'The Crown' Season 4 Episode 5: Was Michael Fagan high on shrooms when he broke into the Queen's bedroom?
Spoiler Alert for 'The Crown' Season 4
When Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) was made the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979, she was inheriting the position at a time when Britain was at its most unstable in the 20th century. Over three decades had passed since the end of the Second World War had ended, and since then, the country had to withdraw from many of its colonies. Both ended up costing Britain's economy badly and the country was in a crisis.
Not only was unemployment on the rise, but the oil crisis of the 1970s caused by the Yom Kippur War had also resulted in a massive shift in the global economy, to which Britain was highly susceptible. Moreover, the Troubles in Northern Ireland were also on the rise after British troops were sent to the area.
"The Iron Lady" as she was known, Thatcher was known for making many difficult decisions, including going to war with Argentina over Falklands Islands. Over her many years as Prime Minister, she grew more unpopular, earning the ire of the British population. The common folk of Britain was growing more disillusioned with their Prime Minister — and even the Queen (Olivia Coleman).
One of them was Michael Fagan (Tom Brooke), who broke into Buckingham Palace not once, but twice — all so he could just talk to Queen Elizabeth II about his dissatisfaction with Margaret Thatcher. At the time, Fagan was an unemployed painter-decorator, who lost his children in a custody battle with his ex-wife and hit rock bottom.
The first time he broke into the Palace, he managed to slip in and out of the grounds without detection. The second time, he made it all the way to the Queen's bedroom and was there when she woke up. The fifth episode shows Fagan breaking into her bedroom and telling a shocked Queen Elizabeth that he was there to talk about his dissatisfaction with Thatcher over what she was "doing to the country" and spending money on an unnecessary war.
To this day, Fagan does not know his true intentions of why he broke into the palace. “I don't know why I did it,” he told The Independent in 2012, “something just got into my head.” He suggests the after-effects of taking magic mushrooms might have contributed to his actions. “I forgot you're only supposed to take a little handful. Two years later I was still coming down. I was high on mushrooms for a long, long time."
While Fagan was arrested for trespassing, he was not charged as it was only considered a civil offense. Following this incident, Fagan continued to be in trouble with the law due to drug abuse. Just weeks after the Buckingham Palace break-in, he was sent to Brixton Prison and then a secure mental institution in Park Lane for unrelated offenses.
The charges Fagan has accumulated included assaulting a police officer, indecent exposure and dealing heroin —the latter led to a four-year jail sentence in 1997. According to The Telegraph, Fagan, now 70, is recovering from a recent heart attack and the long-term symptoms of Covid-19 in Islington, north London, where he lives with his partner of 17 years, Rhian.
'The Crown' Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.