Rather than holding things back or sweeping them under the rug, Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 5 should hold Gary accountable for his actions. Rather than editing around Gary, showing who he is to the audience could create major change .

3 Gary’s True Nature Deserves Attention From Viewers

Below deck fans deserve the full picture.

While some have been quick to realize that Gary’s behavior can be upsetting or difficult , others haven’t seen the true picture of who Gary is after the misconduct allegations came to light. Below Deck viewers can be forgiving at times, especially when it comes to yachties who they enjoy watching in the franchise. While some have been aware of Gary’s behavior, others have been willing to write it off as a joke for far too long .

The show should give the full picture of who Gary is in order to allow viewers the level of understanding they need to decide whether or not to support him anymore. Gary’s actions may not have been as bad as they appear , but without Below Deck Sailing Yacht giving information about what Gary did and how he behaves, viewers wouldn’t know. If there are any damning pieces of evidence against Gary, the series should be letting viewers see and decide for themselves.

2 Gary’s Been Placated For Too Long

He needs to face consequences.

While Gary has claimed that he’s been called out for his behavior in the past, it’s clear that he feels far too comfortable making others uncomfortable, and hasn’t actually been told to stand down. Gary’s been placated, both by Below Deck Sailing Yacht and the viewers of the show , for years. Without genuine consequences for his actions, Gary has continued practicing upsetting behavior, making women uncomfortable throughout his time on the series.

Although Gary’s actions, at times, may not have been worth calling out, there have been some major instances of discomfort on Below Deck Sailing Yacht in the past. Even Andy Cohen, who sometimes lets Bravo stars slide during the reunions he hosts, called Gary out about his behavior in the last season of the series. Even so, with Gary continually returning to the show , he’s been placated and feels far too comfortable for others to feel safe around him.

1 Gary Shouldn’t Be Able To Return To Below Deck Sailing Yacht

He doesn’t deserve to be on the series.

Although Gary will be a part of Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 5, it should be his last season of the series regardless of what happened in his sexual misconduct case. Gary’s behavior aside from the allegations had already been poor , and knowing that he’s been able to get away with making people uncomfortable for years should be enough to excuse him from the series. Though Gary has been a source of drama , it’s time for him to leave the show.

Many viewers have been taking issue with Below Deck Sailing Yacht for bringing Gary back to the series after the unfortunate allegations came out. While the show was already filming, the fact that Gary doesn’t seem to have faced any consequences for his potential actions is upsetting. Below Deck Sailing Yacht would be a safer series, and likely a better one, without Gary working aboard the crew.

Sources: Gary King /Instagram, Gary King /Instagram

Below Deck Sailing Yacht

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Below Deck Sailing Yacht is a spin-off of the Below Deck reality television series. Premiering on Bravo, the show follows the life of a Yacht crew as they attempt to navigate a busy Charter season in which many customers make use of a 177-foot sailing yacht. Over the first three seasons, the yacht has been to Greece, Croatia, and Spain.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Clip Shows Tendi In Pirate Mode, And It's Exactly What I Expected

Isn't she the best?

Tendi and her sister at the helm of an Orion ship

It's been a long summer for Star Trek fans, to say the least. While it was great to receive the Section 31 trailer and learn about the big legacy castings in Starfleet Academy , I'm excited to get back to watching actual shows soon. On that note, Lower Decks' final season is just around the corner and, in honor of Star Trek Day , Paramount+ shared a new clip of D'Vana Tendi with the Orion pirates. Needless to say, the situation plays out exactly as I expected.

Amid fans' wait for upcoming Trek series to return, I definitely appreciate the folks at Paramount+ dropping a snippet of Tendi running a pirate raid with the rest of the Orions. I wondered how she'd adjust to the notably more violent methods of her people after spending so long in Starfleet. I'm not surprised to see she's managed to mellow out her team and prevent them from "only leaving one alive" to instill fear, and how she diplomatically allowed someone to rip out the decorative face jewelry. Sure, it's not perfect, but she's making it work! See the clip for yourself:

I'm thrilled to see Tendi with the Orions but, with Lower Decks ending with Season 5, I'm a little nervous that this isn't a scene confirming she'll have plenty of time with her friends back in Starfleet. That said, showrunner and creator Mike McMahan previously said this LD season will have a conclusive ending . So I'll remain hopeful that he knew what he was doing, and fans won't be on the other side of this season feeling disappointed.

Not that I'm too worried about that, as the clip above is loaded with the TNG-era references from Star Trek that so many franchise devotees love. I'm also hyped that the latest poster for this season clearly takes inspiration from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier :

As cool as it is to have new Star Trek to streaming soon, it's also an incredibly bittersweet moment. LD 's conclusion means the end of the set of shows set in the TNG era, at least for now. Many are still crossing their fingers for more announcements about shows on the way, and Alex Kurtzman teased surprises are on the way as more projects see the light of day.

It's known that Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome will remain part of the franchise via a new live-action comedy series she's developing with Justin Simien, but it remains to be seen how involved the rest of the cast and showrunner Mike McMahan may be. I would love to see the Cerritos crew continue to work in the universe and make random appearances but, as mentioned, there apparently isn't a TNG-era series in active development at the moment. (Perhaps if we can get Netflix to pick up Prodigy for Season 3 , that will change!)

But, all that aside, I'm still hyped that we still have one more set of episodes to look forward to before the animated series takes its final bow. With that, the clip of Tendi's pirating makes me excited for what's to come. Here's hoping that the series ends on a high note for her and her allies.

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The two-episode premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks drops on Thursday, October 24th and will be streamable for Paramount+ subscription holders. Be sure to also check out other upcoming titles that are on the 2024 TV schedule .

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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