British actor Judi Dench criticised the dramatisation of the royal family in Netflix’s award-winning series The Crown. Penning a letter to The Times, she wrote “the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.” 

She expressed her concerns about some people who might consider this “fictionalised account of events” as a true depiction of how historical events unfolded.

“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,” Dench explained. 

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Dench asked for a disclaimer to be added to the show, which reiterates that the series is a fictionalised depiction based on real-life events. 

“No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged,” she wrote. “Despite this week stating publicly that The Crown has always been a “fictionalised drama” the programme makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode.”

“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 its reputation in the eyes of its British subscribers,” she added.

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Dench herself depicted the Late Queen Elizabeth II in the 1988 film Shakespeare In Love. 

The Crown is an award-winning series, hosted by Netflix, which has garnered a huge fan following. Season 5’s trailer is out now and it will premiere on 5 November on Netflix in US. 

“As Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) approaches the 40th anniversary of her accession, she reflects on a reign that has encompassed nine prime ministers, the advent of mass television and the twilight of the British Empire, yet new challenges are on the horizon,” the synopsis of the new season reads.