Season 5 of The Crown is rumoured to start filming sometime next year, so we have a while to wait before we can binge another series of the Netflix hit.
It isnât yet known which particular royal events will be represented in the fifth and sixth series, although both seasons have been confirmed with Tenet actor Elizabeth Debicki taking over from Emma Corrin to play Princess Diana.
Thereâs no way to know either, just how the writers and producers will represent the tragic death of the princess, which had a seismic cultural impact on our national consciousness when she died in a car crash in 1997.
Dianaâs death instigated conversations about how our nation deals with grief. The event is something that anyone who was alive at the time remembers vividly.
Dianaâs legacy can also still be felt: her work as an activist is remembered by her set of incredibly devoted fans, some of whom HuffPost UK spoke with earlier this month when Emma Corrin began playing the role of a young Diana in season 4 of The Crown.
So how might The Crown portray the death of the princess, one of the 20th centuryâs most shocking events?
âłI donât imagine for a moment theyâd be so sensationalist as to show the accident,â says Philip Lawrence, a scriptwriter for Casualty who has written a death scene for the show. âNo one needs to see that. Itâs the reactions of those left behind that will really tug at the heartstrings.â
He adds: âWriting real-life tragedy, especially something within living memory like The Salisbury Poisonings or the death of Princess Diana, you canât ignore the fact that some viewers are already emotionally scarred by it. But I do think itâs possible to be dramatic and still respectful and sensitive.â
âWhile it may initially feel crass to make drama about real-life tragedy, TV shows can often serve purposes other than entertainment.â
Philipâs sentiment is aligned with that of The Crownâs creative team. When HuffPost UK spoke with Benjamin Caron, director of two episodes from season 4 and executive producer on the show, he said: âMy approach to these events is always in emotional terms... For me itâs always about the characters, the emotions and thatâs what I believe our audiences relate to.â
In dramatic terms, the approach not to show the actual incident is taken because âless is very often more,â reminds Philip. âSeeing the reactions of a close friend and feeling that grief alongside them can be more affecting than watching someone slowly ebb away on camera.
âI think itâs about allowing room for the viewer to fill in the emotional gaps themselves. Personally I find it far more touching to watch someone just about holding it together through the heartache than someone letting rip with a full-on ugly cry.â
For Paul Andrew Williams, who directed two Bafta-winning films about tragic deaths, Murdered By My Boyfriend and Murdered For Being Different, itâs about simply displaying the truth. While it may initially feel crass to make drama about real-life tragedy, TV shows can often serve purposes other than entertainment, he reminds.
âI would definitely say the way Iâve handled it previously... is to tell the truth,â he says of the shows heâs worked on. He adds of The Crownâs forthcoming season 5: âI think itâll be in good taste and I donât think they will sensationalise it.
âDrama has a big power to not educate necessarily - but raise awarenessâ
âIf you turn a tragedy into entertainment itâs a different thing, but drama has a big power to not educate necessarily, but raise awareness,â he says. âBoth of those shows, all of these, focused on issues which are very important.â
In Paulâs drama Murdered For Being Different, about the death of 20-year-old Sophie Lancaster who was attacked in a park, he decided to show the actual incident to raise awareness of the issues at play.
âShe was beaten up horrifically and we showed the whole thing,â he says. âThe parents saw it, gave it their blessing, and I think as long as youâre not making a pop video out of it, and youâre making it like âthis is what happened,â I think thatâs fine.â
Paul says that making a drama about people who are still alive, such as the royals who were directly affected, is always tricky. âWhere do you draw the lines in terms of what you show? But it is a drama and itâs not a documentary,â he adds.
Show creators have always asserted exactly that: that this show fictionalises the behind-closed-doors moments of the royals, imagining a world that exists between public events, such as royal births, royal weddings and tragically, royal deaths.
It is because of this dramatic style that they are unlikely to recreate the horrors of that car journey, although the historic significance of the princessâs death and the resulting cultural impacts it had on the entire country - and world - make it impossible to avoid.
âI think people need to see what did happen and what people can do, what other humans can do,â Paul concludes of dramaâs ability to represent atrocities and ignite conversations sensitively.
âYou can always offend someone and you can always please someone, and you just do your upmost to make sure that you didnât cause pain to anyone.â
The Crown is available to stream on Netflix.
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