127 Fun Facts About The Crown

The Crown's exiled Duke of Windsor gave up the throne in 1936 to marry which American divorcée?

Wallis Simpson was the woman Edward VIII chose over the crown in December 1936; his abdication put his younger brother on the throne and made ten-year-old Elizabeth the heir.

Elstree Studios, where much of The Crown was shot, is in which English town?

Borehamwood, not the neighbouring village of Elstree, is where Elstree Studios stands; The Crown built its palace private quarters and its Downing Street exterior there.

After a magazine attack on her speeches in season two of The Crown, the Queen agrees to televise which annual broadcast?

The Christmas message first went out on television in 1957, months after a magazine article mocked the Queen's speaking style as 'a pain in the neck'.

Anton Lesser plays which prime minister in season two of The Crown?

Harold Macmillan, played by Anton Lesser, resigned in October 1963 on grounds of ill health, yet lived until 1986, long enough to enter the Lords as Earl of Stockton.

Which actor portrayed Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 'The Crown'?

John Lithgow, an American, plays Churchill in his second spell in power, from 1951 to 1955, fending off colleagues who want the ailing premier to retire; the performance won a 2017 Emmy.

Who played Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in the first two seasons of 'The Crown'?

Matt Smith's Philip pushes for his children to bear the name Mountbatten and loses; the real duke complained that he was the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his children.

Which actress played Princess Margaret in seasons three and four of The Crown?

Helena Bonham Carter plays Margaret as her marriage to Lord Snowdon falls apart; 1976 photographs of the princess with Roddy Llewellyn, 17 years her junior, brought the split into the open.

Which royal biographer served as The Crown's historical consultant?

Robert Lacey defended the show's inventions by distinguishing historical truth from 'the larger truth about the past'.

Who was the first actor to play Prince Charles as an adult in The Crown, across seasons 3 and 4?

Josh O'Connor had to be persuaded to audition, and was won over by a scene in which Charles likens himself to a man waiting to be drafted so that his life can begin; the role won him an Emmy.

Which actress won an Emmy as Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of The Crown?

Claire Foy won the 2018 lead-actress Emmy; that year producers admitted she had been paid less than her on-screen husband and promised that in future nobody would out-earn the Queen.

In The Crown's first episode, Philip gives up his title as a prince of which two countries to marry Elizabeth?

Greece and Denmark both counted Philip a prince until 1947, when he dropped the titles, became a British subject and took the surname Mountbatten, his mother's family name.

Which cathedral stood in for Westminster Abbey in The Crown's coronation scenes?

Ely Cathedral stood in for Westminster Abbey at the 1953 coronation, the first British coronation service shown on television; the show has Philip, put in charge of the planning, insist on the cameras.

Who plays King George VI in the first season of The Crown?

Jared Harris plays George VI, who took the throne in 1936 only because his elder brother abdicated; in the opening episode a lung operation leaves him quietly preparing Philip to support the next sovereign.

In season five of The Crown, the ageing Queen asks the prime minister to fund repairs to which royal possession?

The yacht Britannia, launched in 1953, is season five's emblem of the ageing Queen: her request for a publicly funded refit opens the season, and the yacht is retired without a replacement in 1997.

Which actress plays Diana, Princess of Wales, in seasons five and six of The Crown?

Elizabeth Debicki's Diana, newly divorced, asks Tony Blair for an official role, an idea the Queen rejects; the performance won Debicki a Golden Globe.

Which English city doubled as New York City in The Crown?

Manchester's Northern Quarter became 1980s New York for Diana's solo trip in the season-four finale; one square, redressed between scenes, played both Manhattan's 23rd Street and the Bronx.

In season five of The Crown, Diana secretly helps which journalist write a tell-all biography of her?

Andrew Morton never interviewed Diana face to face: a mutual friend carried his questions to her and brought back her answers, and her part in the book was admitted only after her death.

In season one of The Crown, what makes Elizabeth Queen while she is on a Commonwealth tour?

Her father's death on 6 February 1952 found Elizabeth in Kenya, where she had just spent the night in a treetop game lodge; it was Philip who broke the news to her.

