We love historical series, but we love even more to pick up on everything that is funny in historical series. And imagine that we are not the only ones since the team of the excellent podcast “Verification“, which factchecks films, series and video games, has actually written a book on all the historical errors in the series The Crown : “The Crown, true from false”. So already we encourage you to read it ILLICO, and to entice you we deliver you some errors noted tasty by the team of Corentin Lamy, Joffrey Ricome and Pierre oublie and others that we found in other articles.
1. No, Prince Philip didn’t fight an elephant
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Season 1, episode 2. While the princely couple Elisabeth and Philip are visiting Kenya and chaining the formal obligations, they have to go to their hotel to finish their journey on foot which gives them the opportunity to cross a few meters from them elephants ready to figure it out. That is. But contrary to what the series says, little Philip did not break the knees of an elephant. He simply remained serene alongside his wife, hoping not to take a blow from his trunk.
2. Venetia Scott is bullshit
Season 1, episode 4. In the series, Churchill is in the worst possible condition, his secretary Venetia has been knocked down by a bus and he meditates on his lifeless body before improvising a press conference dedicated to supporting hospitals. Yeah-yeah. But above all big mytho. Venetia Scott does not exist any more than the Loch Ness Monster and her character is a pure invention of the series. It would actually seem that his character is made up of several anecdotes reported by Churchill’s secretaries.
3. Professor Hogg: also bullshit
Season 1, episode 7. The series introduces this character supposed to educate Princess Elisabeth a bit late (her father having privileged her contact with the “real people” of the people, rather than in prestigious schools where she would have attended only the elite) . In reality, and as the queen confided to JK Rowling in person in an interview in 2001, she educated herself like a grown-up by reading a lot (big fan of Boule & Bill and Tom-tom et Nana).
4. Churchill was not at all obsessed with his “mare”
Season 1, Episode 9. We learn that Churchill was a fan of the brush, which is true since we owe him no less than 544 paintings. On the other hand, it is a bit exaggerated to attribute to him a passion for the Chartwell pond on his property in Kent. This was the subject of only two of his paintings, but that’s all. So calm down.
5. Elisabeth’s younger sister, Margaret was in a bit of a nutshell not to marry Peter Townsend
Season 1, episode 10. In the series, it is the big love between Peter and Margaret, but little souçaille: Peter is not only a commoner, certainly squire of Georges VI but who has the bad taste to be divorced. And that is average at court. Technically it is not even possible for the princess to marry a man who has already been married. Well in fact, yes, it’s possible but let’s say it’s a hassle. However, in the series the events are presented as if Margaret had been prevented from marrying her fellow while many letters show on the contrary that she no longer loved him. And he farted in bed.
6. It is highly unlikely that Philip had a relationship with the ballerina Galina Oulanova
Season 2, episode 1. Certainly the ballerina did indeed exist (she was even considered in her time as the best classical dancer in the world), there is actually very little chance that the prince has ever crossed paths with her. The dancer belonging to the Bolshoi troupe and the world being plunged into the middle of the Cold War. It may be that Philip went elsewhere, which explains Elisabeth’s jealousy, but we have never had proof of this, and even less of this extramarital relationship with the Soviet dancer. Temper your enthusiasm zazou.
7. Sorry again but no, the royal yacht did not rescue a Polynesian sailor
Season 2, episode 2. The scene takes place in 1956 in the series and shows a particularly hot potato Duke of Edinburgh to save a Polynesian fisherman. So much so that he orders the captain of the yacht to come to his aid. Well, in reality, this courageous anecdote came straight from the imagination of the screenwriters. No Polynesian in danger, no injunction to the captain and no rescue.
8. No, no ole-ole photo of Margaret taken by Anthony Armstrong-Jones caused a scandal in the press
Season 2, episode 4. So of course there was a photo, but on the one hand stay stable it was not a very trashy ass photo but just a slightly suggestive shot, and this one came out in the open after 7 years of marriage for the couple . In short, nothing too crazy because TMTC if you don’t have a photo of your boyfriend or your girlfriend after 7 years of marriage, it means that your couple is not a real couple.
9. Elisabeth’s visit to Ghana was no whim to steal the show from Jacky Kennedy
Season 2, episode 8. While Jacky quickly becomes a political star on the international scene, a modern girl with stylish clothes, the series suggests that Elisabeth has the seum. She would thus try to bring the cover back to her by traveling to the former colony of Ghana in 1961, on a whim. In reality, this trip had been planned for more than two years. And then anyway Jacky she sucks and even with her single eyebrow it looks like Emmanuel Chain, so no need to be capricious first.
