‘The Crown’ Season 4: Meet Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, Emma Corin as Princess Diana and rest of the cast of the Netflix show
Chronicling the royal family's controversies on celluloid, ‘The Crown’ on Netflix has garnered quite a huge fan following over the years. Written and created by Peter Morgan, the series follows the trail of Queen Elizabeth II after she came into power in 1952. The third season ended in 1977 with Prime Minister Harold Wilson's resignation and the fourth installment is all set to bring the first lady prime minister Margaret Thatcher into the picture.
At the end of the 1970s, the royal family is preoccupied with safeguarding the line of succession by finding an appropriate bride for Prince Charles who is still unmarried at 30. When Lord Mountbatten is assassinated by the IRA, the family is rocked to its core and Charles loses his mentor. In the wake of that grief, a young Lady Diana Spencer enters the frame and the die is cast. Their wedding in 1981 is an occasion that unites the entire country in celebrating this fairytale romance.
As the season progresses and relations between the Waleses become strained, so do relations between the Queen and her Prime Minister, Britain’s first female Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher. Though on paper the two women seem to be cut from the same cloth, they often disagree about the appropriate governance of the country and the Queen’s constitutional obligation to remain silent is put to the test. By the end of the season, the Prime Minister is ousted by her own cabinet after eleven and a half turbulent years in power and the Queen finds herself head of an increasingly disunited family.
Set between 1979 and 1990, Season 4 will take us to incredible places including South Georgia, where the invasion of the Falkland Islands sets Britain in the middle of war and across the world to Australia, where the Waleses embark on a politically sensitive tour after republican Prime Minister Bob Hawke has been elected. We will also be revisiting Balmoral Castle, where both Thatcher and Diana will be subjected to the infamous ‘Balmoral Tests’ and the beaches of Mustique, where Princess Margaret retreats during a difficult period in her life.
Here are all the actors in the star-studded cast of Season 4:
Olivia Coleman as The Queen
Olivia Colman is a critically acclaimed actress winning an array of awards across film and television. Recently, Colman won Leading Actress at the 2019 Academy Awards for her role as Queen Anne in 'The Favourite'. Other film credits include, but are not limited to, a supporting ensemble role in thriller 'Them That Follow', 'Murder On The Orient Express' and as Carol Thatcher opposite Meryl Streep in Phyllida Lloyd’s 'The Iron Lady'.
The Queen in Season 4: For the first time in British history, the country elects a female Prime Minister and the Queen anticipates a cordial and respectful working relationship with Mrs Thatcher. But the women’s attitudes are often at odds and Queen Elizabeth’s constitutional imperative to remain silent is pushed to the limit. The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana gives cause for great celebration in the country, but behind closed doors, the Queen watches as the marriage deteriorates…a deterioration which she knows threatens the monarchy itself.
Tobias Menzies as Prince Phillip
Not only has Tobias Menzies won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series, but he is also known for his double role as Frank Randall, a 20th-century historian, and Jonathan "Black Jack" in Starz/Amazon’s runaway hit TV series 'Outlander' (2014–2017) based on Diana Gabaldon's historical time travel book series. He is also well known for television shows such as 'Rome' (2005–2007) where he played Brutus and 'Game Of Thrones' (2013–2016) where he played Edmure Tully.
Philip, Duke Of Edinburgh in Season 4: When personal tragedy strikes at the heart of the royal family, the Duke of Edinburgh concentrates his efforts on guaranteeing the long-term security of the Crown, championing Lady Diana as a wife for Prince Charles. Their joint outsider status and turbulent family history bring out an uncharacteristic paternal instinct in him, one distinctly absent in his relationship with his son. As Elizabeth’s liege man of life and limb, he helps the Queen navigate tricky waters with her most controversial prime minister to date and the tumultuous terrain of the Waleses’ marriage.
Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret
Helena Bonham Carter's notable credits include the title role of Trevor Nunn's historical biopic 'Lady Jane', 'A Room with a View', James Ivory's 'Howard’s End', for which she earned her first BAFTA Award nomination, David Fincher’s 'Fight Club', Bellatrix Lestrange in the 'Harry Potter' blockbusters, Tom Hooper's Academy Award-nominated big-screen
adaptation of the musical 'Les Misérables', and Disney's 'Cinderella' directed by Kenneth Branagh, among many others.
Princess Margaret in Season 4: Freshly divorced from Lord Snowdon, Princess Margaret is adjusting to her life as a single woman. Always having struggled with life in her sister’s shadow, but now she also faces being overlooked for the new, younger, glamorous Princess of Wales. Lonely, suffering from ill-health and perennially underemployed, Margaret’s world turns inward. When she stumbles upon a shameful piece of family history her pain and anger erupt, provoking an explosive confrontation with the Queen Mother. While never losing her signature acerbic wit, her own experiences have made her aware of the pitfalls of a gilded life and as Waleses' marriage crumbles she becomes a perhaps unlikely source of sympathy for the tragically mismatched couple.
Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles
Josh O’Connor will soon begin production on Eva Husson’s drama, ‘Mothering Sunday’ alongside Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, and Odessa Young. Also upcoming, O’Connor is attached to star alongside Jessie Buckley in a new adaptation of 'Romeo & Juliet' at the National Theatre in London, directed by Simon Godwin.