Which actress plays Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of The Crown?

Vanessa Kirby plays Margaret through her romance with the divorced Peter Townsend, which ends in 1955 with a public statement that she has decided not to marry him.

In season one, Stephen Dillane plays which artist whose portrait upsets the ageing Churchill?

Graham Sutherland's portrait, Parliament's gift for Churchill's 80th birthday, so offended its sitter that it was secretly burned; Stephen Dillane plays the painter in 'Assassins'.

Which actress took over the role of Queen Elizabeth II for seasons three and four of The Crown?

Olivia Colman won an Emmy for the role and returned in the 2023 finale, appearing to her older self as an apparition while the Queen weighs whether to abdicate.

Who portrayed Prince Philip in seasons three and four of The Crown?

Tobias Menzies landed the part in March 2018 after another actor in talks for it dropped out; he went on to win an Emmy for it.

Which international crisis brings down the prime minister in season two of The Crown?

The Suez Crisis of 1956 saw Britain, France and Israel invade Egypt after it nationalised the canal, only for American censure to force a retreat; the prime minister resigned in January 1957.

Which actress portrayed Camilla Parker Bowles in seasons three and four of The Crown?

Emerald Fennell plays Camilla Shand, who marries Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973 while Charles is overseas with the Navy; the show has Mountbatten and the Queen Mother engineer the separation.

Which actress took on the role of Queen Elizabeth II for the final seasons, five and six, of The Crown?

Imelda Staunton was filming the final season when Elizabeth II died in September 2022; production was suspended the next day as a mark of respect, and again on the day of the funeral.

Who was cast as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, for seasons five and six of The Crown?

Jonathan Pryce's Philip teaches a grieving family friend carriage driving, the sport the real duke took up in 1971 after giving up polo and whose early rule book he helped to draft.

Which actress plays Margaret Thatcher in season four of The Crown?

Gillian Anderson won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the role; her finale scene, begging the Queen to dissolve Parliament to save her job, was dismissed by Thatcher's biographer as nonsense.

Which actor played Lord Mountbatten in seasons three and four of The Crown?

Charles Dance's Mountbatten is approached in 'Coup' by press baron Cecil King, who wants him to head a government replacing the elected one; the real King floated the idea at a 1968 meeting.

Who portrayed Prime Minister John Major in season five of The Crown?

Jonny Lee Miller's John Major is pulled into the royal marriage: the real Major announced Charles and Diana's separation to the Commons in 1992, and the show has the Queen use him as go-between in their divorce.

Which actor played Prime Minister Tony Blair in seasons five and six of The Crown?

Bertie Carvel's Blair, riding high in the polls, urges a purge of the royal household's antique offices; the Queen interviews the holders one by one and decides to keep them.

Jeremy Northam plays which prime minister, the Queen's second, in the first two seasons?

Anthony Eden, played by Jeremy Northam, had been seen as Churchill's heir since 1942, yet his own premiership lasted under two years, from April 1955 to January 1957.

Which Welsh village's 1966 coal-tip school disaster draws the Queen's slow, criticised response in season three?

Aberfan's coal-tip collapse killed 116 children and 28 adults on 21 October 1966; the real Queen waited eight days before visiting the village.

Which American President visits Queen Elizabeth II in season two of The Crown?

John F. Kennedy, played by Michael C. Hall, dines at Buckingham Palace with Jackie in June 1961; the show has the Queen stung to learn that her glamorous guest mocked her at a party.

The Crown's final season ends with which 2005 event?

The wedding of Charles and Camilla, a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall followed by a blessing in St George's Chapel, closes the series; the Queen, having weighed abdication, stays on.

Diana's 1995 Martin Bashir interview, dramatised in season five, aired on which BBC programme?

The interview aired on BBC's Panorama on 20 November 1995; the 2021 Dyson inquiry found Bashir had used forged bank statements to secure it.

Which actress plays Princess Margaret in the final two seasons of The Crown?

Lesley Manville's Margaret is reunited in 1992 with Peter Townsend, the man she gave up in the 1950s; the real pair did meet one last time that year, three years before his death.

Which journalist's article critical of the monarchy leads to a meeting with the Queen in season two?

