The Crown has often found itself in trouble for historical fabrications – and it looks like this will be no different in the final series.
The Netflix drama has started with Diana’s ‘ghost’ and ends with a ‘reconstruction’ of the future queen having a wild night out on VE Day – and kissing US soldiers.
A young Elizabeth will struggle with soldiers until dawn after slipping away from her sister Margaret and her handlers. When she returns to the palace after a night of dancing and flirting, she tells her sister, “It’s hard to talk.”
She takes gum out of her mouth and is asked, “Where did you get that?” The future monarch replies, “I’m not sure. It could have come after a kiss. That’s what everyone else did and I didn’t want to be rude.”
The scenes were filmed with the then Princess Elizabeth, played by Viola Prettejohn, 20. Reports from that evening agree that the sisters did indeed sneak out of Buckingham Palace for a few hours, in a party of sixteen. They danced the conga at the Ritz and were home by midnight.
The Crown has often found itself in trouble for historical fabrications – and it looks like this will be no different in the latest series
Elizabeth at the wheel of a military vehicle in 1945
Elizabeth in her Auxiliary Territorial Service uniform in front of an army ambulance during World War II
Their parents allowed the girls to leave, along with Elizabeth, 19, in her Auxiliary Territorial Service uniform. In a 1985 interview she said: ‘I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life. We were terrified of being recognized, so I pulled my uniform cap over my eyes. A Grenadier officer in our party said he refused to be seen in the company of another officer who was not properly dressed, so I had to put my cap on normally.’
Around 10 p.m., the princesses and their escorts stormed through The Mall. The Queen recalled: ‘I remember rows of unknown people holding arms and walking down Whitehall, we were all swept away on a wave of happiness and relief.’
Margaret Rhodes, the Queen’s late cousin, was with them in Trafalgar Square and recalled: ‘It was a scene of joyful cheering – full of people kissing police officers and other people.’ Mrs Rhodes said they then went to the Ritz.
“For some reason we decided to go to the front door of the Ritz and do the conga. It was so stuffy and formal – we kind of electrified the stuffy individuals inside.
‘I don’t think people realized who was in the party. I think they thought it was just a group of drunk young people. I remember old ladies looking a little shocked. As someone went through it, eyebrows were raised.”
But eyebrows would have been raised much higher at the spicy retelling of The Crown. Producer Suzanne Mackie addressed the show’s long-running issue of historical accuracy, saying this week: “As Peter [Morgan, creator] ever strayed too far from the truth, he was always pulled back by the investigation team.
“And sometimes, when we felt like something needed to be dramatized, we made a very conscious collective decision.” Yesterday it emerged that the final series had fabricated yet another scene: a meeting between Prince William and Kate Middleton in 1996, five years before the pair would actually lock eyes.
