'The Crown' Season 3 Episode 4 'Bubbikins' muddles up timeline to show true story of Prince Philip's mother Princess Alice of Battenberg
Spoiler alert for 'The Crown' Season 3 Episode 1 — 'Bubbikins'
As the fourth episode of Season 3 of Netflix's 'The Crown' begins, the setting is Athens in 1967 at a nunnery by the name of the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. The Order is led by an aged nun, whom we learn later, is Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Prince Philip.
Princess Alice's story shown in 'The Crown' is accurate for the most part. She did sell off her royal jewels to fund the nunnery, she was congenitally deaf, and she was taken away to a mental institution when Prince Philip was just 10 years old. And yes, she did call him "Bubbykins".
Understandably, there existed a lot of grief between mother and son and though it did take a long while for the relationship to be repaired, it doesn't seem that he did refuse to let Queen Elizabeth II invite his mother to stay with them at the Buckingham Palace.
Moreover, Princess Alice was not directly treated by Sigmund Freud. However, the latter was consulted by the two men who were overseeing Princess Alice at the institution, but Freud is the one who "diagnosed" her condition as a result of sexual frustrations and recommended "X-raying her ovaries in order to kill off her libido."
Was there a Guardian article that proclaimed the saintliness of the Queen's mother-in-law, thereby, improving how the Royal Family looked to the public? The answer is probably no. John Armstrong — played by Colin Morgan of 'Merlin' — is most likely an amalgamation of many journalists, but none were known to have interviewed Princess Alice.
But the most glaring discrepancy in the episode is the depiction of the fly-on-the-wall documentary. Yes, one such BBC documentary does exist and has never been shown on TV since 1972. However, the documentary was filmed after Princess Alice was already established at Buckingham Palace.
The documentary was made as per the Queen's wishes on the occasion of Prince Charles's investiture. And opposed to what 'The Crown' suggests, it was actually a public relations success at the time.
However, the documentary has since been criticized for "revealing too much", as according to David Attenborough — at the time, controller of BBC Two — who warned that it could "kill the monarchy". The journalist and broadcaster Peregrine Worsthorne remarked: "Initially the public will love seeing the Royal Family as not essentially different from anyone else… but in the not-so-long run familiarity will breed, if not contempt, familiarity".
All episodes of Season 3 of 'The Crown' are now streaming on Netflix.