The 30 best and worst performances in The Crown, ranked
As Netflix’s royal saga returns for its final season, Nick Hilton looks back over the many actors who have added stardust to the show, from those who reigned supreme to those who ought to abdicate
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Your support makes all the difference.Over five seasons, The Crown has illustrated, in sumptuous detail, British history, from the twilight days of empire to the revolution of New Labour. Royals through the decades, as well as our most revered and reviled politicians, foreign dignitaries and society celebrities, have been brought to life by Peter Morgan, the show’s creator. And he, along with his casting team of Nina Gold and Robert Sterne, have also faced the unique challenge of casting the same characters at different milestones. Three Elizabeths, three Philips, three Margarets.
As The Crown returns for its final season, it’s time to look back over the many performances that have added stardust to the show. Who nailed their impersonation? Who stole scenes they were barely in? And who was hammier than a slice of gammon? Dealing with the least convincing first, and making our way up to the most magnetic, here are the 30 performances that have defined The Crown so far.
30. John Lithgow as Winston Churchill
Sandwiched in the public consciousness between turns by Timothy Spall (The King’s Speech) and Gary Oldman (The Darkest Hour), Lithgow’s outing as Winston Churchill is easily forgotten. That might be for the best, as he’s one of the weaker links in the show’s opening season. The fact that Churchill was half American doesn’t excuse the failure to fully ditch the Yank accent, which is particularly frustrating given that Churchill’s voice is one of the most recognisable, and quintessentially British, of the 20th century.
The look: 5 out of 10
The voice: 3 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 5 out of 10
Overall score: 19
29. Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip
Other than both being “old” and “men”, I’m not sure there’s much physical similarity between Jonathan Pryce and the late Prince Philip (certainly both Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies are closer fits). But Pryce continues the well-trodden weariness of the Queen’s consort, bringing the same hangdog gravitas he brought to Pope Francis in The Two Popes. The electricity of a provocateur crackles less intensely now though, after decades of marriage, and the character has become rather ho-hum.
The look: 4 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
The mannerisms: 5 out of 10
Watchability: 4 out of 10
Overall score: 19
28. Marion Bailey as the Queen Mother
Victoria Hamilton, the first actress to inhabit mummy’s mummy, has proven a more popular choice with viewers than Marion Bailey, who continued the role into the second chapter. The issue here is something particular to The Crown’s casting choices: a lack of continuity between the actresses. The Queen Mother, a know-it-all interloper in scenes involving her more interesting descendants, perpetually runs the risk of becoming an irritant, but with Bailey the problem was most acute.
The look: 5 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
Mannerisms: 5 out of 10
Watchability: 3 out of 10
Overall score: 19
27. Bertie Carvel as Tony Blair
Michael Sheen has rather salted the earth for other Blair impressionists, something that Bertie Carvel discovered when he joined the company at the end of series five. The mannerisms are fine – but that’s the easy part. The voice is too screechy and the look altogether more goofy than Blair who, in 1997 at least, was high on a combination of electoral success and D:Ream-fuelled pop credibility.
The look: 4 out of 10
The voice: 3 out of 10
The mannerisms: 7 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 20
26. Dominic West as Prince Charles
Old-Etonian Dominic West was an interesting choice to play the final iteration of Prince Charles. Most famous for his role as a tough Baltimore cop in The Wire, West looks like he could beat the s*** out of Prince Charles. It is a performance that ends up being too masculine (his torso ripples through double-breasted suits) and insufficiently slippery to truly capture Charles through his messy divorce from Diana and affair with Camilla.
The look: 4 out of 10
The voice: 5 out of 10
The mannerisms: 7 out of 10
Watchability: 5 out of 10
Overall score: 21
25. Michael C Hall as John F Kennedy
The temptation to juxtapose the nouveau American royalty of the Kennedy dynasty with the creaky old House of Windsor proved irresistible to Peter Morgan. In a season two cameo, it falls to Dexter actor Michael C Hall to prove that he’s more than a mere serial killer. Far from the spit of the American president, Hall floats around while more attention is paid to his wife Jackie (Jodi Balfour), which may be the most accurate part of the performance.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
Mannerisms: 5 out of 10
Watchability: 4 out of 10
Overall score: 21
24. Jonny Lee Miller as John Major
One of the best jokes in the film Trainwreck (or at least, the only one I remember) involves John Cena being mistaken for Mark Wahlberg. “Mark Wahlberg?” he asks the terrified member of the public. “I look like Mark Wahlberg ate Mark Wahlberg!” Well, Johnny Lee Miller doesn’t look like John Major. He looks like John Major ate John Major.