John Heffernan plays Lord Altrincham, whose 1957 article in the National and English Review called the Queen's speeches 'a pain in the neck'; no record shows the private meeting happened.

Which actress played Princess Diana in season four of The Crown?

Emma Corrin was first hired only to read Diana's lines at auditions for Camilla; called back six months later for a chemistry read, they were offered the part on the spot and went on to win a Golden Globe.

Which group planted the bomb that kills Lord Mountbatten on his boat in The Crown's fourth-season opener?

The Provisional IRA bombed the boat at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, and the attack devastates Charles, who had lost his closest mentor.

Which royal residence became Princess Margaret's London home after her 1960 marriage, as seen in The Crown?

Kensington Palace became the Snowdons' home after their 1960 wedding: they began in Apartment 10 while the far larger Apartment 1A was rebuilt to their own designs, and Margaret kept it until her death.

Which global event sends Prince Philip into a mid-life crisis in season three?

The Moon landing of 1969 leaves Philip restless in 'Moondust'; when the Apollo 11 crew visit Buckingham Palace, as they really did on their world tour, he finds their answers mundane and turns to a group of clergy.

Newcomer Meg Bellamy joined The Crown's sixth season as which future royal?

Catherine Middleton is played by Meg Bellamy in her first professional role; she sent in a self-taped audition after spotting an open casting call on social media.

In season five, which actor portrayed the elder Prince Charles (later King Charles III)?

Dominic West's Charles, restless after decades as heir, is shown sounding out the prime minister about the Queen making way for him after a poll suggests the public would welcome it.

In The Crown's 'Bubbikins', Prince Philip's mother Princess Alice arrives at Buckingham Palace living as what?

A nun who had founded her own nursing order, Princess Alice had also sheltered a Jewish family from the Nazis during the war; Jane Lapotaire plays her in season three.

In The Crown's finale, the Queen's advisers ask her to help plan her own funeral under which code name?

Operation London Bridge was the real plan for Elizabeth II's death and funeral; such palace code names began as a way to stop switchboard operators learning of a death before it was announced.

Which prime minister, portrayed by Jason Watkins in The Crown's third season, served two non-consecutive terms in office?

Harold Wilson won four of the five general elections he fought, then stunned the country in March 1976 by announcing his resignation five days after his 60th birthday.

In season four of The Crown, Princess Margaret learns that two cousins recorded as dead are in fact living where?

A mental hospital in Surrey had been home to Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon since 1941; a peerage reference book listed both as long dead until a newspaper exposed the truth in 1987.

Which season-two episode, about Philip's Gordonstoun days, won The Crown a 2018 Emmy for directing?

'Paterfamilias' intercuts Philip's own Gordonstoun schooldays with his decision to send a miserable Charles there; it won the 2018 Emmy for directing in a drama series.

Charles and Diana's 1983 royal tour, dramatised in season four, takes them to which countries?

The 1983 tour of Australia and New Zealand is dramatised in 'Terra Nullius', where the Australian prime minister watches Diana's popularity eclipse both her husband and the republican cause.

From which two earlier works did Peter Morgan develop The Crown?

The Queen and The Audience both starred Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II; in 2014 Netflix announced it would turn the play, about the monarch's weekly meetings with her prime ministers, into a series.

Which two companies produced The Crown for Netflix?

Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television made The Crown; Andy Harries founded Left Bank in 2007 after leaving ITV, which he had publicly said had lost its way.

At which Welsh castle is Charles invested as Prince of Wales in season three of The Crown?

Caernarfon Castle hosted the investiture on 1 July 1969; Charles had first spent a university term learning Welsh, taught by a nationalist tutor, so that he could speak it at the ceremony.

Which political scandal shakes the government at the end of season two of The Crown?

The Profumo affair of 1963, in which the war minister lied to the Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler, closes season two; 'Mystery Man' imagines Philip linked to Stephen Ward's circle.

Which royal celebration closes season three of The Crown?

The Silver Jubilee of June 1977 marked 25 years on the throne with a thanksgiving service at St Paul's; the season sets the celebrations against the collapse of Margaret's marriage.

