Details, Themes, and Foreshadowing in Frozen II (and some stuff about the first movie too)

November 28, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in Just for Fun, TV and Film

I just watched Frozen II last night with some friends and it was such an incredibly powerful movie. I cried a few times, I think. So now I’m going to analyze it, as I do everything. :D Obviously this is going to be full of a shit-ton of spoilers, so don’t read this if you don’t want that.

Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven in Frozen II

I should start off with a brief discussion of what the first movie meant to me. I watched Frozen with a friend in law school and Let it Go immediately spoke to me. Yeah, I know, everyone’s sick of it and it was ridiculously overdone there for a while, but the lyrics very specifically evoked my own issues with embracing my own disabilities - depression, ADHD, and chronic pain. It was all about letting go of your shame and fear, letting go of other people’s expectations, throwing away the need to be perfect, and loving yourself on your own terms. I have been that person afraid to show the world who I am before, so I identify with this song very strongly. The one ironic thing is that I actually HATE the cold with a passion (and particularly snow and ice).
I’m not the only one either - plenty of people have called it a disability anthem, a coming out anthem, and a song about growing up and becoming an adult. My friend Michael wrote about its meaning for his own life here.
It’s also pretty awesome that it shows Elsa transforming her outer look purely for herself, not for anyone else.
I’ve heard some people criticize it for a nihilistic worldview, and some argue that a specific scene in Frozen II is anti-Let It Go and shows its worldview as something not to be emulated or admired (I’ll discuss that later), but I think it’s extremely empowering for what it is. It’s not a song intended to speak all situations; it’s a song about embracing yourself just as you are, in that moment. And that’s really wonderful.

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried
Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know
Well, now they know

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don't care what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all
It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I'm free

Let it go, let it go
I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You'll never see me cry
Here I stand and here I stay
Let the storm rage on

I love that the first imagery you see in both movies (once you get past the production credits) is something from nature; in the first film, you see snowflakes, and in the second film, you see autumn leaves. The leaf seems to symbolize a big theme of the movie, namely, change. In the beginning scenes, a lot of people talk about how difficult change is, how hard growing up can be, or about how things are perfect they way they are; yet just as the leaves change color each fall, change happens in our lives and we just have to deal with it. As Olaf says, “How I wish it would stay this way forever. Though, change mocks us” And Elsa sings, “Is something coming? I'm not sure I want things to change at all These days are precious, can't let them slip away I can't freeze this moment, but I can still go out and seize this day.” This theme will come back throughout the movie, including in Olaf’s song “When I am Older.”

Honeymaren, Ryder, and Chief Yelana of the Northuldra in Frozen II

Frozen II starts off with the same song that was used in the first movie. This gorgeous acapella song is called “Vuelie” (which translates to something like “song”) and is based off of an older song called Eatnemen Vuelie (Song Of The Earth). This song is specifically jolk, an indigenous form of music that was actually historically outlawed in Scandinavia. From what I’ve read online, the remaining “Na heya” words don’t mean anything and are lyricless sounds, like “la la” in English.
The second movie does a LOT to try to remedy the overwhelmingly white nature of the first film, which used a song from the indigenous Sami and put blonde Kristoff in a Sami-inspired outfit, but didn’t involve any consultation with the Sami and featured no diversity whatsoever (if you’re someone who’s ranting about how there were historically no non-white peoples in Scandinavia, one, you’re wrong, the Sami have lived there for over 3,000 years and African immigrants started coming to Scandinavia in the 17th century, and two, this is a friggin’ fairy tale movie, it’s not like there was historically a woman who shot ice from her hands either).
For starters, Disney actually partnered with representatives from Sami communities on the movie, bringing experts to their headquarters to talk to the Frozen II animators. They signed a benefits declaration with the representatives stating that the Sami would receive proper representation in the movie and a Sami language version of the film will be released.
The Sami are represented as the fictional Northuldra in the movie, led by their chief Yelena. They have been trapped in the enchanted forest for the last 34 years. They, like the Sami, appear to be reindeer herders. We meet and know multiple of the Northuldra by name during the movie and see several of our main characters interact with them. They’re treated like actual people, not just props. It’s pretty awesome.

Queen Iduna, Anna, Elsa, and King Agnarr in Frozen II

Next, we get an adorable flashback, with a scene of Anna and Elsa as children with their parents, just like the first movie. This scene takes place before the earliest flashback in Frozen, as Anna still knows about Elsa’s magic and they’re playing together with ice figurines Elsa has made. The girls appear to be the same approximate size/age as they are in the first movie, and they’re wearing the same nightgowns and hair accessories, so it’s possible that this scene actually is meant to take place immediately before the events of Frozen that lead to Anna’s memories of her sister’s magic being taken away.
When they ask their parents about enchanted forests, their father King Agnarr tells them the story of how he became king. From his viewpoint as a child, his father built a dam for the Northuldra people who lived in the Enchanted Forest and during a celebration of the dam between the two peoples, violence unexpectedly broke out. In all the hubub, he loses consciousness and someone unknown carries him to safety. The magic of the enchanted forest covers the entire area with an impassable mist.
Their mother Queen Iduna is pretty quiet throughout all this, which makes more sense later when we find out that she was in fact, Northuldra, and was the mysterious person who saved Agnarr. They never explain /why/ she didn’t tell Agnarr about her past, and this leaves a pretty big hole for the future that could be a good jumping off point for another sequel.
Sidenote: Has anyone else ever noticed that Anna and Elsa almost exclusively wear green, blue, and maroon/lavender shades, aka, colors we see their parents wearing? Anna wears a light creme dress for “Some Things Never Change” but other than that, this rule seems to hold true until Elsa transforms into her “snow queen white” dress.
After the story, Queen Iduna (as portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood, who has one of the warmest and most comforting voices ever) sings “All is Found” to her daughters, about a magic river called Ahtohallan with all the answers. There is SO much foreshadowing in its lyrics, which I’ve annotated below.
Where the north wind meets the sea (This tells us where Ahtohallan is, in the North across the sea)
There's a river full of memory (this ties into the “water has memory” theme of the movie)
Sleep, my darling, safe and sound
For in this river all is found

In her waters, deep and true
Lie the answers and a path for you (This is where Elsa discovers her ancestors’ misdeeds and finds her and Anna’s destiny)
Dive down deep into her sound (Elsa literally follows the sound of the voice)
But not too far, or you'll be drowned (This happens to Elsa, when she goes too deep into the glacier and freezes)

Yes, she will sing to those who hear (Elsa hears the mysterious voice calling her to go North)
And in her song all magic flows
But can you brave what you most fear (In “Into the Unknown” Elsa says quite frankly that she’s scared to follow the voice)
Can you face what the river knows

Where the north wind meets the sea
There's a mother full of memory (Elsa literally sees her mother in the ice cavern and sings with her in “Show Yourself”)
Come, my darling, homeward bound (In “Show Yourself” Elsa talks about how she feels like she’s coming home)
When all is lost, then all is found (Elsa has to temporarily give up her life to find out the truth and find her true purpose)

Anna and Olaf during “Some Things Never Change”

