Many of us still remember the living Diana, who became the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, and died tragically in a 1997 car crash at the young age of 36. Her two sons, William and Harry, are still alive. Can "The Crown" really handle the story of their dead mother -- a story already regularly manipulated for political kicks by courtiers and culture warriors -- with any vestige of its usual class?
For American audiences of the popular drama, it's worth a reminder: It's really difficult to tackle storytelling projects about the royals in the UK. For all their 21st-century engagements with certain media (Prince Harry, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and even their soon-to-arrive baby have mastered Instagram), the royals still have an enormous amount of power over how they are represented, especially in moments of profound vulnerability such as the loss of Diana. Perhaps this production will get more leeway than others, since while a UK-led production, it's being produced for Netflix, a US-based platform.
It's not uncommon for the children of dead celebrities to have to cope with their parents' lives being fictionalized on screen. For some politicians who've actively chosen to enter public life, it goes with the territory: The family of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made clear they were deeply hurt when Phyllida Lloyd's 2011 film, "The Iron Lady," depicted her in the worst ravages of dementia. Thatcher was played by Meryl Streep, her daughter Carol by Olivia Colman, the recent Oscar winner -- who will play Queen Elizabeth II in the latest iteration of "The Crown." (There really isn't any British show she isn't in.)
But as I've written before, the royals aren't celebrities in the usual sense. They're public servants -- and they're born into the role, they can't choose it. To keep up an aesthetic of a divine mysticism, not far from the ancient idea of the divine right of kings, British courtiers have generally exerted power to keep as much mystery around the royals' lives as possible. Even serious questions about the Windsors' relationships with fascist leaders in the 1930s have been buried from historians. The moment when Diana really broke with palace protocol was when she gave a direct interview to the press, accusing her husband of adultery with his now-wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. To paraphrase Walter Bagehot's old phrase, she let daylight in on the magic -- the most unforgivable royal crime of all.
More than 20 years after Diana's death, some things are changing in the British monarchy. William and Harry talk about their own mental health self-care; Meghan's friends post pictures of her avocado toast skills. Perhaps the royal behemoth is also losing some of its shushing power. In 2005, ITV managed to run a sensitive drama fictionalizing the early relationship between Charles and Camilla, played convincingly by Laurence Fox and Olivia Poulet, and the irreverent Channel 4 regularly lampoons the entire family in "The Windsors." (I highly recommend the royal wedding special.)
But questions continue to be asked about the stories they can keep out of the BBC. The extent to which the royals still try to control their own image in the media -- especially in Britain -- remains extraordinary.
If Netflix -- a British-led show -- manages to ask serious questions about how the palace handled an arranged marriage between a naïve 20-year-old and the 34-year-old playboy ordered to settle with her, it will mark a significant pushback after years of a successful and controlling royal PR push in Britain.
Legalities and royal protocols aside, recapturing the screen power of a woman such as Princess Diana is always hard. Diana, despite her initial innocence, learned the hard way to be a master media performer. By the time Netflix shows her as an established princess -- which may be after a new actress succeeds Corrin in the role -- they'll need an actress who can depict Diana as she retreated behind makeup and fashion to become something of a full-time actress herself. And while her 1980s looks were fresh in their contemporary context, dolling up a young woman in the same layered bob and boxy jackets now runs the risk of turning her into a cheap impersonator at a vintage party.
The best screen portrayals of iconic figures, instead of depicting them directly, simply trace the outsize impression they leave in other people's consciousness. Look at Anna Wintour's brief cameo in the heist movie "Ocean's 8." The camera enters the famed offices of Wintour's Vogue. Then, for a moment, we see the back of her head -- and a hairdo almost as famous as Diana's. We hear Wintour give a command -- and then we leave the room without ever looking her in the eyes.
At the other end of the pop culture scale, Fred Zinnemann's 1966 film version of "A Man for All Seasons" depicts the life of Thomas More and the impact of the captivating Anne Boleyn on the court of Henry VIII. Characters talk about Anne all the time. The audience hear about her constantly -- we're always on the point of getting a glimpse. Then, briefly, we see her for an instant, laughing -- played by Vanessa Redgrave. Redgrave refused to take any money for the cameo or be billed in any previews. She lent her star power for just a few seconds -- and it was enough.
By casting an unknown -- Corrin is just out of Cambridge University -- Netflix seem to have gone for the opposite approach. Instead of a star cameo, they've cast a young woman who brings no extra baggage to the screen, for what promises to be an involved exploration of Diana's relationship with her mother-in-law.
It's a challenging approach and a rare one for British TV. Netflix is moving fast through the life of the sitting Queen, who was 90 when the series premiered in 2016. One can't help but feel that creator Peter Morgan was still expecting her to be around by the time he faced the problem of dramatizing her later years. Whatever the case, dramatizing the Queen's relationship with her unhappy daughter-in-law will be his most sensitive challenge -- especially when Diana's eldest son likes to call in lawyers. Young Emma Corrin has a tough task ahead of her.
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