What name did the press give the Charles-Diana media battle of season five?

The War of the Waleses was fought through the media: Charles admitted adultery in a 1994 television documentary, and Diana answered the next year with a tell-all interview of her own.

In The Crown's final season, with whom does Diana spend her last summer?

Dodi Fayed, a film producer and the son of the owner of Harrods, had helped finance the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire; the show has his father summon him to Saint-Tropez to court Diana.

Which actress played Elizabeth's grandmother, the widow of George V, in season one?

Eileen Atkins plays Queen Mary, George V's widow, who died in March 1953, shortly before the coronation, having directed that her death must not delay it.

Which two actors played the Duke of Windsor, the former Edward VIII?

Alex Jennings and Derek Jacobi both played the exiled duke; 'Vergangenheit' turns on the Marburg Files, captured German papers on his wartime dealings with the Nazis that Britain tried to keep secret.

Which two actors played Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon?

Matthew Goode and Ben Daniels both played the photographer who married Margaret in 1960 and became Earl of Snowdon; in 'Beryl' his portrait of the princess, seemingly unclothed, shocks the country.

Which two actresses played Princess Anne across The Crown?

Erin Doherty and Claudia Harrison both played Princess Anne; Doherty's Anne has a fling with Andrew Parker Bowles while her brother pursues Camilla, as the real princess briefly did in 1970.

At which royal estate do the Thatchers endure an awkward weekend of parlour games in season four of The Crown?

Balmoral, the show says, sets guests an unspoken test of country manners, which the Thatchers fail before leaving early; the Queen's biographer wrote that the real Thatcher saw the visits as 'purgatory'.

Which actress played Camilla Parker Bowles in seasons five and six?

Olivia Williams plays Camilla when a secretly recorded 1989 phone call with Charles is splashed across the tabloids in 1993, damaging his image and making her a target of the press.

Which actress played Penny Knatchbull, Lady Romsey, in season five?

Natascha McElhone plays Penny Knatchbull, whose carriage-driving friendship with Philip after her daughter's death is the subject of season five's 'The System'.

Which actor played Mohamed Al-Fayed in the final two seasons?

Salim Daw plays Mohamed Al-Fayed, who in 'Mou Mou' hires the Duke of Windsor's former valet, Sydney Johnson, to teach him the ways of British high society; the real Fayed did employ him.

Which actor played the teenage Prince Harry in the second half of The Crown's final season?

Luther Ford was a film student who had never acted professionally when he answered an open casting call that his brother's girlfriend had sent to the family group chat.

In season four, the prime minister breaks down before the Queen when her son Mark vanishes during which motor race?

The Paris–Dakar Rally left Mark stranded in the Sahara in January 1982 until an Algerian search plane spotted him days later; his mother was reported 'very upset and very distressed'.

Which American preacher, played by Paul Sparks, does the Queen consult in season two?

Billy Graham counsels the Queen on forgiveness in 'Vergangenheit', as she weighs whether she can forgive the Duke of Windsor for his wartime dealings with the Nazis.

Which actress played the American First Lady who dines at Buckingham Palace in season two?

Jodi Balfour plays the First Lady, who mocks the Queen and the palace at a party after dining there, then comes back to apologise in person.

On which Caribbean island is Princess Margaret photographed with Roddy Llewellyn in The Crown's third season?

Mustique was Margaret's retreat, where she built a villa on land given to her as a wedding present; a 1976 picture of her there with Llewellyn set off the scandal that ended her marriage.

Which US president, played by Clancy Brown, features in season three?

Lyndon B. Johnson, played by Clancy Brown, is charmed by Princess Margaret at a 1965 White House dinner in 'Margaretology', which dramatises her US tour.

In season three, Prince Charles is sent to which Welsh university town to learn Welsh before his investiture?

Aberystwyth is where Charles spent a term in 1969 under Tedi Millward, a well-known Welsh nationalist who was surprised to be asked to teach the future Prince of Wales.

Which actor played Edward Heath in season three?

Michael Maloney plays Edward Heath, who takes office in 1970 and whose showdown with the miners in 'Imbroglio' leaves Britain rationing electricity.

