9 January 2020
The best royal series to watch post-Megxit
For better or worse, unlike the reluctant royals the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the monarchs and their families in these series are either fighting to keep their royal positions, or striving to get closer to the throne. They’re all available to stream on a screen near you.
Prince Harry, now sixth in line for the throne, has not yet been born in The Crown, with Season 3 ending in the year 1977. In the penultimate episode, Harry’s father Charles has just had an abrupt halt put to his relationship with Camilla Shand, and his mother Diana Spencer has not yet entered the scene.
Charles is portrayed as having admired his uncle, the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne when his own affair with the not-yet-quite-divorced Wallis Simpson was threatened. Is Charles experiencing the same disillusionment with his position and the power plays in his family?
Likened to Game of Thrones for its bloodiness, behind-the-scenes scheming and abundance of sex, this series about the reign of the Romanovs has been criticised for the liberties taken with historical fact, but that doesn’t make it any less absorbing to watch.
It presents a luscious version of the events leading up to the establishment of modern-day Russian, and the conniving of Rasputin is a particularly juicy plotline.