When a courtier startles her, Elsa accidentally freezes her hands to the banister. This is similar to how Elsa accidentally freezes the window sill in the “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” sequence right before her father gives her her gloves and how she accidentally freezes the fountain when she reflexively grabs the ledge while backing away from the crowd. Ledges are just…tough for Elsa, aren’t they?
This scene also demonstrates how shy and introverted Elsa still is. Pretty much every time we see Anna, she’s interacting with lots of people, but Elsa tends more toward looking out windows and walking down halls dramatically. People still startle her easily. She’s definitely interacting with people more than she used to, but it’s not her comfort zone. This is also evident in the Charades scene, in which she looks just hideously uncomfortable at putting on a performance, even just in front of her family and closest friends.
We also see her in a purple dress in the beginning and a dark purple nightgown during “Into the Unknown.” She seems to wear a lot of colors that her mother wore when she’s trying to act in the queen role. Once her people are safe though, she changes immediately into a light blue outfit and is light blue or white for the rest of the movie - taking on her “true colors,” if you will.
The story proper starts off with essentially a harvest festival scene, set to “Some Things Never Change,” which continually demonstrates the false hope in Anna’s words by showing how things keep changing around her. This continues the trend from the first Frozen movie of playing with expectations and irony. In the first movie, for example, we hear a father talking to his son about how he can’t wait to see the princesses and bets they’re just beautiful, and then the film cuts to a shot of Anna sleeping very heavily, with extremely messed up hair and a very ladylike drool spot.
There’s a lot of ironic foreshadowing in “Some Things Never Change” but it really is mostly a stage-setting song, so I’m not going to analyze all the lyrics in depth, but we definitely have some typical “Thanksgiving” style lyrics in it. “It's time to count our blessings beneath an autumn sky. We'll always live in the kingdom of plenty that stands for the good of the many.”
And can I just say, the moment they said “And I promise you the flag of Arendelle will always fly. Our flag will always fly,” I just KNEW that flag was going down super soon. Sure enough, after “Into the Unknown,” the flag falls and the kingdom erupts in chaos, forcing its people to run away.

I really love that at the end of that song, Anna is carrying her heels and walking barefoot back into the castle. I feel like every woman I know has done that at some point, but it’s not something you ever see in movies really. It’s also a fun call back to the first movie. After Anna dances with the hopping Duke of Weselton, she comes back to Elsa rubbing her feet and they have this little exchange: “Well, he was sprightly.” “Especially for a man in heels.”

Next, we get a cute Charades sequence (which seems to imply that Kristoff lives at the castle now? Although it’s a really big castle and I’m sure he and Anna have separate rooms, it still seems like the most firmly established “living together before marriage” relationship we’ve seen in a Disney movie before). This scene (which you can see here) pokes fun at many of the moments we saw in Frozen, including Elsa’s hip popping swagger at the end of “Let it Go” (she just nods “yup” when Olaf imitates her, while Anna glares at Kristoff), the villainous Hans, and the eccentric shopkeeper Hans (yoohoo!).
Elsa hears the siren call and gets upset, Kristoff tries to propose and fails miserably, then Anna follows Elsa and notes that she can tell her sister is upset because she’s wearing Chekhov’s scarf.

“Into the Unknown” is insanely gorgeous and another example of Idina Menzel’s inhuman singing abilities. As songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez said in one interview, “With Idina, if you’re given a Stradivarius, you write to a Stradivarius.” The song starts with a very “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” intro, as Elsa wanders through the castle looking at paintings on the wall, just as Anna did in the first movie during the snowman song. This is a classic “I want” song but more adult and mature than “Let It Go”; Elsa feels like she knows who she is now, someone who deeply loves her family and friends, and she doesn’t want to throw that away, but there’s something inside her that’s pulling her away “into the unknown.” She also talks wistfully in this song about wondering if “there’s someone else like me” out there; she clearly still wants a friend who can understand her magical powers and her struggles with them. And of course, at the end, we get that amazing moment where she just lets her magic out and ice diamonds appear magically in the sky all around Arendelle. These fall and wake up everyone, including the enchanted forest spirits her father talked about, and triggers the fire, water, wind, and earth to drive the citizens out of Arendelle.
Elsa actually reminds me a lot of Vanellope in “Ralph Breaks the Internet” here; she knows there’s something wrong in her life but she can’t put a finger on it. The wrap up to the movie is actually VERY Ralph/Vanellope, as the sisters end up in separate places living their destinies, but they’re still obviously very close and “holding on tight” to each other, just as Ralph and Vanellope are in their movie sequel.
Sidenote: The original is spine-chilling but the Panic at the Disco! cover of this song is also ridiculously amazing.

Baby Agnarr being adorable in Frozen II.

Anna has some of the best, most common sense filled quotes in the entire movie. “Excuse me, I climbed the North Mountain, survived a frozen heart and saved you from my ex-boyfriend. So, you know, I’m coming.”
“If you don’t want me to follow you into fire, then don’t run into fire!”
The scene where they’re driving off to the Enchanted Forest and Olaf is spouting off stupid facts (most of which are…inaccurate. Although apparently some turtles really can take in oxygen through their butts, although I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “breathing”!) reminds me a lot of Shrek II when Donkey is harassing Shrek and Fiona on the ride to Far Far Away.
The Enchanted Forest reveal with the four stones in front is really beautiful (and reminiscent of the funeral stones for their parents that were shown in the first movie). Although Kristoff and Olaf just bounce off the mist (really hysterically), it just takes a touch of Elsa’s hand to part it and clear the way through. This may be because of their Northuldra heritage or may be because of her greater destiny as the “fifth” spirit intended to bridge the worlds of magic and humans (did anyone else get some MAJOR Fifth Element vibes in this movie?)
I really enjoy Olaf’s “Samantha? I don’t even know a Samantha.” then “SAMANTHA!” shouting down a mysterious hole in the earth moment. Also, his song “this will all make sense when I am older” was little and tiny but was probably the most relatable lyric in the entire movie! Who hasn’t felt that way?
I love that Anna recognizes Lieutenant Matthias from his portrait at the castle, framing his face with her fingers to help her place him. This calls back to her “friendship” with all the portraits and paintings there, developed during her lonely childhood when Elsa kept away from her. This was also slightly foreshadowed earlier when we saw Elsa singing to various paintings during “Into the Unknown.” The frame fingers also seems to point to the end of the movie, where Matthias is reunited with his sweetheart and showing off a photograph they took together.

When Elsa somehow freezes memories in the forest (which is…never quite explained - were the memories just hanging out in the fog this whole time?), the sisters discover that their mother is Northuldra by finding Chekhov’s scarf on a young girl, who’s carrying their father to safety. There’s then a really beautiful sequence where the Northuldra sing Vuelie again and form a spiral with their arms, until the chief reaches out to the girls to ceremonially welcome them to the tribe. Later, all our heroes befriend various members of the tribe, in a lovely scene that reminds us that people in cartoon are capable of having friends outside of their immediate circle. Also, Olaf is still asking the big questions about life while the kids of the tribe decorate him with various things
So presumably their mother Iduna never told their father that she was Northuldra or that she saved him. Whyyy???? That doesn’t seem healthy for a marriage, and she probably could have helped them figure out answers for Elsa if she had ever mentioned that and told him about her background.
A lot of Elsa’s actions in the initial sequence in the forest are explained later as “calming” the spirits. She definitely manages to calm down the adorable fire salamander by befriending him, after initially blasting all the fire with lots of ice (his name is apparently Bruni, but is never mentioned in the movie). “Gale” as Olaf names her, calms down at some point after Elsa blasts her with power, but I didn’t tie those things directly together when I watched it (will have to check for it again when I watch it a second time).
Elsa does later “calm” the water by managing to ice power her way through the sea and lassoing a friggin water horse in one of the coolest sequences in the whole film. But I never did see a moment where Elsa calmed the earth? She just stayed away from the Earth giants and hid. Did I miss something there? I don’t think anyone ever “calmed” the Earth giants at all, Anna and Olaf stayed quiet to keep from waking them and then Anna woke them up to break the dam, but nothing ever seemed to actually get them to stop being destructive forces in the forest.
Kristoff’s song “Lost in the Woods” is both one of the funniest songs I’ve ever seen in any cartoon ever and also deeply moving. You just don’t really see male love interests sing about their love like this these days. All the lyrics are basically designed to punch apart toxic masculinity, in the most 80s-tastic, Queen and Whitesnake referencing way possible. Having Jonathan Groff sing Kristoff and also all the reindeer chorus voices is also a really funny answer the “Why didn’t Broadway star Jonathan Groff have a full song?” complaints about the first movie.
The scene where Anna and Elsa found their parents’ ship actually made me gasp aloud. I did not expect that. When Elsa uses her powers to see their parents at the time of their death, I just was like - nooooo whyyyyy - this is only going to upset you forever. But the sight of their ice selves holding each other as they perish is dreadfully romantic, if horrible.
However, how did they ever find out their parents’ ship even was destroyed if the ship wasn’t anywhere near where they thought it was when it went down???
I was nearly crying throughout all of “Show Yourself,” as it was so gorgeous and heart-rending. Elsa’s eagerness to find her destiny is so identifiable. It also is possibly the queerest song Disney has ever put out, as she appears to be singing a love song to a woman for 75% of it, until it’s revealed that she actually is the fifth spirit and “the voice was inside her all along.” MAJOR MOANA VIBES. But also seriously, these lyrics are really intimate and personal and almost sensual, just look at them!
And then she had strong emotions and did a wardrobe and hair change because that’s just what she does. But I love it. I love it all. I love that she gets to sing with her mother again, I love that she ends up at the center of the snowflake like in the “Let it Go” sequence where she’s building the castle, and I love that at the very end of the song, she basically becomes the siren call herself.