Which actor played Roddy Llewellyn, Princess Margaret's younger boyfriend?

Harry Treadaway plays Roddy Llewellyn, the landscape gardener 17 years Margaret's junior; their romance in 'Cri de Coeur' becomes a tabloid scandal before her 1978 divorce.

Which actor played the intruder who reaches the Queen's bedroom in season four of The Crown?

Tom Brooke plays the intruder, whom the episode imagines begging the Queen to save the country from its prime minister; the real man says they never talked politics.

Which Australian prime minister, played by Richard Roxburgh, appears in season four?

Bob Hawke, a republican, hopes the costly royal visit will tip the country toward a republic, but ends up telling Charles that Diana has saved the monarchy there.

Which actor played Derek 'Dazzle' Jennings, Princess Margaret's civil-servant friend?

Tom Burke plays Derek 'Dazzle' Jennings, the civil servant who leaves Margaret's circle to become a Catholic priest in 'The Hereditary Principle'; Nicholas Farrell plays press secretary Michael Shea.

Which actor played Martin Bashir in season five?

Prasanna Puwanarajah, a former NHS doctor, plays Martin Bashir, the journalist who used faked bank statements to win the Spencers' trust and land his 1995 interview with Diana.

Which actress played the mother of Prince William's future wife in season six?

Eve Best plays the ambitious mother, whose daughter accuses her of steering her to St Andrews and onto the same gap-year trip as William.

What nickname did the press give the black off-the-shoulder dress Diana wears to a gallery party in season five?

The revenge dress got its name from the press after Diana wore it to a Serpentine Gallery dinner in June 1994, on the night the documentary in which Charles admitted adultery was broadcast.

In season four, Diana surprises Charles on his birthday by dancing on the Royal Opera House stage to which pop hit?

'Uptown Girl' was a real surprise Diana staged in 1985, secretly rehearsed with the dancer Wayne Sleep; the show has Charles resent her ovation rather than enjoy the gift.

On the 1983 royal tour in season four, what does Diana insist on bringing despite the Queen's disapproval?

Her baby son William came along in the show and in life: the real couple flew out with the nine-month-old prince in March 1983, and huge crowds turned a shaky start into a triumph.

Season four's '48:1' opens with a flashback to the young Princess Elizabeth making which famous broadcast?

Her 21st-birthday pledge, broadcast from Cape Town, promised her whole life to the Commonwealth's service; the brief return of the show's first Queen to deliver it won a guest-acting Emmy.

Which actor was in talks to play Prince Philip in The Crown's third season but had to pull out?

Paul Bettany was in talks in January 2018 but bowed out within weeks, unable to commit to a reported eight months a year of filming in Britain.

Which actor played Dr Hasnat Khan, the heart surgeon Diana falls for in season five?

Humayun Saeed, a leading Pakistani star, plays Hasnat Khan, the heart surgeon Diana dated for two years until she ended it in the summer of 1997.

In season five of The Crown, the actor playing Prince Charles acts opposite his own real-life child, cast as which royal?

Prince William as a young teenager is played by 13-year-old Senan, who had never appeared on screen; he reportedly won the part with an audition tape sent in by his agent.

Why did producers say The Crown's first Prince Philip was paid more than its first Queen?

His Doctor Who fame was the producers' explanation in 2018, and in the same breath they promised that in future no one would be paid more than the Queen.

In season four, the newly engaged Diana roller-skates through Buckingham Palace listening to which band?

Duran Duran's 'Girls on Film' is the soundtrack as she skates the corridors, one of the ways the episode shows a teenager left alone in the palace before her wedding.

Which country stood in for Kenya when The Crown filmed Elizabeth's accession in season one?

South Africa doubled as Kenya, where the real princess spent the night at the Treetops game lodge and, in a hunter's famous words, climbed into a tree a princess and came down a queen.

Which London mansion, a short walk from the real thing, doubled as Buckingham Palace in The Crown?

Lancaster House, a 19th-century mansion in St James's, supplied the grand interiors because no amount of money buys a film crew access to the real palace.

Which European country stood in for the setting of the 1983 royal tour in season four of The Crown?

