“This dame disagrees with Dame Judi Dench,” Behar remarked after the Oscar-winning actress panned the Netflix series in a letter.
A queen on the royal court of daytime talk has challenged a noble British dame on The Crown’s forthcoming season on Netflix.
After Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench demanded that the show’s fifth season include a disclaimer telling viewers that it was a work of dramatized fiction, The View panelist Joy Behar spoke out against the performer’s harsh criticism.
“This dame disagrees with Dame Judi Dench because they warn you at the beginning that the movie is not a documentary, and if you have a brain, you can figure out that the writers exploited history,” Behar remarked on Thursday’s episode of the ABC show. “And if it’s documented history, we may believe it, but we’re not going to trust a chat between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in their bedroom.” Nobody else was there except them, so you don’t trust that bit. “But you believe the historical portion.”
Whoopi Goldberg, the moderator of The View, said that Dench’s remark focused more on plotlines about Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) having an affair that supposedly never happened.
“He reportedly had multiple affairs, but not this one,” Behar remarked in response. Sunny Hostin, the pair’s cohost, agreed with Dench.
“I believe a small disclaimer would be ideal, thank you.” I will add that one of the complaints they are receiving is concerning Lady Diana’s death… “They’re not going to depict what really occurred, but I think we all remember how awful it was, and history is nasty sometimes, and I don’t think there’s an issue preventing that,” Hostin added, referring to Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal of the late Princess Diana, who died in a car accident in 1997. “I believe that specific tale, where people are saying you can’t portray her dying, is practically bastardizing history.” “What happened to Princess Diana is something we should never forget.”
Dench lauded the series in an open letter as a “great but fictionalized portrayal of events,” but expressed concern that “a considerable percentage of viewers, particularly overseas, may regard its interpretation of history as being fully accurate.” This is both harsh to the individuals and harmful to the institution they represent.
She also mentioned Queen Elizabeth II’s recent death (played by Imelda Staunton in new episodes of the program) as a cause for the production to be more sensitive in how it represents the family.
“I’ll say that Peter Morgan and the entire team of this work, as well as the performers, try their finest to actually portray things with such compassion, truth, and complexity,” Debicki previously told EW of the show’s depiction of genuine events. “The amount of study and attention, talks, and discourse that happens over something that, from a viewer’s standpoint, you would probably never ever notice are absolutely huge.” From the moment I met Peter, I felt I’d entered an environment where this was treated seriously in a very compassionate way. So that was my take on the show.