10. Philip of Edinburgh is at no time responsible for the death of his sister Cecile
Season 2, episode 9. Flashback to 1937. While Philip is being punished for yet another fight, it’s messing up the holiday calendar. According to the series, this punishment would have forced his pregnant sister to take another route by plane during which she will lose her life in addition to the eleven other passengers on board due to a crash. Philip would thus be eaten away by this terrible guilt.
Well actually, Philip has no reason to feel guilty since he is not responsible for this change of program, his sister just did not know the instructions prohibiting pregnant women to the teeth from flying. since she ended up giving birth mid-flight, requiring an express landing, which caused the plane to crash.
11. Edward VIII’s relationship with the Nazis was more marked
Inevitably, when you have a personality who sympathized with the Nazis, you tend not to shout it from the rooftops. If we show the character participating in some Nazi events in the series it was still a little deeper than that, in the sense that he was really very good friends with important officers and had even already made Nazi salutes, he did not come not just eat a snack to please.
12. Obviously the “Balmoral test” is a bit of bullshit
In the episode “The Balmoral Test” it is implied that the royal family sometimes invites people into the Balmoral residence to give them a bullshit test that lets them know if the person being tested knows the codes of conduct to observe and will know how to adapt to the family. But in reality it seems that no one in the family uses the term “Balmoral test” and it’s a bit of a legend.
13. Prince Philip did not cause a scandal because he had to kneel in front of Queen Elisabeth
In the series we are shown a passage where Prince Philip freaks out a bit because he will have to kneel in front of Queen Elisabeth during her coronation. Except that in reality he was quite aware of all the coronation protocol and would never have yelled about it in front of his wife. On the other hand, once he had yelled because she had finished the pasta gratin and put the empty dish back in the fridge, it’s not done.
14. The family plot to keep Charles and Camilla away is said to be legend.
Historically it is unclear why Prince / King Charles married Diana Spencer rather than Camilla Shand, but the series chooses to follow the “family conspiracy” theory to keep the two parties apart. So we are shown Charles being sent overseas while the family arranges to marry Camilla to Andrew Parker-Bowles while he is away but there is no evidence that this theory is true.
15. The duration of Charles and Camilla’s relationship would be exaggerated
Since we are talking about these two, in the series we are made to understand that Charles and Camilla continue to have a relationship that is a little too close for the duration of his marriage to Diana, except that in reality according to several biographies it wouldn’t have lasted so long and would have mostly been interrupted for several years. Well, go figure, King Charles seems like a hell of a hot rabbit, you just have to look at his little hot head to see it.
16. Philip and Elisabeth’s wedding was a little more messy than in the series
The episode that immerses us in the wedding of Philip and Elisabeth tends to show us a perfect day worthy of a wedding at the Disney park (much classier than in their stupid palace). But in reality, if the day went well, there were a few hiccups: the Queen’s tiara broke and we had to repair it quickly, her bouquet was lost and we found in a fridge and she had also forgotten her pearl necklace and a courier had to cross London on foot to retrieve it in time. What a wedding.
17. Prince Philip’s mother didn’t dress as a nun at her son’s wedding.
Since we are talking about the wedding there is a mistake here: the mother of the groom did not show up to the wedding dressed as a nun but in a silk dress. However, she did come dressed in religious attire on the day of Queen Elisabeth’s coronation, but at that time she had already become a nun, so there was a logic. It wasn’t a free costume for a party.
18. Princess Margaret never went to visit her disabled cousins.
The series makes it clear that the family would have hidden the existence of two mentally handicapped cousins in institutes, which is already false since a documentary already spoke about it in the 80s and therefore it was not a secret at all . But we are also made to understand that Princess Margaret would have gone to visit these famous cousins several times, which is also invented by the series.
19. Queen Elizabeth’s crush on Lord Porchester probably never happened.
We are made to understand in an episode that Queen Elisabeth was a little big crush on her childhood friend the Lord Porchester and that her husband Philip was even jealous. We are depicted with a sexual tension worthy of 50 shades of gray when in fact it’s probably bullshit that never really happened, but must give heat to the spectators.
20. Prince Philip is not at all responsible for the death of his sister
We are made to understand that Philip’s sister died in a plane crash when she joined the family in an emergency because of a fight provoked by Philip in her school. Except that this fight never took place on the one hand and on the other hand the flight of his sister Cecilie had been planned for a while. A tragic event, it was perhaps not necessary to add a culpability which was not real.