Prince Charles, Prince Of Wales in Season 4: Denied the love-match he longed for in Camilla Shand, Prince Charles begins the series emotionally adrift. But after the death of his great uncle and mentor, Lord Mountbatten, he turns his attention to fulfilling his duty by finding an appropriate bride. Lady Diana Spencer’s arrival is a breath of fresh air. Her youth, beauty, vitality and adoration of him offers the reassurance he needs and he quickly proposes. But though there appears to be a fairytale romance, Charles’s feelings for Camilla don’t dissipate and he feels increasingly overshadowed by Diana’s rising star. Like the Duke of Windsor before him, he becomes a man caught between love and duty.
Erin Doherty as Princess Anne
In 2017, Erin appeared in BAFTA Award-winning writer Jack Thorne’s 'Junkyard'. She has also been seen in 'A Christmas Carol' and 'Wolfie'. Doherty’s inaugural television role was as a guest star in the 'Call the Midwife' in 2016, followed by the BBC adaptation of 'Les Miserables' which has led her to great success as Princess Anne in The Crown. In February 2020, it was announced that Erin will star opposite John Boyega in the Netflix film 'Rebel Ridge'.
Princess Anne in Season 4: Princess Anne’s marriage is on the rocks and her showjumping career in the doldrums, but always a pragmatist she encourages Prince Charles to do his duty and settle down. However, Princess Diana’s immediate acceptance and adoration by the press only serves to highlight their ongoing criticisms of Anne and her resentment builds. Despite her own marital issues, as the couple's union disintegrates and Prince Charles turns once more to Camilla, it is down to Anne to remind her brother that no matter his feelings, as the future monarch, he needs to make his marriage work for the sake of the family and the country.
Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher
Award-winning film, television and theatre actress Gillian Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as ‘Special Agent Dana Scully’ on the American TV series The X-Files. Running for nine seasons from 1993-2002, Gillian won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors' Guild awards for the series. Further television credits include Bleak House, BAFTA-winning mini-series Great Expectations, BAFTA-nominated thriller 'The Fall', 'Hannibal', 'American Gods', 'War and Peace' and Netflix’s recent and critically acclaimed 'Sex Education'.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Season 4: At the tail end of the seventies - after a period of great social unrest in the UK - Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister, determined to usher in a new era of prosperity. As contemporaries, Thatcher and the Queen embark on a relationship which sees them discover both the striking similarities and yet stark differences between them. A divisive leader, Thatcher mans the helm in a turbulent decade of record unemployment and civil unrest, but unites the country in a spirit of patriotism during the Falklands war. As the two women’s fortunes fluctuate, they act as a powerful counterpoint to one another.
Emma Corin as Princess Diana
In July 2019, Emma appeared as ‘Esme’, a recurring role in the 10-part Warner Brothers/EPIX series Pennyworth. Fellow cast members included Jack Bannon, Ben Aldridge, Jason Flemyng and Paloma Faith as the main villain. In March 2020, Emma made her debut film appearance in 'Misbehaviour', a historical drama film which follows the story of a group of women from the Women’s Liberation Movement seeking to disrupt the 1970 Miss World beauty competition, which took place in London. Cast as ‘Jillian Jessup’, the Miss South Africa contestant, Emma starred alongside Keira Knightley, Keeley Hawes and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
Lady Diana Spencer/Princess Of Wales: As Prince Charles turns thirty and begins to look for a suitable wife in earnest, the beautiful Lady Diana Spencer enters the frame. Hailing from one of the grandest and most established aristocratic families in the country, when she meets Prince Charles as an impressionable teenager she quickly falls in love. After a brief courtship, Charles proposes and Diana is quickly propelled from the life of a normal teenage girl into one as the Princess of Wales. Across the series, she goes on a transformational journey to become a global superstar, but the fairytale marriage portrayed in the world’s media isn’t quite what it appears to be.
Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker-Bowles
Emerald Fennell is a Golden Globe and Emmy nominated writer, creator, filmmaker, and actress who served as Head Writer on Season 2 of the multi-award-winning 'Killing Eve' and is currently writing a contemporary musical stage version of Cinderella alongside Andrew Lloyd Weber. Fennell has published three novels: 'Shiverton Hall' along with the sequel, 'The Creeper' and Monsters (2017 Carnegie Medal nominee). On-screen film credits include The Danish Girl, Pan, and Anna Karenina.
Camilla Parker - Bowles in Season 4: A married mother of two, Camilla Parker Bowles, lives a seemingly content, genteel life in the English countryside, but is nonetheless still romantically involved with Prince Charles until his marriage to Lady Diana Spencer. Though supportive of the match, Camilla is anxious to keep her place in the prince‘s affections. But as the unhappiness within that marriage becomes manifest, Prince Charles comes to rely more heavily on Camilla’s support and in due course, their affair rekindles. As Princess Diana’s universal public popularity grows, Camilla comes to realize that in this fairytale, she will only ever be portrayed as the wicked witch.
Other actors include Charles Dance as Lord Mountbatten, Marion Bailey as Queen Mother, Georgie Glen as Lady Fermoy, Tom Byrne as Prince Andrew and Angus Imrie as Prince Edward.
Catch all ten episodes of ‘The Crown’ Season 4 once they drop on November 15, 2020, on Netflix.