The final six episodes of The Crown have finally been released on Netflix today and Prince Harry’s depiction is particularly interesting.
The wait is finally over as Netflix has released its final ever episodes of his series The Crown.
The streaming giant released the first part of Season 6 last month, which centred on Princess Diana’s last weeks and her death following a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Part two follows how the Royal Family, particularly Prince William, is grappling with Diana’s death. It follows William’s university years and his relationship with Kate Middleton, while also covering the death of Princess Margaret and Tony Blair’s political career.
Naturally the series delves deep into Royal Family relations, but Prince Harry’s depiction is particularly interesting.
Peter Morgan, the brains behind the series, previously insisted he hasn’t read the Duke of Sussex’s bombshell memoir Spare as he “didn’t want his voice to inhabit my thinking too much”.
But he did admit to having “a lot of sympathy with him, a lot of sympathy”. This certainly hammers through, as the final series portrays second-place Harry in an extremely sympathetic light.
In the series, Harry refers to himself as the “f***up”, the “blacksheep” and a “sinner”. He tells William: “There’s no need for a number two in this family except for entertainment.” He also complains that he is constantly in William’s shadow and isn’t able to be successful in case he outshines his brother.
The theme of the second child being hard done by, or seen as the Spare as Harry so eloquently put it, is also something advocated by the Queen herself.
In several scenes she has private conversations with William urging him to go easier on his brother. In the final episode she tells him: “In many ways it’s harder being number two than number one.”
Prince Harry’s depiction in The Crown is particularly sympathetic (Image: Netflix/PA)
Another theme that emerges is that Harry is constantly arguing with his brother and father. The brothers fallout over Charles’s proposal to Camilla and Harry’s decision to wear a Nazi costume to a fancy dress party.
Tensions erupt between Charles and Harry over the latter’s drug use and lack of direction.
Within these scenes the family are portrayed as being particularly tough on Harry, all themes that match up to his sorry portrayal in his memoir and Netflix docu-series.
Prince Philip is particularly tough on his grandson. In one conversation the Queen tells him: “I worry about Harry”. To which Philip responds: “Some time in the Army should sort him out.”
Harry’s cheeky side also shines through, as he gives a box of condoms to William as a university gift, slips champagne into a tea cup while at a funeral, pops outside for a fag on Christmas day and is often seen fooling around and making jokes at his own expense.
This character is what made the young royal so endearing to the British public, and The Crown has certainly seemed to capitalise on that hype.
But while Harry’s character is the one that stood out as being overly sympathetic, a review of the final series cannot be written without acknowledging the Queen’s portrayal in the final episode.
Moving, poignant and artful is how the directors wrap up its final episode and reflect on Britain’s longest serving monarch in history.
Bringing in the earlier actresses who played the Queen was a stroke of genius and worked perfectly to round up such a popular series on our beloved Royal Family.