The Crown has often found itself in hot water over historical fabrications – and it seems the final series will be no different.
Having started with Diana’s ‘ghost’, the Netflix drama is set to close with a ‘reconstruction’ of the future Queen having a wild night out on VE Day – and kissing American GIs.
A young Elizabeth will be shown jitterbugging with soldiers until dawn after slipping away from her sister Margaret and her escorts. Returning to the Palace after a night of dancing and flirtation, she tells her sister: ‘It’s hard to talk.’
She removes chewing gum from her mouth and is asked, ‘where did you get that?’ The future monarch responds: ‘I’m not sure. It might have come after a kiss. It was what everyone else was doing and I didn’t want to be rude.’
The scenes were filmed with the then Princess Elizabeth played by Viola Prettejohn, 20. Accounts of that night agree that the sisters did indeed slip out of Buckingham Palace for a few hours, in a party of 16. They danced the conga at the Ritz and were home by midnight.
The Crown has often found itself in hot water over historical fabrications – and it seems the final series will be no different
Elizabeth at the wheel of a military vehicle in 1945
Elizabeth in her Auxiliary Territorial Service uniform in front of an Army ambulance during the Second World War
Their parents let the girls leave, with Elizabeth, 19, in her Auxiliary Territorial Service uniform. In an interview in 1985, she said: ‘I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life. We were terrified of being recognised, so I pulled my uniform cap well down over my eyes. A Grenadier officer among our party said he refused to be seen in the company of another officer improperly dressed, so I had to put my cap on normally.’
At around 10pm the princesses and their escorts swept down The Mall. The Queen recalled: ‘I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief.’
The Queen’s late cousin Margaret Rhodes was with them in Trafalgar Square and recalled: ‘It was a scene of joyful whoopee – full of people kissing policemen and other people.’ Mrs Rhodes said they then headed for the Ritz.
‘For some reason, we decided to go in the front door of the Ritz and do the conga. It was so stuffy and formal – we rather electrified the stuffy individuals inside.
‘I don’t think people realised who was among the party – I think they thought it was just a group of drunk young people. I remember old ladies looking faintly shocked. As one conga-ed through, eyebrows were raised.’
But eyebrows would have been raised much higher in The Crown’s racy retelling. Addressing the show’s long-running issue of historical correctness, producer Suzanne Mackie this week said: ‘If Peter [Morgan, creator] were ever straying too far from the truth, he would always be pulled back by the research team.
‘And sometimes, if we felt there was a need to dramatise something, then we’d make a very conscious collective decision.’ It came as it emerged yesterday that the final series had fabricated yet another scene – a meeting between Prince William and Kate Middleton in 1996, five years before the pair would really lock eyes.