Every inch of me is trembling and not from the cold
Something is familiar like a dream I can reach but not quite hold

I can sense you there like a friend I've always known
I'm arriving and it feels like I am home

I have always been a fortress, cold secrets deep inside
You have secrets too but you don't have to hide

Show yourself - I'm dying to meet you
Show yourself -It's your turn
Are you the one I've been looking for all of my life
Show yourself - I'm ready to learn

I've never felt so certain - All my life I've been torn
But I'm here for a reason - Could it be the reason I was born

I've always been so different, Normal rules did not apply
Is this the day, Are you the way, I finally find out why

Show yourself - I'm no longer trembling
Here I am - I've come so far
You are the answer I've waited for all of my life
Oh, show yourself - Let me see who you are

Come to me now; open your door
Don't make me wait one moment more
Come to me now; open your door
Don't make me wait one moment more

(Where the north wind meets the sea)
(There's a river full of memory)
Come, my darling, homeward bound
I am found

Show yourself - Step into your power
Throw yourself into something new
You are the one you've been waiting for all of your life
Show yourself - Ah, ah, ah, ah

Kristoff is feminist partner, reindeer-riding goals.

How perfect is it that Ahtohallan is a glacier, a “river of ice”? I don’t know how we could have ever expected anything different. When you think of how it’s described really, it’s the only thing that makes sense.
In the memories cavern in Ahtohallan, Elsa sees her younger self singing “Let it Go” and gives a chagrined look, hand over her eyes. I think that’s really an indication of her own more mature outlook on life now rather than a flat out rejection of the themes expressed in Let It Go; her priorities are different now that she’s learned to live her life without fear by loving her family and friends. This also HAS to be a little shout-out to all the parents out there who got so ridiculously sick of the song.
Elsa also sees a scene of her mother and father interacting as young children. Her father says he’s reading a book by a Danish author (and apparently it features a picture of a mermaid on the front, although I missed seeing that at the time). This is an obvious call out to Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote The Snow Queen, which Frozen is extremely loosely based upon.
To summarize a long, multiple-part story, in very few words, a magic mirror breaks in the sky and spreads across the land, falling into the eyes and hearts of various people and making them only see bad and evil in the world. It falls into the eye of Kai, a young boy, and makes him hate his formerly close friend Gerda. The only thing that’s beautiful to him now are snowflakes. Kai ends up running away with the magic Snow Queen to her ice castle, who kisses him twice, to numb him to the cold and to make him forget Gerda and his family (a third kiss would kill him). Gerda goes on a very long journey to find Kai and goes through many Odyssey-style adventures. She eventually finds him in the Snow Queen’s domain, trapped in the middle of a frozen lake, where he is trying to form ice chips into a word; if he figures out the word, he will be freed and given a pair of skates. Gerda weeps to see Kai and embraces him; her warm tears and love remove the mirror splinter from his eye and he remembers her and loves her again. They dance, which makes the ice chips turn into the word he needs to escape from the frozen lake. And then they leave. You can read the whole Snow Queen story here.
There are lots of similarities in the stories, but obviously, Frozen is very very different. The mirror splinter in the original story gets into people’s hearts and freezes them, just like ice gets into Anna’s heart. The sudden break between close friends Gerda and Kai when the splinters get into Kai’s heart in the story resembles the sudden break between Elsa and Anna as children when Elsa accidentally hurts her sister while playing. Friendly reindeer and a snow queen living in an isolated ice palace live in both. Gerda goes on a journey to rescue her friend Kai when he disappears, just like Anna journeys to rescue Elsa. Her love rescues Kai, just as Anna’s love rescues Elsa.
Okay, so Olaf’s disintegration obviously has to be a reference to the “snap” in Avengers: Infinity War, right? There’s no way that wasn’t purposeful.
It’s incredibly heart-breaking to see such a positive character as Anna reach her lowest point, after she believes both her sister and her friend Olaf are dead. The song “The Next Right Thing” addresses suicide and depression more straightforwardly than any other kid’s movie I’ve ever seen; it’s truly impressive, particularly since Kristen Bell (who voices Anna), has been very open about her own struggles with depression and anxiety.
The reparations plot line in this movie, in which Anna determines that the dam her grandfather built to trick the Northuldra must be destroyed to free the enchanted forest, even if it means the destruction of her own kingdom, is really deep and dark and I’m honestly wondering how many kids in the theater actually understood the ramifications of it. It’s a deeply radical idea in many ways.
To be fair though, it had already been established that Elsa, Anna, and Co. couldn’t leave the forest either, so this was also their only way of going home, and Anna was sure that her people were out of the kingdom and safe (as one of the last orders Elsa gave before they left on their journey was “don’t let them go back into Arendelle.” Who did she order to do that, by the way? Was it Oaken? It felt familiar but now I can’t recall).
Kristoff is feminist goals. He runs up to save Anna from the earth giants and immediately says “I’m here, how can I help?” instead of trying to stop her or take over the situation. When she later apologizes for leaving him to follow and try to protect Elsa, he simply says, “It’s okay, my love is not fragile.” I already REALLY loved Kristoff for breaking the Disney “prince” mold by being tall, broad-shouldered, and scruffy, with a big nose, but he is just such a genuinely good person that I can only love him even more now.
The ending where he, Olaf, and Sven dress up for Anna’s coronation and he says “You get this for one hour” before Anna ruffles his hair and says “I prefer you in leather anyway” both illustrates how perfect they are together as a couple and also is possibly the most sexual double entendre ever in a Disney movie.

Anna’s new Frozen II outfit at Disney World.

