Jonathan Pryce Says He's 'Hugely Disappointed' by Those Calling for 'The Crown' to Add Disclaimer

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Mike Marsland/WireImage, Karwai Tang/WireImage

The Crown’s Jonathan Pryce is speaking out against the calls for Netflix to add a disclaimer to the royal drama.

Dench, 87, said in her letter thatThe Crown"seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism."

“Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series — that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence — this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent,” the Oscar winner continued. “No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged. Despite this week stating publicly thatThe Crownhas always been a ‘fictionalized drama’ the program makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode.”

Dench concluded, “The time has come for Netflix to reconsider — for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve their own reputation in the eyes of their British subscribers.”

Pryce, 75, added that recent calls regarding the have “came about because of an enhanced sensitivity because of the passing of the Queen,” who died on Sept. 8.

Lesley Manville, who plays Princess Margaret in the series' next installment, toldDeadline, “There is, and for my part as well, a great deal of compassion towards the Queen, and depths of feeling that she is no longer with us. That has certainly heightened it all.”

Staunton, who will take on the role ofQueen Elizabethagreed: “In a way, it is understandable. It is understandable people still feel a bit… like their nerve endings are still a little bit raw.”

“We’re in it… so we don’t think it’s undignified,” she added. “We think it’s honest and true and respectful. Peter Morgan’s been writing about the Queen since Helen Mirren [was inThe Queen]. He obviously adores this family in many ways, and he’ll show both sides of the characters, for good or for worse. He’ll show them and make no judgment, he’ll leave that up to the audience.”

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In December 2020, Netflix said it hadno plans to add a disclaimer toThe Crownafter U.K. politician Oliver Dowden requested they do so.

“We have always presentedThe Crownas a drama and we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events,” the streaming service said in a statement, according toThe Guardian. “As a result we have no plans, and see no need, to add a disclaimer.”

source: people.com