Curiosity will keep me watching

 I've been watching The Crown on disc. 

So far only up to the end of Series 3. For me, it is like watching a potted history of my life, but this time from the inside looking out rather than outside looking in. There are one or two bland spots but most of it is interesting and certainly looking at the palaces is entertaining. I am surprised the rooms are so very dark, when they have such huge windows. They are often mist-filled, though given the way everyone smokes, that is not a surprise. I can remember walking into rooms where a blue-yellow fug filled the air.

Another surprise is the way everyone, bar Margaret, sits bolt upright. No one seems to relax into an easy chair. My memory of the queen will consist of Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman staring into camera with a fixed blankness no matter what is said to them, and I wish they had relaxed a little more. They do say the Queen had a wonderful sense of humour, but I've seen little of it in this production. Of course, as my husband keeps reminding me "It isn't true, you know. It's all made up stuff."

Well, yes, I know that, but there is enough "truth" to keep me watching. Even as a child I had some instinctive aversion to the Queen Mother and watching her in this production has done nothing to change my view. Charles has my sympathy and I can't help feeling that Charles Dance would have made a better Prince Philip than Tobias Menzies, brilliant actor though he is. Dance, I suppose, was too old to play him.

Listening carefully, I hope to identify when they began to lose the upper crustiness of their accents. Comparing the way the queen spoke when in her twenties to how she spoke when in her eighties, it is obvious she lost the sharpness. Was it deliberate, I wonder?   

Is it good drama? I suppose so. The production is less tacky than I expected. Will I keep watching? Certainly. Curiosity will ensure that, if nothing else.