Season Five of The Crown is dropping in just a few days, and I’m truly giddy with excitement after learning it will be covering Tampongate, the horny tampon-themed phone call between King Charles III — then Prince Charles — and Camilla Parker-Bowles.
That’s right, a hot and heavy phone call about that absorbent lil’ cotton plug. Cover the corgi’s ears ‘cos the English Breakfast is steaming hot.
But before we jump into Tampongate, let’s take a squiz at some of royal tea that was spilled in the trailer for The Crown Season Five.
Do we have a trailer for Season Five?
We certainly do, huns!
Suss that acoustic rendition of “Bittersweet Symphony”.
Based on the trailer, it definitely seems this season will focus heavily on the dissolution of the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana‘s relationship, as well as touching on her infamous BBC Panorama interview with journalist Martin Bashir.
We also have our first proper look at Aussie Elizabeth Debicki in action as Diana, as well as Dominic West as Charles. Debicki’s accent? Absolute perfection if you ask me.
As well as West and Debicki, Queen Elizabeth II will be played by Imelda Staunton, while Jonathan Pryce will portray Prince Philip. Bashir is played by Prasanna Puwanarajah.
In the trailer, we catch glimpses of a few big moments in the Royal Family’s history. Those include the fire at Windsor Castle, as well as Prince Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles (Olivia Williams) and Diana’s “revenge dress”, which you can read about below.
Cop a look at all that tension in The Crown‘s trailer right here:
When is The Crown Season Five coming out?
The new season is dropping on November 9 2022, so prepare your evenings accordingly.
Will The Crown cover the infamous Tampongate scandal?
Abso-fucken-lutely it will!
In case you need a recap on your erotic tampon lore, Tampongate happened in 1993. The scandal kicked off after a saucy 1989 phone call between Charles and Camilla was leaked to the press.
But this wasn’t any old phone call — it was six minutes of Charles and Camilla (who were both married to other people at the time) confessing how goddamn horny they were for each other. Our current King literally told Camilla he wanted to live inside her trousers so he could be with her all the time, and then said he could achieve this by turning into a tampon.
Cold shower for both of those horndogs, methinks.
the crown is doing tampongate … this is the best news i’ve had all yr
— emmy 💌 (@emmyhallahan) October 31, 2022
Dominic West recently told Entertainment Weekly he would be recreating Tampongate with Olivia Williams in The Crown Season Five.
According to The Telegraph, the phone call will be shown as a moment of “genuine affection” between the future King and Camilla, rather than a feral moment of sheer horniness.
The publication said the scene will be recast “sympathetically as two young people in love”, and it will “leave viewers understanding more about the relationship” between Charles and Camilla.
They were both in their forties and married to other people at the time, but go off!
I’m just happy we’ll be copping a squiz at Tampongate, especially after Josh O’Connor —who played Charles in The Crown Seasons Three and Four — flat out refused to recreate the titillating tampon conversation.
“When they offered me the role, one of my first questions was — I say questions, I think it was pretty much a statement — ‘We are not doing the tampon phone call’, he told SiriusXM’s EW Live back in 2020.
“This was my one chance for my parents to see something with no shame and there’s no way I was going to scuttle that by talking about tampons on Netflix.”
Alright, mummy’s boy. Bit of a crap reason to not want to recreate a historical event involving the person you’re portraying.
Will we see Princess Diana’s infamous revenge dress in the show?
Thanks to the Season Five trailer, we now have some stunning images of Elizabeth Debicki in Princess Diana’s revenge dress.
Debicki previously confirmed in an Entertainment Weekly interview that she would be wearing Diana’s infamous revenge dress on the show.
Diana famously wore the dress on the same night a TV program where Prince Charles admitted to committing adultery premiered.
Princess Diana’s revenge dress pic.twitter.com/h193Ql2Vgs
— la femme dans l’art (@femmeduart) January 3, 2021
“It fascinated me how entranced people were with that dress,” Debicki said.
“When it became known that I had the part, I received these text messages saying congratulations, [but] there was also a huge amount of text messages about the revenge dress.
“’Do you get to wear the revenge dress?’ ‘Oh my God, you get to wear the revenge dress!’”
Debicki said wearing the dress was a “big day on set”.
“It’s pretty incredible that a dress would represent a moment in history or that this human’s life would represent so much and become so iconic.”
What years will The Crown Season Five cover?
In Season Five we can expect to see the Queen’s “annus horribilis” of 1992, which saw three marriage breakdowns and a major fire at Windsor Castle.
“1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an ‘annus horribilis’,” the Queen said in a speech at the time.
We can also expect to see Diana’s interview with Martin Bashir, which is probably interesting to look back on now that we’ve seen Harry and Meghan‘s.
Other events that we should see in the next two seasons include Diana and Charles’ divorce, Diana’s death, the Queen and Philip’s golden wedding anniversary, and the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother as the Netflix show is expected to wrap up in the early 2000s.
The Crown Season Five has already sparked controversy
The Crown‘s creator and stars hit back at claims the show is “exploitative” after it was criticised by a friend of King Charles III. Of course.
Charles’ pal told UK publication The Daily Telegraph the show — which focuses on the 1990s in Season Five, leading up to Princess Diana’s death — was “exploitative”.
The show’s creator Peter Morgan defended it.
“I think we must all accept that the 1990s was a difficult time for the royal family, and King Charles will almost certainly have some painful memories of that period,” Morgan responded, per Variety.
“But that doesn’t mean that, with the benefit of hindsight, history will be unkind to him, or the monarchy. The show certainly isn’t.
“I have enormous sympathy for a man in his position — indeed, a family in their position. People are more understanding and compassionate than we expect sometimes.”
In another bit of controversy, Dame Judi Dench has also called on Netflix to add a disclaimer that the show is fictionalised at the start of episodes.
She wrote an open letter to The Times, saying she feared “a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true”.
Oooh guvnah, it’s all ‘appenin.
Will The Crown Season Five show Princess Diana’s death?
The show has confirmed the tragic death of Princess Diana won’t be included in Season Five, but will appear in Season Six.
At the same time the cast hit back at claims the show is “exploitative”, Elizabeth Debicki discussed filming Diana’s death.
“Peter [Morgan] and the entire crew do their utmost to really handle everything with such sensitivity and truth and complexity, as do actors,” she said, per Entertainment Weekly.
“The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer’s perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice is just immense.”
Dominic West described it as a “heavy, heavy responsibility” and “something I think we all take pretty seriously”.
Has The Crown‘s filming been paused?
Following the news that Queen Elizabeth died, Netflix planned on pausing production on The Crown Season Six — though Season Five is still set to be released on November 9.
After the Queen’s death, creator Peter Morgan told Deadline that The Crown “will stop filming out of respect.”
“The Crown is a love letter to her and I’ve nothing to add for now, just silence and respect,” he said.
“I expect we will stop filming out of respect too.”
Imelda Staunton is our Queen (both IRL and in The Crown, TBH)
Imelda Staunton AKA Dolores Umbridge herself will be taking over the role of Queen Elizabeth II for the fifth (and sixth) season of the show, following in the footsteps of Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to confirm Imelda Staunton as Her Majesty the Queen for the fifth and final season, taking The Crown into the 21st century,” Morgan said in a statement prior to the Netflix announcement of Season Six.
“Imelda is an astonishing talent and will be a fantastic successor to Claire Foy and Olivia Colman.”
Staunton also released a statement at the time, expressing that she is honoured to be a part of the Netflix show.
“I have loved watching The Crown from the very start,” Staunton told the Hollywood Reporter.
“As an actor, it was a joy to see how both Claire Foy and Olivia Colman brought something special and unique to Peter Morgan’s scripts. I am genuinely honoured to be joining such an exceptional creative team and to be taking The Crown to its conclusion.”
Imelda Staunton will play Queen Elizabeth II in the fifth and final season of The Crown. pic.twitter.com/hUOob58A9p
— The Crown (@TheCrownNetflix) January 31, 2020
How else will the cast be changing in The Crown Season Five?
It’s customary for the entire cast to change and age-up every two seasons. As we known, that means Elizabeth Debicki taking the reins as Princess Diana in The Crown Season Five.
“Princess Diana’s spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many,” Debicki initially said. “It is my true privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one.”
However, due to the wild, Golden Globe-winning success of Emma Corrin in Season Four, there were rumours that show-runners were keen to keep them around however possible.
“Under normal circumstances, The Crown’s rule is that the entire cast changes after every two series, but Emma has been exceptional as Di,” a source close to the Netflix hit told The Sun back in 2020.
“So although Elizabeth will take over the role, they’re looking at ways that her predecessor can appear, albeit in flashbacks to her younger years.”
There’s no sign of Corrin in the trailer, so only time will tell if they’ll appear as Diana in flashbacks.
Diana aside, The Affair actor Dominic West plays Prince Charles in the final two seasons of The Crown. West was first rumoured to play the part around the same time the actor was hit with cheating allegations, which is rather amusing timing… given Prince Charles’ history.
Olivia Williams took over the role of Camilla Parker Bowles from the wonderful Emerald Fennell.
And, Claudia Harrison has taken over the role of Princess Anne, from the brilliant Erin Doherty. Harrison was snapped on set, so I think that pretty much cements her in the part.
Netflix released some first look imagery at Season Five
Presenting Imelda Staunton as Her Royal Highness, Queen Liz II.
Will Staunton cop an Emmy nomination? Probably.
Next up, we have Dominic West as Prince Charles.
And lastly (for now), we have this totally cheerful photo of Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana.
Debicki simply is Princess Diana. I can’t wait to see what she does with the role.
Is The Crown Season Five the last one?
When Peter Morgan first pitched the show, he envisioned six seasons, which would cover six decades of the royal family.
However, in late January 2020, we were delivered the soul-crushing news that the The Crown Season Five would be its last.
“At the outset I had imagined The Crown running for six seasons but now that we have begun work on the stories for Season Five it has become clear to me that this is the perfect time and place to stop,” Morgan said in a statement, according to Deadline.
“I’m grateful to Netflix and Sony for supporting me in this decision.”
But thankfully, he later changed his mind, confirming that the Netflix hit *will* be returning for a sixth and final season as originally intended.
“To be clear, Series Six will not bring us any closer to present-day—it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail,” Morgan sadly added, crushing my hopes of a Meghan and Harry season. NOOOO.
News from the palace: we can confirm there will be a sixth (and final) season of @TheCrownNetflix, in addition to the previously announced five!
— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) July 9, 2020
We’ll be sure to update this story as more information becomes available. But in the meantime, you can catch up on seasons 1-4 on Netflix now — or hit up our list of the best new Netflix series to find a new addiction.
What is happening in The Crown Season Six?
As for Season Six, the actors set to play Prince William and Kate Middleton were recently announced and did someone say Doppelgängers?
In the sixth season set to drop on Netflix in 2023, 16-year-old Rufus Kampa will step into the royal shoes of 15-year-old Will. This part of the timeline will confront the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death in 1997 as per the New York Post.
Then, as Will transitions into his late teen and early twenties years, 21-year-old Ed McVey will take over the role.
As for Kate, actress Meg Bellamy has been picked to play the Duchess of Cambridge as the show depicts the lovebirds time together at The University of St Andrews in the early 2000s.
Variety: Meg Bellamy has been cast as Kate Middleton in #TheCrown Season 6. https://t.co/vcVLoGx9yr pic.twitter.com/0ifiWB3VLD
— Chris Hastings (@chrisjhastings) September 2, 2022
First things first, regardless of acting ability (which I’m sure he’s got loads of), we just have to acknowledge how similar Ed McVey and young Will look.
Here’s a pic of McVey and then another of Will around the same age. See if you can tell the jawlines apart because personally, I’m gonna need a new prescription on my glasses.
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The Crown is now streaming on Netflix.