At the end of the movie, Matthias reunites with his sweetheart and they show off a photograph they’ve taken together, which Matthias specifically says he didn’t know about before he was trapped in the enchanted forest. I felt this insertion of such an obviously modern invention takes the viewer out of the fairy tale atmosphere a bit, but it does help date the movie. The earliest photographs came out in the late 1830s, so I’m guessing the events of Frozen are around the 1840s or so. This is supported by sandwiches being mentioned in the first movie, as sandwiches weren’t really around under that name until the 1760s or so and they didn’t gain popularity outside of pubs and taverns until the 1800s.
In addition, we know Arendelle is probably in Norway or Scandinavia somewhere, not just because of all the cultural references evident in the movies, but because in “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” a woman literally mentions that she makes a giant cookie map of Norway every year for Christmas. That definitely seems like something you would only do if you actually lived in the country somewhere.
There’s so much symmetry between the movie. Frozen II’s starting structure is EXTREMELY similar to Frozen. First, we get an intro flashback with the main characters as kids with their parents and some sort of heavily foreshadowing song (Frozen Heart in the first, All is Found in the second), then a stage-setting song where a lot of characters sing as they set up/celebrate some big event (For the First Time in Forever, Some Things Never Change), then some accident happens with Elsa that instigates trouble or danger for the people in Arendelle (she freezes the kingdom accidentally, she accidentally awakens the enchanted forest spirits which chase all the people out of the kingdom), then our main characters start out on a journey to solve the problem.
Frozen’s main plot really gets underway when Elsa freezes Arendelle accidentally out of fear; Frozen II’s main plot ends with Elsa saving Arendelle with her ice powers out of love. Elsa believes Anna is dead towards the end of Frozen and Anna believes Elsa is dead towards the end of Frozen II; both of them are completely crushed by the loss of their sister.
The post-credits scene in Frozen II features Olaf telling the story of the movie in his ridiculous abbreviated style to Marshmallow (the giant snowman from Frozen) and all the tiny snowball creatures from Frozen Fever (which for SOME REASON is not on Disney+, what the heck).
Apparently the day Frozen II came out, the characters of Elsa and Anna at Disneyworld were immediately changed into their movie-ending outfits, Elsa’s snow queen dress and Anna’s queen garb. Seems a little silly to do it that quickly, as it probably spoiled people on vacation who hadn’t seen the films yet, but - at least the outfits are pretty?

Elsa’s new Frozen II outfit at Disney World.

Stray Thoughts: Frozen has some deliberately obscure references in it. I had forgotten how many Arrested Development references are in it! And I just noticed a new cultural reference I hadn’t picked up on before! While watching it over again today to help with this post, I noticed a specific exchange in which villagers in Arendelle argue over whether firewood should be stacked with the barn side up or down. I googled this, and apparently it’s a reference to a big debate in Norway from earlier in 2013 (frozen came out in November 2013) on this very topic. You can read all about it here!
Fun fact: Frozen II is the first official sequel to a Disney Princess movie and only the third official sequel in the Disney canon (after The Rescuers Down Under and Ralph Breaks the Internet). The many direct-to-video sequels of the 90s and early 2000s apparently were made by a slightly different arm of Disney that isn’t operating or recognized today. You could read ALL about it here.
ADDED 11/30: I just learned from listening to an episode of “Into Frozen II” which features Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, the songwriting power couple behind both movies, that the grief in “Do the Next Right Thing” was partially inspired by the experience of co-director Chris Buck, whose son Ryder tragically died during the press junket for the first movie when he was hit by a car, and music producer Andrew Page, who lost his daughter Esmee in the years between the two movies. In addition, there’s a Northuldra character in Frozen II named Ryder (who helps Kristoff with his reindeer proposal attempt); I have to believe that’s an intentional tribute to Ryder Buck.
ALSO, I just read in an article that the four note siren call in Frozen II is based off of the Dies Irae, a Latin hymn best known for being used in the Catholic Mass for the dead. This hymn is apparently rather famously quoted or used as inspiration in various songs, including bits of Rent, Phantom of the Opera, and Sweeney Todd! And the siren call is also based off of a Scandinavian form of singing “kulning,” which is a shepherdess’s call.
UPDATE 12/2: Y’all, my brother made a youtube video discussing Elsa’s “Superman problem” and it’s really interesting! You can go watch it over here!
UPDATE 12/25: I’m re-watching the first Frozen now and in retrospect, Anna’s final fate as Queen of Arendelle was foreshadowed in the costumes from the very beginning.

Elsa: In the first movie, Elsa almost always wears light blue, except on coronation day. On coronation day, her dress is green with accents of gold, blue, and pink, and she wears a long magenta cape; her blue color is still there, but it’s overwhelmed by other priorities. She’s also more covered up with more thick fabric then ever before or since; when Elsa actually is feeling comfortable with her magic, she tends to wear much lighter fabrics, likely to indicate her comfort with cold (“the cold never bothered me anyway.”). She wears a very light blue nightgown as a child until she’s told to hide her magic, at which point she still wears blue, but in heavier fabrics and layers. After her magic is exposed at her coronation ball and she runs away, she changes her dress to a light blue with sheer fabrics.

In Frozen II, she never wears anything as heavy as her coronation gown and wears light fabrics, but starts out the movie in a purple dress and a purple nightgown, which seems to indicate her trying to balance her true self (light blue) with her queen self (pink/magenta). Once she starts off on the journey “into the unknown” she wears light blue again. In the end, she’s in a light, very sheer white dress with purple diamond accents.

Anna: In the first movie, Anna ALWAYS wears shades of green and pink/magenta, although the amount of each color in her outfit varies. Green tends to be he main color, with touches of pink, but as she sets off on her adventure portion, she changes into a magenta cloak, a blue skirt, and a black bodice with just a few green and gold accents to it. The blue is an unusual color for Anna, and seems to indicate her focus on finding Elsa (who usually wears blue).
In frozen II, Anna herself wears pink/magenta throughout but doesn’t wear any green until the end of the movie when she’s crowned Queen of Arendelle, at which point she’s covered in it, indicating that she’s reached her true place.
From looking at pictures of the castle servants in Arendelle, the castle, and the banners and flags hung up at Elsa’s coronation, it appears that Arendelle’s main color is actually green, with purple accents. Thus, it was always Anna’s destiny to become Arendelle’s queen, just as it was always Elsa’s destiny to become the fifth spirit and the snow queen far up North.

Over-Analyzing the Crown: S3E6 Tywysog Cymru

November 27, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in English History, TV and Film

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2

Prince Charles learns Welsh from a Welsh nationalist and becomes a Wale himself when he’s invested as Prince of Wales. (Clearly, my summaries of these episodes are not going to be very in-depth or serious, as I’m assuming you’ve watched the episode already if you’re reading my post overanalyzing it. :D )

The name of the episode translates to “Leader of Wales” in Welsh, or in this context, “Prince of Wales.” This ties back into the entire Prince Charles in Wales plot line and particularly, his discussion with Professor Milward about Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last Welsh Prince of Wales, who was killed in battle by Edward I in 1282. Edward’s son (also Edward because, English royals have no creativity when it comes to naming) , was invested as the first English Prince of Wales in 1301.

Professor Edward Millward and Prince Charles

Mark Lewis Jones as Professor Edward Millward in The Crown

The episode starts off with the Cabinet meeting in which the investiture of the Prince of Wales is discussed. The previous investiture in 1911 was of the eventual Edward VII. We know him as David, Duke of Windsor, who abdicated within a year of becoming King in order to marry Wallis Simpson. He was invested at age 17; Charles was not invested until he was 20.
In case you were wondering, a formal investiture ceremony is not necessary to become the Prince of Wales; the actual title is conveyed via letters patent. It is not a hereditary title, so the sovereign does have to create and bestow the title on his/her eldest living son (When Elizabeth became Queen in 1952, the then-3-years-old Charles automatically became the Duke of Cornwall).
Edward/David was made Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, over a year before the formal investiture; Charles was actually declared Prince of Wales when he turned 9. The 1911 one was made public for political reasons; the Prime Minister at the time, David Lloyd George, thought that the event would calm down the growing swell of Welsh Nationalism and increase his own popularity. Apparently previous investitures were quite a bit more private and less ceremonial. As was mentioned in the episode in the Cabinet meeting, the 1911 investiture included a deployment of 15,000 troops, a Devonshire-class cruiser, 21 gun salutes, a battery of Royal Field Artillery, a landing party supplied by the blue jackets and the royal marines, two squadrons of cavalry of the line. During this meeting, Wilson is flanked on either side by female members of his cabinet in Orange and Green; when he’s talking to the Queen about the investiture, she herself is wearing green. You’ll see a LOT of green and pinks/oranges in this episode, which seems to signal “Wales” without coming off too Christmassy.
Sidenote that I just love: at the 1911 investiture, Queen Mary wore several pieces given to her by a group of women who were all named “Mary.”

