'The A-word was simply not part of her vocabulary': Royal experts blast The Crown's claim that Queen Elizabeth was haunted by thoughts of abdication
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Claims from The Crown that the late Queen was haunted by thoughts of abdication have been torn apart by royal experts in the latest episode of their popular podcast.
In The Crown: Fact or Fiction, listeners get unprecedented insight into the latest episode of the Netflix drama.
The Mail's Robert Hardman and The Mail on Sunday correspondent Natasha Livingstone unravel a plot revolving around Charles and Camilla's marriage and the late queen's apparent internal struggles.
The common thread running through the episode is the suggestion that Elizabeth II struggled with the idea that she should abdicate and hand the throne to her heir.
In fact, viewers get the impression she only just announced this at Charles' wedding in 2005 – but our experts conclude that writers are getting 'very artsy'.
Claims by The Crown that the late Queen (pictured) was haunted by thoughts of abdication have been torn apart by royal experts in the latest episode of their popular podcast
Hardman said: 'The idea that the Queen would lie awake at night and be tormented if she were to be handed over is something she never considered.
'She had taken an oath for life at her coronation. The A-word was simply not part of her vocabulary.”
Viewers of the series will see a scene in which the Queen, then aged 79, must review detailed plans for her funeral, which were called Operation London Bridge.
Hardman said: “This is another case where The Crown has changed what we know now, which was simply not talked about at the time.”
When researching his book – Charles III: New King. New Court. In The Inside Story, released yesterday, Hardman spoke 'at length to those involved in planning the Queen's funeral'.
He added: 'Nobody was talking about London Bridge in such detail at the time.'
Hardman criticizes a scene in which Charles has to confess his 'past evil' before he can marry Camilla.
He said: 'This just reflects the fact that people are very ignorant of the ways of the Church, because that is just a standard section in the Book of Common Prayer.
“Here it is dressed up as a special atonement for past mischief.”
Robert Hardman (pictured) said: 'The idea that the Queen would lie awake at night and be tormented if she were to be handed over is something she never considered.'
As the episode ended the drama after six series, Hardman concluded: 'It has certainly raised the profile of the monarchy and we live in an age of soft power. So you could say it was a good thing.
“But if you take the view that this is a very noble piece of truth, as its creators have claimed in the past, then they could have been a little more precise.”