Joanna Lumley says she can’t watch The Crown out of loyalty to the royal family: ‘It’s rather ghastly’

Joanna Lumley has admitted that she no longer watches The Crown out of respect for the royal family.

The actor is a vocal supporter of the British monarchy and has developed friendships with some of its members.

Though she has watched earlier seasons of the Netflix drama about the institution, Lumley has decided not to watch later episodes that feature characters she is personally familiar with.

“Suddenly, [the show] began to get closer and closer and they had people acting as Prince Charles, as Camilla Parker Bowles, as Princess Anne,” she told The Mirror in a new interview. “I know them all.

“I know that’s not how they speak or what they said or did. People say, ‘Oh, well everybody knows that it’s made up.’ People don’t, people think it’s the truth.”

Lumley continued: “So I decided not to watch it anymore because I have some loyalty, as one would to anybody they know and like and are lucky enough to be friendly with.”

Later in the conversation, the Absolutely Fabulous star shared her opinion on the programme being based on real people. She admitted she felt it must be “agonising” to be portrayed by actors for a global audience.

“It’s rather ghastly,” she said. “I mean, think of somebody imagining what you say and then it becoming something spread around the world and people believing it’s the gospel truth.

“It must be agonising. So I thought I should step away from it. I couldn’t bring myself to watch it because it’s made up.”