The Queen, and indeed the British public, deserve better than The Crown’s lies

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge recently met with survivors of national disasters. They were attending the launch of a new charity. The Duke made a short, supportive speech. But much more important was the private time he and the Duchess spent with the survivors. As Lord Dannatt, who was hosting the public meeting said: ‘Their empathy with those affected demonstrated the vital link between the royal family and people of this country.’

That vital link is indeed one of the key strengths of the monarchy. Countless (and almost always unsung) hours are spent every year by royal family members with people needing recognition or comfort, as they visit schools, factories, charities, people’s homes.  Their occasional shortcomings — as witnessed recently in the alarming allegations swirling around Prince Andrew — are the exception, not the rule.

When the Queen went to Grenfell Tower she bestowed a balm of sympathy and understanding that no politician could ever give. She has done that all her life. The Cambridges clearly understand, as does Prince Charles, that the kindness underpinning the relationship between the monarchy and the people is at the core of our uniquely successful constitutional settlement.

That can appear humdrum and is thus almost entirely missing from Netflix’s much-heralded series The Crown.

To be fair, in the early films the Queen’s childhood and youth were, in places, quite touching. Claire Foy played her well and revealed to younger generations for the first time the extraordinary sense of duty with which the Queen is imbued. Foy has now been replaced by Olivia Colman, who has said that she is ‘thrilled to play the Queen, warts and all’. The new, third series covers the 1960s and early ’70s and shows the Queen’s children growing up. As in the first two series, much of the acting is good and the locations and costumes are stunning.