Spain supplied the scenery: Málaga and Almería stood in for the tour's cities and landscape, so the famous landmarks had to be added digitally afterwards.

What did thieves take from three of The Crown's production vehicles in Yorkshire in February 2022?

Antique props worth up to £150,000, among them candelabras, a clock and a silver dressing-table set, were taken; the set decorator said they had little resale value but mattered to the film industry.

Papers released in 2004 showed Princess Margaret could have married her divorced suitor in 1955 by giving up only what?

Her place in the succession was the only price in the plan the Queen and her prime minister drew up; the show instead has Margaret threatened with exile and the loss of her family.

As Margaret Thatcher leaves office in The Crown, the Queen gives her which rare honour?

The Order of Merit is the sovereign's personal gift, limited to 24 living members; the show makes it the Queen's parting tribute to a prime minister she had clashed with, and the real award came two weeks after the resignation.

Which Oscar-winning actress wrote to The Times in 2022 calling The Crown 'cruelly unjust' and urging a disclaimer?

Judi Dench's letter, written weeks after the Queen's death, accused the show of 'crude sensationalism' and warned that viewers abroad might take its inventions for history.

Which culture secretary said in 2020 that The Crown should carry a fiction warning?

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said in November 2020 that Netflix should make clear the show is fiction; Netflix added a 'fictional dramatisation' line to the season-five trailer in October 2022.

Which two former prime ministers criticised season five's abdication-plot storyline?

John Major and Tony Blair both hit back: Major called the scene of Charles sounding him out about the Queen's abdication 'a barrel-load of malicious nonsense', and Blair's office dismissed its own scene too.

Which royal told James Corden he was comfortable with The Crown's portrayal?

Harry, Duke of Sussex, told Corden he was 'way more comfortable' with The Crown than with press stories about his family, because the show, though 'not strictly accurate', does not pretend to be news.

Which season of The Crown was the only one to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series?

The fourth season won in 2021 after three earlier seasons had been nominated and lost, and it took all seven major drama awards on the night.

Which 2020 Netflix hit's costumes joined The Crown's in a Brooklyn Museum exhibition?

The Queen's Gambit costumes joined The Crown's in 'The Queen and The Crown', which the museum mounted as a virtual exhibition rather than in its galleries.

Which auction house sold costumes and props from The Crown in February 2024?

Bonhams' live sale put its proceeds toward a new scholarship programme at the National Film and Television School, meant to support students there for the next 20 years.

Reports in 2022 said a Crown prequel would open with which event?

Queen Victoria's death in 1901 was the reported opening, with the prequel running through four kings' reigns to the royal wedding that begins The Crown; in 2023 its creator would say only that he had 'an idea'.

Which Soviet spy is unmasked in season three's opening episode?

Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, is unmasked in 'Olding'; the real Blunt confessed in 1964 in return for immunity and kept his palace post until 1972, and the public was told only in 1979.

The Crown's episode title 'Terra Nullius' is a Latin legal phrase meaning what?

Nobody's land was the doctrine that a territory belonged to no one before colonisation; in the episode a Commonwealth prime minister throws the phrase back at Prince Charles.

Which war is Britain fighting when an intruder reaches the Queen's bedroom in season four?

The Falklands War frames the episode, which sets the prime minister's victory parade against the anger of an unemployed man who feels the country has left him behind.

Whose DNA is used to identify the Romanov remains in a season five storyline?

Prince Philip's DNA identifies the Romanov bones in 'Ipatiev House'; his grandmother Victoria of Hesse was the Tsarina's sister, making him a maternal-line relative.

Which Paris hotel does an Egyptian businessman buy in 1979 in season five of The Crown?

The Ritz was bought three years after the death of the founder's son; it is where Diana spent her last evening before the fatal crash eighteen years later.

Which friend of Diana quit as a season five consultant over how her final years were told?

Jemima Khan had spent five months working on the outline and scripts with the show's creator, then asked for all her contributions to be removed and turned down a credit.

On which famous night do the teenage Elizabeth and Margaret slip out to join the crowds in a season-six flashback?

