Jonathan Ross has slammed the new series The Crown after the final episodes of the Netflix show were released.
Series six part two arrived on on the streaming giant on Thursday, December 14, bringing the infamous show about the British royal family to a close.
The episodes explore William and Harry’s grief in the wake of Diana’s death, the final years of Princess Margaret’s life, as well as William and Kate’s first throes of romance while attending St Andrews University.
But the series has proved controversial for its very intimate portrayal of recent events, including scenes about members of the royal family who are still alive.
Speaking on the Reel Talk podcast with his daughter Honey, Jonathan said: ‘We can’t judge the early episodes in the same way we can judge the recent ones.
Jonathan Ross has slammed the new series The Crown after the final episodes of the Netflix show were released
Series six part two arrived on on the streaming giant on Thursday, December 14, bringing the infamous show about the British royal family to a close
‘We can judge the recent ones because we lived through it, and we can says this isn’t fair, this doesn’t feel like and accurate telling, this doesn’t feel like a fair representation.’
The comedian continued: ‘I think history is not going to judge The Crown as a television series very kindly.
‘I think we’ll look back and say “that wasn’t a good thing to be doing” and it’s weird because it started off with such high praise and it was held up as a fine example but now, critically, they’ve killed their own baby.’
Jonathan and his daughter Honey, 26, had seen the series in advance of it being released to the general public.
Honey, using examples of the famous pictures of Diana on the boat and Kate in her St Andrews university fashion show, said: ‘All of these things we’ve seen, and it feels so recent and it feels, too soon.
She added: ‘It felt icky to me… I feel really sad for the family that is still alive that they have to watch or hear about people watching the most traumatic time in their lives being recreated beautifully for Netflix.’
However, Ross did praise the acting in itself, saying it has maintained ‘quality’ from the beginning, paying attention to Elizabeth Debicki in particular for her ‘incredible’ performance as Princess Diana.
As the infamous drama was brought to a close, viewers were quick to take to social media to admit they were ‘heartbroken’.
Reviewers had mixed reactions to The Crown’s final episodes, particularly the introductions of Kate (Meg Bellamy) and William (Ed McVey)
Critics also praised the scenes with Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville), seeing her role as a way to hark back to the more historical elements of the earlier seasons
They shared their upset that The Crown had finally come to a close after six series and told how the closing scenes were ‘so sad’.
Taking to X – formerly known as Twitter – one wrote: ‘I just finished The Crown season 6 part 2. oh my god. wow.’
Meanwhile, Meg Bellamy, 21, who plays a young Kate Middleton, admitted that she ‘didn’t remember the real life events’ that are being depicted in the final season as the trio revealed how that impacted their performances.
Part two brings the key moment at university in the blossoming relationship between the now-Prince and Princess of Wales onto our screens.
Meg explained: ‘We were babies we don’t really remember anything from the actual real life events of this series.’
‘I think that is helpful because we were able to just look at it as a character on the page,’ Ed added.
Reel Talk with Honey & Jonathan Ross is now on Global Player with new episodes every Monday.
The show’s last episodes debuted on the streaming platform on December 14, weeks after the first half of series six was released last month
