The Crown season five will look at Princess Diana’s Panorama interview

Virgin Radio

22 Jul 2022, 12:20

In November of this year, The Crown will finally return to our screens, and it has been revealed that events surrounding Martin Bashir’s interview with Princess Diana for BBC’s Panorama programme will feature in season five.

We already knew that the upcoming episodes of the hit Netflix drama will see the narrative enter a new era which spans the John Major and Tony Blair governments. This means that season five will almost certainly feature on The Queen’s annus horribilis in 1992, when a fire ripped through Windsor Castle and three of her children’s marriages broke down.

On top of that, this new season will look into the Princess Diana’s world-famous 1995 interview on Panorama, which, just this week, the BBC said they would “never show” again unless it is “justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes.”

Last year, a report by Lord Dyson concluded that the BBC covered up Martin Bashir’s “deceitful behaviour” to secure the bombshell interview, which Director-general Tim Davie has described as “shocking”. The interview saw the Princess speak candidly about her marriage to Prince Charles. 

According to Metro, a source close to the show told the Press Association: “Season five of The Crown will dramatise events surrounding the Panorama interview.

“It will reflect what we now know about how the interview was obtained and how Diana was treated.”

Diana will be played in season five by Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki, and Dominic West will portray Prince Charles. 

Meanwhile, taking over the part of Queen Elizabeth II from Olivia Coleman will be Imelda Staunton. Jonathan Pryce will play Prince Phillip, Lesley Manville will be Prince Margaret.

Whilst The Crown was originally expected to end at the end of the upcoming season, it has since been revealed that the series will, in fact, finish with a sixth season which will feature the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005.

Season five of The Crown will premiere on Netflix in November.