VE Day, 8 May 1945: the princesses really did slip out of the palace with their father's permission, and the show sends Elizabeth on to dance with American servicemen.

Filming of The Crown's final season wrapped on 21 April 2023, a date that would have been what?

The Queen's 97th birthday fell on the day the cameras stopped, seven months after her death had twice brought the same shoot to a halt.

Pre-release reports said Diana would appear to Charles and the Queen in season six as what?

A ghost was how the press described it; the show's creator said he never meant a ghost 'in the traditional sense', but Diana living on in the minds of those she left behind.

Which episode of The Crown follows Diana through her lonely engagement to the eve of her wedding?

'Fairytale' stops short of the ceremony itself: the cast said there was no point restaging a wedding anyone can watch on YouTube, though Diana's dress was recreated.

At what kind of St Andrews student event does William's future wife catch his eye in season six?

A charity fashion show in 2002 is where she walked the catwalk in a sheer dress; the show sets it on the day the Queen Mother died, though it really took place four days earlier.

In The Crown's season-five finale, Prince Charles travels east to speak at the handover of which territory?

Hong Kong returned to China at midnight on 1 July 1997, with Charles reading the Queen's farewell; the show has him use the trip to press the new prime minister on modernising the monarchy.

Who composed The Crown's main title theme?

Hans Zimmer's theme nods to Purcell and the ceremonial music of the English Baroque, answering the creator's request for something regal 'but without being pompous'.

Who plays the royal equerry Princess Margaret hopes to marry in The Crown's first season?

Ben Miles plays the equerry, who is packed off to a post in Brussels to cool the romance; Timothy Dalton plays him when the pair meet again in season five.

Who plays Churchill's wife Clementine in season one?

Harriet Walter plays Clementine Churchill, who in 'Assassins' watches the birthday portrait her husband loathed go up in flames.

Who plays the Queen Mother in seasons three and four?

Marion Bailey plays the Queen Mother, who in season three joins Mountbatten in scheming to part Charles from Camilla and hurry her into marriage with Andrew Parker Bowles.

Which 1952 disaster paralyses London in season one's 'Act of God'?

The Great Smog of December 1952, which killed thousands, drives 'Act of God', with Churchill dismissing it as an act of God until its toll reaches his own office.

Who plays the private secretary Tommy Lascelles in the first two seasons?

Pip Torrens plays Tommy Lascelles, the formidable private secretary who works to stop Margaret's marriage and has her suitor posted abroad sooner than promised.

Who plays the private secretary Martin Charteris in seasons three and four?

Charles Edwards plays the older Martin Charteris; back in season one Elizabeth wanted him as her private secretary but was pressed to promote the more senior Michael Adeane instead.

Which Swiss resort's 1988 avalanche is dramatised in season four's 'Avalanche'?

Klosters is where a March 1988 avalanche killed Major Hugh Lindsay, a former equerry to the Queen and close friend of Charles, and narrowly missed the prince himself; 'Avalanche' restages it.

What issue divides the Queen and her prime minister in season four's '48:1'?

Sanctions over apartheid set the Queen, who sided with the rest of the Commonwealth, against a prime minister who refused them; the press then reported the Queen's 'dismay'.

Which episode title was the real code phrase for George VI's death?

'Hyde Park Corner' was the code used on 6 February 1952 to pass news of the King's death to Buckingham Palace without the switchboard operators finding out.

Which episode opens The Crown?

'Wolferton Splash' opens the series with Elizabeth's wedding and follows the newlyweds to Malta, where Philip is rising through the Royal Navy before duty calls them back to London.

Who plays Prince Andrew in seasons five and six?

James Murray plays Prince Andrew, who in season five asks the Queen's leave to separate after compromising photographs of his wife appear in the press.

With which African leader does the Queen take to the dance floor in season two?

Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was drawing close to Moscow in 1961; the Queen insisted on visiting despite bombings in Accra and danced with him at a farewell ball.

Which 1969 documentary is shown being filmed in season three?

The 1969 fly-on-the-wall documentary Royal Family, later withdrawn from circulation by the Palace, is filmed during 'Bubbikins', where Princess Alice upstages it.