Prince Edward (David)’s 1911 investiture as Prince of Wales

Prince Edward (David)’s investiture as Prince of Wales

Additional Note: Elizabeth was never given the title “Princess of Wales.” At the time, the line of succession was determined by male preference primogeniture, so she became “the heiress presumptive” when her father became King. If her father had had a legitimate son, that son would have taken precedence, and would have been the “heir apparent”; thus, named the “Prince of Wales.”
“Princess of Wales” has only been used to refer to the Prince of Wales’ wife in the past (Though Prince Charles’ wife Diana went by the Princess of Wales, his second wife Camilla uses the title “Duchess of Cornwall” instead, due to the title’s strong association with Diana). Technically though, “Princess FIRSTNAME” is only the correct title to use when the Princess of Wales is a princess in her own right, e.g., she herself is the daughter of a sovereign of another country (so neither “Princess Diana” or “Princess Kate” are correct).
It’s a bit unclear whether that tradition will continue now that male preference primogeniture has been abolished in the UK (the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 replace this system with absolute primogeniture, making it so the eldest child of the sovereign is always the heir to the throne, regardless of sex. This act also removed the requirement to get the sovereign’s permission to marry and changed the rules so that royals marrying Roman Catholics can still remain in the line of succession).
Fun Fact: A whole new set of Welsh honours (coronet, rod, ring, sword, and a robe with doublet and sash) were made for Prince Edward in 1911. The rod, ring, and sword all feature the Welsh dragon. The rod, ring, and sword were reused for Prince Charles’s investiture in 1969, but a new coronet had to be made, as Edward/David had actually illegally taken his coronet with him when he went into exile. After his death, it was retrieved and taken back to the UK. This coronet is now part of the Crown Jewels, along with the 1728 coronet of Frederick, the eldest son of George II. Charles’s own coronet is part of the honours of Wales.
This article from Town & Country talks a lot more about all the design of Charles’s coronet and is super interesting.

Prince Edward/David’s Coronet (Credit: Royal Collection Trust).

Prince Charles’ Coronet (Credit: Royal Collection Trust).

Josh O’Connor vs. Prince Charles. MATCHING EARS. — Josh O’Connor vs. Prince Charles (Credit: Tim Graham / Getty). MATCHING EARS.

When the Queen gathers the family to tell Prince Charles that he has to go to study in Wales, the Queen is wearing green and Anne is wearing red, the colors of the Welsh flag, while everyone else is in blues and blacks. It’s a little hard to see, but Charles is actually wearing a green and orange tie and a matching pocket square.
I know that dramatically it makes sense to have the entire family on one side and then poor Charles alone on the opposite, as it makes him look very alone as he’s feeling upset about being sent off away from everyone, but in real life, it’s a bit odd and impractical. This set up also seems to evoke a vague military feel, possibly referring to the “feudal invasion” of military members participating in the previous investiture of the prince of Wales that Prime Minister Wilson joked about earlier.
This actor (Josh O’Connor) doesn’t look much like Charles from the front, but from the back, they’re really similar. It’s the ears!

The prince’s safety in Wales is never discussed in the episode (although we do see his ever-present body guards), but historically, there were actual threats made against his life. Two members of a small secret group called Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (The Movement for the Defence of Wales) were actually killed in Abergele when the bomb they were carrying to a railway line (along which the royal train would run) exploded. A few days later, a bomb left in the town exploded and hurt a young boy.
I learned while researching this episode that many supporters of Plaid Cymru actually backed the monarchy; they wanted Wales to become a dominion, like Canada or Australia. If this happened the Queen would still be the head of state. It was the younger branch of Plaid Cymru that was really anti-monarchy and against the investiture. This anti-monarchy branch was highly motivated by the destruction of Capel Celyn, one of the last Welsh-only speaking communities, which was flooded to build a reservoir to provide water to Liverpool (which is discussed later in the episode).
The tiny little facial expressions of Milward and the students around them when Charles first attempts to pronounce Welsh and mangles it terribly tell just so much about their feelings toward Charles, the English, and their presence in Wales.
Later, Millward righteously reams out Charles for his indifference to Welsh culture and the meaning of his role to both Wales and the university. Though this is probably deserved, Milward’s barb about how previous Prince of Wales never visited is actually misplaced when you look at the historical evidence. King George V was actually considered a very good prince of Wales while he held the title, and had taken a personal interest in Wales. In addition, Edward/David was a hugely popular Prince of Wales who definitely did visit. He served with distinction in World War One and, during the Depression years, toured the badly hit parts of Britain and the Welsh mining valleys in particular.
When Charles comes in to show Milward that he’s been to the library and learned about Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, there’s a family tree on the chalkboard behind him that of Llewellyn’s actual family, indicating that Milward really did plan to teach him about it that day. In that embarrassing staff dinner scene, Millward had joked to everyone “we’ll go over that this week.”
Poor Charles. His line “It’s alright, I’m incredibly used to it.” about being alone and having no friends makes me so sad.
I hadn’t realized that Mrs. Milward is literally on the phone with someone talking about how she can’t understand how her husband can even stand to be in the same room with Charles while Charles is bringing groceries in. It’s sweet how he actually is carrying the groceries in and tries to help.
Milward is wearing light green at his house, is often lit with green light, and there are often paintings or decorations around him that are green, green folders. This is a WELSH man! His pregnant wife is also wearing a pink, white and green dress (with some orange too), like a pale version of the Welsh flag. Later that night, she literally wears a pink, white, and green nightgown.
The scene where Elizabeth and Philip reminisce over the time their parents kept them apart for four months to try to get her to stop loving him is so cute (although I hate that Philip says his son shouldn’t be trusted with editing his own speech and Elizabeth just goes along with it). They seem like such a happy, healthy couple this season. This conversation will be echoed a few episodes later when Camilla Shand comes into the picture and other members of Charles’ family come up with a similar plot to separate the two.
They don’t emphasize Charles’ security team as much as they did in the S2E9 episode Paterfamilias, probably because he’s 20 now and not a child, but they are always around, just around the corner. It’s subtle, but you do see a quick glimpse of his security team going through people’s bags and such right before the ceremony.
The filming style of this episode really emphasize the green hills of Wales as the royal train goes through the countryside. Although the Queen, Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret all wear clothes that are almost exactly what they wore in real life, they are indeed in pink, cream, and green, which echo the Welsh flag. Anne is in blue, which also is historically accurate, but seems also to indicate her close ties to Charles. All of these hats are accurate (and some of them are just ridiculous). The queen’s hat kind of makes her look like a pearl beaded volleyball.
Sidenote: Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Princess Margaret in Season 3, is 6 inches shorter than Vanessa Kirby, who played Princess Margaret in Season 1 and 2. However, Bonham Carter is significantly closer to Princess Margaret’s actual height; Margaret was 5’2”. Queen Elizabeth herself is 5’4”; Claire Foy (who played her in season 1 and 2) is 5’4” and Olivia Colman (who plays her in Season 3) is 5’7”.

Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, and the Queen Mother Elizabeth at Prince Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales (Credit: Anwar Hussein / Getty).

Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, Marion Bailey as the Queen Mother, and Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret in The Crown.

