Queen’s ex-secretary shares honest thoughts about Imelda Staunton in The Crown

Queen Elizabeth II’s former press secretary has shared his unfiltered opinion about Imelda Staunton’s portrayal of the late monarch in the latest and final instalment of The Crown.

Dickie Arbiter, who was the Queen’s former press secretary from 1988 until 2000, has been a sceptical viewer of the Netflix series, and has now reflected on the performances of Imelda Staunton, Olivia Colman, and Claire Foy, who all played the Queen throughout the series, and how they compare to the monarch he worked so closely with.

The final season of The Crown sees Downton Abbey star Staunton, 67, play the last of the three iterations of Queen Elizabeth II, but Arbiter has taken issue with the actor’s portrayal.

In the show’s penultimate scene, the three actors who all had their turn to play Queen Elizabeth II throughout the series returned as ghosts as they gathered under the arches of St George’s Chapel, where the Queen is buried.

Arbiter told Deadline that Staunton’s “gloomy” Queen did a disservice to the real Queen, adding that he did not recognise the “drawn” woman played by Colman.

“I don’t remember her being glum and boring,” he said. “Glum if there was a death in the family or one of the dogs had to be put down, but she was playing glum and boring right the way through.”

Arbiter credited Staunton with capturing the Queen well in one scene: when she delivered an address to the nation after Princess Diana’s death. Arbiter played a key role in orchestrating the speech in real life.

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Staunton recently revealed that she was on the set of The Crown on the day she found out that Queen Elizabeth II had died on 8 September 2022.

That day, she was filming a scene alongside Lesley Manville, who plays Princess Margaret.

Appearing on The Graham Norton Show during a recent episode, Staunton revealed: “Lesley Manville and I were filming and were told there might be some sad news and were asked if we wanted to carry on. We carried on and finished the day.”

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She continued: “Weirdly, in the schedule I had 10 days off, which was the 10 days of mourning. I was inconsolable that night. Obviously, I would have been sad, but I think it was fuelled by living with her for so long. I think when I went back to work people found it hard looking at me.”

On 14 December, the six final episodes of The Crown were released on Netflix. They chronicled the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death in 1997, as well as Prince William’s university attendance and the meeting his future wife, Kate Middleton.

The series ends before reaching modern-day events and does not feature the Duke of Sussex meeting his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

Though previous episodes have received widespread praise, The Crown’s final instalment doesn’t seem to have impressed as many critics, with The Independent’s Katie Rosseinsky giving the programme two stars.

She writes: “As the final six episodes arrive on Netflix, bringing a saga spanning half a century to a close, Morgan’s drama is haunted by the ghost of past glories. Remember when this all felt exciting – when these on-screen royals seemed painfully, gloriously human? Now they exist less as characters, more as vessels for exposition and knowing nods to present-day royal in-fighting.”