by HAMID DABASHI
“Let us start with the unrest in Egypt, where anti-colonial
passions continue to run high, and where our soldiers continue to come
under fire from nationalist insurgents.” This is UK Prime Minister Sir
Winston Churchill, as depicted in a scene in the first season of the
widely popular Netflix original series The Crown. The reference is, of
course, to the anticolonial uprising led by Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1956
that eventually led to the nationalisation of the Suez Canal.
It is both jarring and curiously entertaining to see how historical
events of monumental importance for the world at large are depicted in a
biopic mostly about the private life and palace intrigues of Queen
Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom.
“It is vital that we remain and successfully defend the Suez Canal,”
Churchill continues to huff and puff and report to Her Majesty the
Queen, “a point that I will be making in person to the Commonwealth
heads, when I host them for the weekend at Chequers”.
Both in
this episode and in the rest of the series such references to British
colonialism abound. Though they are entirely tangential, almost
prop-like, to the actual plot of the biopic, such references give us a
clue as to how the British public at large cares to recall their
colonial atrocities around the globe. The prose and politics of the
series are drawn entirely to the queen’s personal and public traumas;
her colonial possessions serve for a bit of narrative seasoning.
At the epicentre of the series is also the predicament of the British
monarchy during Queen Elizabeth’s long and troublesome reign. Tommy
Lascelles, Private Secretary to both King George VI and to Queen
Elizabeth II, portrayed superbly by Pip Torrens, epitomises the radical
sentiments of the British monarchists.
Monarchy is God’s sacred mission
The central theme of The Crown is the survival of British monarchy as an institution in a fast-changing world. Queen Elizabeth, played so far with astonishing versatility by Claire Foy (seasons 1–2) and Olivia Colman (season 3), is depicted as initially more interested in her “egalitarian” husband Prince Philip than her duties as queen, but eventually she grows into her role as the monarch of the United Kingdom, the head of the Church of England, the Defender of the Faith, and the head of the British Empire.
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