Prince Charles always seems to be wearing blue or grey (maybe because he’s sad?). I’m happy that this season shows Charles’s continued close connection with his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten; I loved seeing Dickie advocate for Charles in the S2 episode Paterfamilias.
Millward wears a blue paisley tie when watching Charles’ investiture in the pub, matching Charles’s standard color scheme. I think this symbolizes their connection and friendship. He’s surrounded by lots of friends wearing various shades of green and red. Mrs. Milward and her son are in blue, plus green, showing their connection to both Charles and Welsh pride.
Milward looks SO PROUD when Charles pronounces atmosphere correctly-ish in Welsh.
There are several interesting things about Charles’ investiture that aren’t mentioned in the episode. The actual ceremony of the investiture sounds very old, but was in fact only created for the 1911 occasion. Lord Snowdon (Tony Armstrong-Jones, Princess Margaret’s husband), who himself was Welsh, designed the event and the simple slate dais for the ceremony.
A lot of the insignia used in the investiture is really symbolic and you could go down a very deep rabbit hole in learning about it all. The College of Arms has some great photographs and scans of programs explaining the meaning of all the insignia here, if you’d like to learn more.
You can actually watch some of the 1911 ceremony on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J31P5ES45fw . Prince Charles’s 1969 investiture is on YouTube in full at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7zaLuA_DGI.
It is really wonderful that Charles actually went on a tour around Wales to meet people after his investiture. It was a really successful tour and BBC actually has a lot of footage of it up on their website.
Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s Labour government also built an entire year-long campaign called Croeso 69 (Welcome ‘69). They wanted to use it to show a modern Wales, promote tourism, and demonstrate British interest while Welsh nationalism was on the rise.

Queen Elizabeth, Princess Anne, and Prince Charles at Charles’ Investiture as Prince of Wales. — Queen Elizabeth, Princess Anne, and Prince Charles at Charles’ Investiture as Prince of Wales (Credit: Bettmann / Getty).

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II and Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles in The Crown.

The last scene between the Queen and Prince Charles, as she’s getting ready for bed, is shot to indicate the great distance between the queen and her son while they’re talking. She is barely repressing her fury at her son for changing up his speech.
The queen refers to her grandmother telling her that doing nothing is the hardest thing to do of all. We saw that conversation in S1E4 episode Act of God, when Queen Elizabeth goes to Queen Mary for advice about whether she should talk to Winston Churchill during the Great Smog.
We see how angry the queen is with her son in this scene, but we also saw how protective she was of him earlier, both when she advocated him for staying at Cambridge to Wilson and when she suggested he be allowed to make changes to his speech (which he ends up doing on his own). She also is wearing blue in this scene, signifying her sympathies with her son, even when they’re disagreeing most stridently with each other. Charles himself is wearing the same green and orange tie and pocket square that he wore when he was told he was going to Wales, although his suit appears to have more of a greenish tinge now. There’s a subtle checked square pattern (with each square containing a circle) in both his tie and his mother’s robe, further illustrating their bond as sovereign and heir.

“I have a voice.” “Let me let you into a secret. No one wants to hear it.” “Are you talking about you or the country?” “No one.” This is one of the saddest moments ever to happen in The Crown.
If you want to learn more about the Queen and Prince Philip’s approach to parenting, this article gets into it a bit.
If we’re going off of Prince Philip’s earlier observation from S3E2 Margaretology about how the royal family tends to have a lot of dull people and sparkling people (Lillibets and Margarets), Charles seems to be a bit more the Margaret of this generation and Anne seems to be a bit more the Lillibet, resigned to her place and willing to do her duty (despite how similar her personality is to her father’s).

Prince Charles with the Dryden Society at Cambridge (Credit: PA / Getty).

Prince Charles with the Dryden Society (Credit: Bettman / Getty).

Though Charles did perform with a drama society while at Cambridge, it looks like they did more comedic sketches rather than Shakespearean drama. Some of the photographs of him rehearsing with the Dryden Society (as it was called) are just hilarious.
At the very end of the episode, Charles performs the hollow crown speech from Shakespeare’s play Richard II. Both Charles and Richard II were given the title Prince of Wales at age 9, the former in 1958 and the latter in 1376. The text is specifically from Richard II Act 3, Scene II, when Richard has pretty much reached his lowest point. Most of his supporters are dead and he feels terribly alone and very vulnerable. It is a good echo for Prince Charles’s own feelings of despair about his role as heir to the throne and a dramatic, if terribly sad, way to end the episode.

For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?

That Poem in Man in the High Castle

November 26, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in TV and Film, TV

Specifically, Season 4, Episode 3. The character Bell Mallory beautifully recites this before the Black Communist Rebellion sets off on a mission. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I immediately went off to find it.

I really love Man in the High Castle and May write about it in the future, perhaps after I’m done with my work on The Crown!

If We Must Die

BY CLAUDE MCKAY

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Over-Analyzing The Crown: S3E5 Coup

November 23, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in English History, TV and Film

Prime Minister Harold Wilson is unpopular due to all the economic troubles in England, so, pushed by his Cabinet, he fires Lord Mountbatten in an effort to improve things, who then joins an attempt to launch a coup of the government. Queen Elizabeth takes a break from it all to go hang out with horses in France and Kentucky (good for her!).

So that front page of the newspaper shown in the show totally happened, y’all. Here’s the actual one.

There’s a really intense music at the beginning of this episode (that vaguely reminds me of the “previously on Battlestar Galactica” music? If you’ve watched it, you’ll know what i mean) as we follow Cecil King from the street into the newsroom, where he crosses out the headline and makes it harsher. This is the second episode in a row where the episode starts by following a minor character’s walk from a vehicle into a building to spew harsh truths; in “Bubbikins,” the episode started off with Princess Alice’s accountant getting out of a motorcycle sidecar and walking into the convent to talk to her. I think they’re both even wearing tan jackets. How odd.
It’s ironic that Cecil King’s own harsh coverage of Labour government is what pushes the Cabinet to urge Wilson to fire Lord Mountbatten from his job as Chief of the Defence Staff. Cecil LOVES Lord Mountbatten and thinks his firing is the worst. They emphasize both in the newsroom and in the cabinet that the Mirror is a Labour-supporting newspaper, and yet they’re STILL criticizing the government really harshly. And then King starts to launch a coup (because his name was just foreshadowing I guess???).
Can I just say that I love that this show kept everyone’s names, no matter how many of them there were? In this episode, we have a Cecil King and a Cecil who serves as Elizabeth’s racing manager (his surname wasn’t given in the episode but IMDB says it’s Boyd-Rochfort). In the second season, we saw Cecile Beaton the royal photographer (he was in the first season too, i think, but I don’t know if we ever got his name).
It may seem like a small thing for which to applaud them, but OTHER English “period” dramas haven’t done that. The Tudors notoriously erased one of Henry VIII’s sisters, changed the other one’s name from Mary to Margaret to avoid confusion with Henry’s daughter Mary, and then married her off to the king of Portugal (it was FRANCE, y’all. /sigh/).
I marathoned season 1 and 2 of the Crown recently, so I enjoy seeing the ways in which the cabinet meetings change over time. This Labour cabinet seems a little more combative then the previous Prime Ministers’, plus I think this is the first one we’ve seen women sit in? Even if there were women in the previous seasons’ cabinets, they definitely weren’t as outspoken or comfortable in the room as the ones we see in Harold Wilson’s cabinet. They’re both pretty fabulous. We’ve got Wilson’s private secretary, Marcia Williams/Falkender (played by Sinead Matthew), who previously yelled “Grow some balls!” at Wilson in the Aberfan episode. We also have Barbara Castle ( played by Lorraine Ashbourne), who served many different roles under Wilson, including as the first-ever Minister for Overseas Development, Minister of Transport, Secretary of State for Employment and Secretary of State for Social Services.
In this scene, Wilson is back to his pipe in front of a single green lantern that’s lit in the dark, while all the others are off. The women in the meeting wear green. This seems to point to the money focus of the current meeting and crisis. Conveniently, as they talk about how pompous and proud Lord Mountbatten is, we see a scene of him wearing the grandest military uniform ever, in front of a huge number of soldiers. Wilson fights against the suggestion of firing him very briefly, but not too hard, not like when he fought against blaming the queen for Aberfan.

Harold Wilson with Marcia Williams/Falkender (Credit: PA)

Marcia Williams/Falkender (played by Sinead Matthew) in The Crown

Wilson kicks him out while sitting in the cabinet room at the gigantic table; they both look very tiny in that large space at that large table. I’ve noticed that Mountbatten basically wears the colors of the Union Jack in every shot in this episode—a blue tie when Wilson fires him and a red, white, and blue tie when his office is being cleaned out.

Mountbatten sits in his office forlornly as people clean out his office around him and receives a very sad cake with the haphazardly written “Farewell” on it. A bunch of soldiers serenade him with “Auld Lang Syne” as he leaves. HIS PAINTING is literally is being carried out right behind him; that’s a beautiful and dramatic shot, as all the singing military men look down to watch him pass. I’m not positive, but I think the painting is actually of Lord Mountbatten in real life rather than Charles Dance?
Sidenote: The Aberfan villagers have these soldiers beat when it comes to three-part harmony.
That dog is looking up at Mountbatten’s son very intently while waiting for Mountbatten to drive home. Mountbatten also has statues of all his dogs? Huh. The guy really likes his dogs I guess. Also, if I ever get fired in the future, I definitely want to recover from it by dramatically bathing in a gorgeous tub while petting a dog and drinking liquor from a crystal decanter.

Lord Mountbatten with his dog Kimberley (Credit: David Montgomery / Getty)

Lord Mountbatten in The Crown Season 1 ?, portrayed by Greg Wise

We next see the Queen on the train, wearing a business-like white floral dress and hat and signing various acts. When Michael Deane says “Pens down, your majesty, ten minutes to Newmarket,” she instantly smiles and looks so much lighter and brighter. She then changes into the clothes she’d wear all the time if she could, more sensible clothing, in blues and a plaid skirt. There’s a very lovely small moment where she picks a hair off the clothes of the woman dressing her, indicating their close, friendly relationship, even if we haven’t actually met this woman in the story itself.
At the ascot races, with Porchie, the Queen is in a ridiculously pink and grey floral dress with a very loud matching hat, while her mom is in a similar purple and white floral. Porchie and Dickie are both in the traditional ascot race men’s uniform, top hats and tails. Mountbatten calls her father’s horse training methods obsolete, quite obviously talking about himself and how he was fired. The Queen notably looks over at Queen mother as Porchie mentions she can deputize people to serve in her absence.

Charles Dance as Lord Mountbatten in The Crown

When the Queen meets with Wilson, she is noticeably distracted by a large painting of her horse (this seems to tie back to the previous episode, in which a shot at the end showed that her office was positively full of horse paintings). When Wilson says he has to devalue the pound and feels totally humiliated by it all, the queen barely reacts and is just like, eh, that sucks, I’m off to France to hang with horses now.
Cecil King is in a black pin striped jacket, red tie, and has a gold clock on a chain. His outfit is the first indication we’ve really seen that he’s actually a rich banker. He quotes Hamlet, saying “there is special Providence in a fall. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.”
Cecil’s mention of Mountbatten’s war hero credentials brings something to mind; it wasn’t mentioned very much in the first two seasons, but it’s a good reminder that pretty much all the adults older than 30 at this point in the show lived through World War II, and a good portion of them are also war heroes.
As Wilson explains devaluing on tv, all the cabinet wears red, red ties and red dresses, continuing the apparent “Union Jack” costuming with all the people involved in the government and coup plot. Perhaps this indicate that all of them really are trying to act in the country’s best interest?
This continues at the Bank of England coup meeting with Mountbatten in a blue tie and Cecil King in a red tie.
Then we watch a dramatic montage of Mountbatten researching coups, history and law, while wearing red white and blue tie. I gotta say, if you’re going to launch a coup, researching what’s worked in the past and what hasn’t is pretty smart. The shot of the cars approaching mountbatten’s house all at once is almost military invasion-like.

As talks about ways to do a coup, we see b-roll of the Queen looking very happy while doing horse things and wearing various tans and light green outfits and scarfs (pink, light blue, brown). Basically, throughout her horse holiday, she’s wearing very non-Union Jack colors because she’s on holiday and trying not to think about being Queen right now, thank you very much. She and Porchie also seem to match at times, indicating their friendship. Porchie does look at her a little too long at one point, bringing back the Season 1 plotline about how he’s secretly in love with her.

“Porchie” and the Queen (Credit: Roger Jackson / Getty)

The Queen (Claire Foy) and “Porchie” (Joseph Kloska) in The Crown

“Porchie” (John Hollingworth) and the Queen (Olivia Colman) in The Crown

The conversation in which the Queen says that “this,” namely, being involved with horses, was what she was really meant to do full time, not being Queen. There’s so much sadness and regret in her voice as she talks about how she only is in this position because her uncle didn’t do his own job.
Wilson is again wearing a red tie when he calls the Queen and tells her about the coup and Mountbatten’s involvement in it. As she walks back up the stairs afterwards, she looks terribly defeated, but tightens her lips and gets down to the business of being Queen again, the job she never wanted and the job she can never leave.
When the Queen meets with Mountbatten, she’s wearing a somber brown skirt suit and starts out the conversation facing away from him at her desk, quite clearly curious. Mountbatten, in a blue and red tie, quickly realizes that she knows exactly what he’s been plotting.
I love her fierce response to his “how can you protect Wilson?” “I am protecting the prime minister. I am protecting the constitution. I am protecting democracy.” She may not like being Queen, but she clearly has grown into her role and is very good at it. She knows what she’s doing now and understands that her role as head of the family is to stop this madness immediately, before Mountbatten’s actions result in the entire royal family being …de-royaled? What would the term be here, I wonder?
She also is very specifically posed at center of the screen looking straight out at Mountbatten, full of righteous anger. He took her away from the things she loved and brought her back to reality in the most unthinkable way possible. She icily reminds him that there are other things he could be doing right now, such as looking in on his sister.
Mountbatten then does have a really lovely and sweet scene with his sister, who apparently now is bedridden. They laugh over how little children now lecture them.
This is such an interesting episode. During Seasons 1 and 2, Lord Mountbatten or “Uncle Dickie” as we’ve heard him called, was always presented as an essentially likeable and good character. Not perfect (he exchanged some nasty barbs with his wife, if I recall), but good. He comforted the young Philip at his sister’s funeral and served as a father figure for him, he gently communicated some concerns from the Conservative party about Winston Churchill to Elizabeth in a way that didn’t seem pushy, he was a confidant to Prince Charles and advocated for the boy when he was being bullied. Yet, the first time we see him in Season 3, he’s introduced in a commander role we’ve never seen him in and described as a pompous man. He’s played by an actor notorious for playing villainous roles. And he tries to stage a coup, which obviously, is terrible. It’s such a huge change . But then strangely enough, the rest of the season, he’s portrayed as pretty much a genuinely well-intentioned guy who’s trying to do good for his family and a hero in almost every storyline (except possibly the Camilla storyline in S3E9, which we’ll discuss later).
At the end of the episode, we see Prince Philip for the first time all episode, when he delightedly realizes that his wife is finally home. They talk a little about Porchie being made the new racing manager, but all the old rancor is gone now; they seem happily comfortable with each other and their relationship at this point. He then gives her a very passionate kiss, at which she promises “I’ll be up in a minute.” He has just the cutest, happiest smile on his face as he walks away.

Rupert Vansittartas as Cecil King in The Crown

So. How much of the coup plot in this episode really happened? Here’s what we know. Cecil King was Chairman of the huge International Publishing Corporation, which owned the Daily Mirror, and a director at the Bank of England. According to a memoir by Hugh Cudlipp, a newspaper editor and publisher [who worked with king?], King was convinced that Britain was headed for ruin and Wilson and the rest of the Labour government in charge needed to be kicked out before they pushed the country over the edge.
King and his allies did try to get Lord Mountbatten on board with their plans, and even approached him at the Burma Star Association annual reunion (although it wasn’t King who talked to Mountbatten). King, Cudlipp, and Mountbatten did meet in 1968 to discuss King’s plans (Mountbatten brought a friend of his along). At the end, King did actually ask Mountbatten to be a titular head of government in the event of their coup. However, both Mountbatten and his friend left, saying the plan was rank treachery and they could not possibly be involved in it. A few days later, King decided to go ahead even without Mountbatten on board and published a Daily Mirror front page calling for Wilson to be brought down. He was dismissed as chairman of his publishing group three weeks later.
The Queen and Porchie did go on a fact-finding tour of various stables in 1969. However, it was a much shorter trip just to France. Porchie was appointed her racing manager and stayed in that position until his death.
Lord Mountbatten recites a poem at his Burma veterans meeting to great effect. It’s the last verse of a poem by Rudyard Kipling called “Mandalay,” which is all about how a veteran is looking back on his time in Mandalay, in Burma, and wishing he was back there. It was very popular at the time and a version of it was even set to music and sung by Frank Sinatra. It’s less popular these days, as it’s got an outdated imperialist point of view. But it works perfectly for a meeting of people who were in the Burma campaign in World War II. It apparently is sometimes still read at World War II veterans events in the United Kingdom. You can find the full poem here.
Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst;
For the temple-bells are callin', an' it's there that I would be --
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea;
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the old Flotilla lay,
With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay!
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!

The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown

November 22, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in English History, TV and Film

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1”
Season 1 Tiaras and Crowns of “The Crown”; The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown
Visual Cinderella References in The Crown S4E3 Fairytale

Every time a state banquet or occasion happens in the show, the actors’ costumes are positively covered in medals, sashes, necklaces, and ribbons. But what do they all mean? Let’s find out. :) =

Claire Foy as Elizabeth II in Season 1 of The Crown, wearing a a blue riband representing the Order of the Garter, several Royal Family orders, and a recreation of the George IV State Diadem.

Olivia Colman as Elizabeth II in Season 3 of The Crown, wearing a a blue riband representing the Order of the Garter, and a recreation of the George IV State Diadem.

The Queen wears the George IV State Diadem, made in 1820. It’s been worn by four queens so far, Victoria, Alexandra, Mary, and Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth’s Pink and Blue Ribbons with medallions: As you can see in the photos of Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, for state occasions, the Queen often wears medallions with portraits on them on some raw silk. These are Royal Family Orders, which are awarded to female members of the British royal family by the monarch (since women don’t get the commemorative medals that the men do). These badges include a small portrait of the monarch in a diamond frame placed over a ribbon; each monarch has a different color silk ribbon. Elizabeth’s pink ribbon badge is from George VI (her father) and her pale blue ribbon badge is from George V (her grandfather). Her own royal family badge is yellow. These awards are given out privately and not announced, so they only way you know whether a family member has received one is if you see them wearing them in public. These are only worn at formal events, like state dinners.

Elizabeth’s and Philip’s Blue Sashes: The sashes are actually called ribands, a fellow Crown fan helpfully informed me on Facebook (thank you Eric Hufford!). These are sashes worn over the left shoulder. A member will only wear one riband at a time, even if they belong to several orders. However, since some of the orders also come with badges, people may wear a riband from one order, and badges from several other, so they’re all represented. The orders of highest rank get the most prominent positions on a uniform and then are arranged in descending order of importance.

These blue sashes featured in the series look like the blue sashes of the Order of the Garter. The Royal Victorian Order actually is blue bordered by red and appears to be worn from the right shoulder instead of the left. (Thank you to the brilliant Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor blog for lots of info!)

Many different countries give out order sashes, and the ribands often come with additional insignia. The Order of the Garter riband is also worn with a Badge and a Star. A Knight of the Order of the Garter (a male member, as opposed to a Lady, a female member) also receives a mantle, feathered cap, and a blue garter with the order’s motto.

Apparently, the rules for giving out orders vary widely from country to country. Queen Elizabeth herself awards British orders fairly rarely. Orders are generally worn with men’s military uniforms or white tie dress code and with women’s gowns and tiaras.

By the way, although it’s not required for the Queen to wear white on state occasions, it appears that she generally does favor white or other light colored dresses, as those colors show off the ribbons and sashes very well.

Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown Seasons 1-2, wearing a blue sash representing The Order of the Garter, several royal family badges, and a recreation of Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara.

Queen Elizabeth II wearing Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara. — Queen Elizabeth II wearing Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara (Credit: Time Graham / Getty).

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown Season 3, wearing a blue sash representing The Order of the Garter, several royal family badges, and a recreation of Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara.

Queen Elizabeth II wearing Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara. — Queen Elizabeth II wearing Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

The Tiaras: UPDATE 3/4/2021: I’ve started doing quick roundups identifying every crown and tiara featured in The Crown! Go check out the posts on Season 1 and Season 2!

In the photos at the top of this post, both Queens are wearing the George IV State Diadem. This diadem is traditionally worn by queens and queens consort in procession to coronations and state openings of Parliament. The Queen must like this one, as she has worn it on numerous other occasions as well

The photos directly above this Tiaras section show Claire Foy wearing a recreation of Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara, dating back to 1888, (left, Claire Foy), and Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara (Olivia Colman, right). Elizabeth also wore the Fringe Tiara on her wedding day. All of her tiaras are gorgeous and have fascinating histories; if you want to learn more, Harpers Bazaar Australia has a great round up of the tiaras here.

The Queen has so many tiaras, y’all! The Court Jeweller has a fantastic Tiarapedia which methodically lists all of the United Kingdom tiaras that you should definitely check out for more information. I’ve included pics of a few of my favorite ones that I don’t really discuss much in this post below this tiaras section.

Anne wears the Meander Tiara, which was originally owned by Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark. The Queen wears the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara. The red and white ribands are for the order of Austria. When visiting a foreign country, … — Anne wears the Meander Tiara, which was originally owned by Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark. The Queen wears the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara. The red and white ribands are for the order of Austria. When visiting a foreign country, that country’s order insignia takes precedence over your native country’s (Credit: Fox Photos / Getty).

Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Brazilian Aquamarine Parure Tiara, along with the matching necklace and earrings. (Parure refers to a set of jewelry and tiara) — Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Brazilian Aquamarine Parure Tiara, along with the matching necklace and earrings (Credit: Anwar Hussein / Getty). (Parure refers to a set of jewelry and tiara)

The Queen wears the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara in its “widowed” setting to meet President Obama. This tiara can be worn with emerald or pearl drops and without; it’s described as “widowed” when worn without drops. — The Queen wears the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara in its “widowed” setting to meet President Obama. This tiara can be worn with emerald or pearl drops and without; it’s described as “widowed” when worn without drops (Credit: Chris Jackson / Getty).

Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Burmese Ruby Tiara. — Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Burmese Ruby Tiara (Credit: Terry O’Neill).

Matt Smith as Prince Philip in The Crown Season 2.

Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip in The Crown Season 3.

Prince Philip with Betty Ford (Credit: Historical / