Other Doctor Lives: The Crown: Season 1, Episode 2 – “Hyde Park Corner” (2016)

Today, I'm staying home for Christopher Plummer.

I’m really enjoying The Crown. While it doesn’t capture my interest or affection quite as thoroughly as something like Call the Midwife, it’s still a splendidly-drawn British period piece that brings lush production quality and real heart to it (one spoiler that can’t be avoided.)

Elizabeth and Philip set off on a tour of the commonwealth in George VI’s absence, due to the king’s continued poor health. While George stays at home, convalescing and dealing with government officials who think it’s time for Churchill to step down, the young couple arrives in Nairobi to represent the royal family. When tragedy strikes back in England, however, Elizabeth and Philip are suddenly called back with heavy hearts and, for Elizabeth, the heavy weight of her new responsibilities.

Elizabeth and Philip’s adventures in Kenya are a mixed bag for me. The show strikes a balance in their behavior toward the locals, and while Elizabeth is frequently respectful and Philip warm/ingratiating, there are also moments where their attitudes drift closer to “the poor primitives, whatever would they do without us.” I don’t doubt that such mindsets wouldn’t have been out of place for two European royals in that period, but it’s still uncomfortable to watch. But it’s also interesting because there are moments of genuine respect/connection that they share with their hosts, defying a simpler “racist”/“non-racist” dichotymy.

Meanwhile, in England, Jared Harris’s George VI breaks my heart right until the end. He’s such an interesting mix of both unassuming and vain, which I suppose is maybe fitting for a prince who never seriously expected to become king. I like how the show demonstrates the normalcy of his relationships within his family, despite all the regal trappings, and when George passes in the night, the strict clockwork of the palace staff and the propriety of the household goes right out the window. In that moment, everything is immediate, wrenching, and sadly universal.

I’ll admit that most of my knowledge of the British monarchy comes from pop culture – my chief understanding about George VI is framed by The King’s Speech and Darkest Hour, and a shocking amount of my impressions of Elizabeth II can be traced back to The Queen. As such, there’s a lot of history here that I don’t know and am being introduced to through the series (not to mention, I can’t tell you what’s accurate and what takes dramatic license.) This episode really effectively conveys the overwhelming juxtaposition between the personal and the royal, especially where Elizabeth herself is concerned. From Churchill trying to hold back broadcasters from reporting on George’s death until Elizabeth and Philip can be informed in Kenya, to the newly-ascended young queen watching her grieving mother and grandmother kneeling before her while she too mourns her father’s passing, it hits home how “heavy lies the head that wears the crown.”

I continue to like Philip a lot, his and Elizabeth’s at-times patronizing treatment of their hosts in Kenya notwithstanding. It strikes me as a subtle portrayal, both in the writing and in Matt Smith’s performance, but it still comes across really well. In this episode, I especially like a scene of Philip doing what he can to keep Elizabeth safe during a wildlife excursion and a small but delightful scene of him playing with one of the boys who serves him and Elizabeth in Nairobi.

From these first two episodes, I can tell that his storyline is going to involve, at least in part, him reconciling the subordinate position he’s required to take toward Elizabeth with the socially-expected role of the man as the head of the household. In the pilot, he grapples with it more forcefully, but even here, when his intentions are less inwardly-focused (wanting to shield Elizabeth from intrusive media attention after the death of her father,) he struggles to accept that it isn’t his place to go ahead and protect her. I’ll be interested to see how he deals with this over the course of the series. As far as “male love interests of powerful women” go, my hope is that he’ll be more Marty Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex and less Riley Finn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Come on, Philip, you can do it!