The look: 4 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
The mannerisms: 5 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 21
23. Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher
The most difficult role to take in The Crown is one that has reached peak saturation in the public consciousness. Churchill, for example, JFK, or, above all, Thatcher. When the casting of Gillian Anderson as Britain’s most divisive prime minister was announced, there was much murmuring about making Thatcher sexy. Those fears proved unfounded: Anderson’s performance is unflattering, but it’s also hammy and the depth of the emotion gets lost in the challenges of the impression. Like Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning turn in The Iron Lady, it’s more Dead Ringers than dead good.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
The mannerisms: 5 out of 10
Watchability: 5 out of 10
Overall score: 22
22. Andrew Buchan as Andrew Parker Bowles
Perhaps it’s because I first encountered him playing a bereaved father on Broadchurch, or because I most recently endured him as Matt Hancock in This England, but Andrew Buchan is a man with sad ol’ eyes. Watching on, as his wife emotionally cuckolds him with the heir to the throne, must take its toll, and Buchan embodies that. He also looks uncannily like the actor who plays the young Prince Andrew (Tom Byrne), which sort of makes it an Andrew triple.
The look: 5 out of 10
The voice: 5.5 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 22.5
21. Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker Bowles
Before she was the hot Hollywood director of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, Emerald Fennell was the notorious marriage-wrecker Camilla Parker Bowles in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown. In a chapter that is dominated by a hugely sympathetic portrayal of Princess Diana, Camilla is necessarily grating. Whether Fennell, and the show’s creators, intended the chain-smoking future Queen to be quite this much of an antagonist is up for debate.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 6.5 out of 10
Mannerisms: 5.5 out of 10
Watchability: 5 out of 10
Overall score: 23
20. Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret
By the time the baton was passed to Lesley Manville – one of the best British actresses of her generation – Princess Margaret had gone from a central character to something of a sideshow. Of all the Margarets, Manville’s is the least louche – and therefore the least fun. If there were a shortlist of actresses drawn up to play the final iteration of Queen Elizabeth II, then Manville must surely have been up there with Imelda Staunton. She might even have been a better fit in the bigger crown.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 6 out 10
The mannerisms: 5 out of 10
Watchability: 5 out of 10
Overall score: 23
19. Olivia Colman as The Queen
In a way, Colman’s Elizabeth is the least striking of the three. It is neither the daring imagining of a young princess, nor the more familiar sight of a grey-haired matriarch. Colman’s Queen is more brittle and haughty than her predecessor, having grown in confidence and experience. Colman – an Oscar winner, after all – is perhaps the finest actress in the ensemble, and yet she lacks the poise of Claire Foy or Staunton. There is something of the Peep Show or Green Wing – a toothy sort of dorkiness – that, at times, peeps out from beneath the tiara.
The look: 5 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 23
Colman represents par for performances in ‘The Crown’. Those ranked above this line have hit bunkers and water traps, while those below are safely nestled on the fairway.
18. Daniel Ings/Ben Miles/Greg Wise as Mike Parker/Peter Townsend/Lord Mountbatten
The Crown has a rich tradition – a tradition encouraged throughout television’s history – of keeping handsome men employed. Take the Ings-Miles-Wise axis: three clean-cut Englishmen who could fit inside one another like Matryoshka dolls. The roles are, perhaps, more ornamental than especially interesting, but serve as an important antidote given the fact it is illegal to fancy any incarnation of either Prince Charles or Prince Philip.
The looks: 10 out of 10
The voice: 5 out of 10
The mannerisms: 5 out of 10
Watchability: 5 out of 10
Overall score: 25
17. Jared Harris as George VI
Here for a good time, rather than a long time, Jared Harris’s King George opens the series with a nasty cough that only gets nastier. After his turns in Mad Men and Chernobyl, there’s no doubting that Harris is one of the finest television actors these shores have produced. But given that this is the role that won Colin Firth his Oscar, the shoes to fill are quite large. Perhaps a prequel would serve the character better?
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 25
16. Tom Brooke as Michael Fagan
Most of The Crown’s characters are well-coiffed toffs and most of their actors… well, you know the rest. Michael Fagan, the man who broke into Buckingham Palace and waited to chat with the Queen, is different. Tom Brooke, a character actor noted for roles in Sherlock and The Bodyguard, offers a chance for the show to juxtapose the opulence of palace life with that of an ordinary, run-down bloke. The sequence involving Fagan and the Queen is fantastical, but Cooke enjoys chewing the velveted scenery.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
The mannerisms: 5 out of 10
Watchability: 7 out of 10
Overall score: 25
15. Pip Torrens as Tommy Lascelles
Don’t ask me why, but Pip Torrens looks like a hangman. He should be playing Albert Pierrepoint, but instead he’s Tommy Lascelles, Elizabeth’s loyal Private Secretary. Torrens, who has starred in almost every period drama going, from Pride and Prejudice to Anna Karenina by way of The Remains of the Day and A Handful of Dust, is an ever-helpful reminder that you’re watching a piece of prestige television. His near constant appearance at Elizabeth’s side in the early seasons set the tone for The Crown at its best: when it felt like it was uncovering our recent history.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 25
14. Alex Jennings as Edward VIII
Derek Jacobi might be a more attention-grabbing piece of casting as the older version of Edward VIII, the man whose abdication paved the way for Elizabeth to become Queen, but it is Alex Jennings who is most memorable. Playing a key role in season one’s proceedings, Jennings’s Edward is slippery and almost childlike, utterly in thrall to his American wife Wallis (Lia Williams). Jennings, a frequent fixture across British TV, is exactly the sort of man you want, bagpiping his way through one of these lavish period dramas.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6.5 out of 10
Overall score: 25.5
13. Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip
The Crown has been an opportunity for Menzies, excellent in Rome and scene-stealing in Game of Thrones, to get his televisual dues. As the middle Philip, he represents a transition from the debonair to the domestic. Menzies is best as a vulnerable Philip – one, for example, obsessed by the moon landing – but by the end of the fourth season, the prosthetics required to allow a man in his mid-forties to play a 68-year-old are a grizzly distraction.
The look: 7 out of 10 at the start, 3 out of 10 by the end
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 26
12. Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana
Debicki, a woman for whom the (possibly sexist) adjective “willowy” was invented, was an interesting choice to step into Diana’s Jimmy Choos. The 6ft 3in Australian may not be a perfect facsimile of Diana in silhouette, but, with both women, it’s all in the eyes. Those doe-like peepers capture the vulnerability and frustration of Diana’s life in and out of the Royal Family. She may not quite match Emma Corrin for emotional understanding of the role (not helped by Diana’s descent into ennui) but it’s still a striking performance.
The look: 6.5 out of 10
The voice: 6.5 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10 (there’s only so many times you can tilt your head to the side)
Watchability: 7 out of 10
Overall score: 26
11. Erin Doherty as Princess Anne
Because she seems more interested in palominos than pageantry, Anne, the Princess Royal, is much memed as republicans’ favourite Windsor. Erin Doherty’s clipped tones and fanatical Ibble-Dibble performance have only added to her fandom (Anne-dom, you might say). As in reality, the show is not quite sure what to do with Anne – but that doesn’t stop her deploying the occasional nuclear-strength withering remark.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 26
10. Salim Daw as Mohamed al-Fayed
One of the most interesting developments in The Crown’s much-maligned fifth season was the cultivation of Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian owner of Harrods and the Ritz, as a character perpetually on the fringes of social acceptance. His son Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) would ultimately die in Paris with Princess Diana, but it is Salim Daw’s Mohamed that takes centre stage. Not only is it a very passable impression of the impresario, but a performance imbued with genuine pathos.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 7 out of 10
Overall score: 26
9. Eileen Atkins as Queen Mary
Dame Eileen Atkins, another member of the British acting class’s elite, has one of those faces that can express a constellation of repressed feelings in a simple glance. The sourness of her gaze in series one, as she watches her feckless eldest son pass the crown over to the spare, and then her granddaughter unexpectedly ascend to the top seat, is a delight to behold.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 26
8. Matthew Goode as Antony Armstrong-Jones
Matthew Goode has built a solid career on being typecast as quietly sexy men who are probably going to f*** your life up, and his take on Tony, second boyfriend to Princess Margaret, is no exception. While the heat generated between Liz and Philip is rather chaste (and the temperature between Charles and Diana positively Baltic), Tony is The Crown’s internal combustion engine. But of course it couldn’t end happily – it’s Matthew Goode, after all.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
Mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 7 out of 10
Overall score: 26
7. Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret
Heartbreak and disappointment: these are the substitute emotions raging in Princess Margaret, after the early romantic streak wears off. And Helena Bonham Carter – another headline “get” in the show’s second chapter – is the ideal candidate to play the wild-child princess after that first flush of youth. The show is less clear what to do with Margaret, once she’s ridden off on the back of Antony Armstrong-Jones’s motorcycle, headed for unhappily married life, but Bonham Carter can make even the most banal set-piece feel exciting.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 6 out of 10
The mannerisms: 7 out of 10
Watchability: 7 out of 10
Overall score: 26
6. Imelda Staunton as The Queen
Finally, we arrive at the Queen we know from the postage stamps. Stepping into what might be called “the Helen Mirren era”, Staunton has less to do than the previous Queens. With Charles and Diana centre-stage, and her relationship with Philip more humdrum and distant than ever, Staunton inhabits a rueful detachment. The highest praise for Staunton is that while it is a necessarily good impression – this is, after all, the version of the Queen that was front and centre for the past several decades – it never feels like caricature.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 6 out of 10
Watchability: 6 out of 10
Overall score: 26
5. Matt Smith as Prince Philip
When The Crown was first released in 2016, former Doctor Who actor Matt Smith was the biggest name on the cast list. His Philip is an incorrigible rascal, more worldly than Claire Foy’s guileless princess. Together they make for an unstoppable force – and, on screen, Smith is the perfect foil to Foy. Pitched somewhere between appealing and repulsive, it is a role made for the actor.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 7 out of 10
Watchability: 8 out of 10
Overall score: 28
4. Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles
The transition between boyhood and manhood is a tough moment to capture, but essential to The Crown’s middle chapter. O’Connor inhabits that moment, from first love to young father. A petulant, skulking man-child, the portrait is less flattering than West’s, but all the better for that. Outside of Foy and Smith, O’Connor and Corrin have the most exciting, if depressing, chemistry on the show. And they paved over the cracks moving from the strong first chapter into the muddy, salacious waters of modern Britain.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 7.5 out of 10
Watchability: 8 out of 10
Overall score: 28.5
3. Emma Corrin as Princess Diana
Big breaks don’t come much bigger than playing the people’s princess in Netflix’s crown jewel. Fresh out of Cambridge, Corrin was cast as Diana and tasked with the emotional heavy-lifting in the saga’s middle volume. The truly expert element of the performance is managing to capture that difficult combination of angelic aura and prickly personality that typified the doomed Diana.
The look: 6 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 7 out of 10
Watchability: 8.5 out of 10
Overall score: 28.5
2. Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret
Kirby – who has gone on to star in a Mission Impossible, a Fast and Furious, and Ridley Scott’s upcoming Napoleon – was a relative unknown when she first starred as Prince Margaret in the opening chapter of The Crown. The foxy yin to Elizabeth’s yang, Kirby was a revelation. Rarely seen without a cigarette and/or a martini, Kirby’s Margaret is a chaotic whirlwind, and typical of the fun that The Crown was willing to indulge during its early seasons.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 7 out of 10
The mannerisms: 7 out of 10
Watchability: 8 out of 10
Overall score: 29
1. Claire Foy as The Queen
Look, there’s undoubtedly an advantage to playing the Queen – one of the most iconic personalities of all time – during a period on the fringes of living memory. But Foy, inhabiting Elizabeth from 1947 to 1964, is instantly recognisable as the woman who would become Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. Brittle uncertainty, over the years, gives way to an inner-steel, a quiet confidence. Her relationship with Matt Smith’s Philip is appealingly coquettish, and her romp through Commonwealth history represents the show at its most fun. Without Foy’s magnetic turn in the lead role, it is hard to imagine The Crown gaining the traction to keep running all the way into the new millennium.
The look: 7 out of 10
The voice: 8 out of 10
The mannerisms: 7 out of 10
Watchability: 9 out of 10
Overall score: 31
‘The Crown’ season six arrives on Netflix on Thursday 16 November
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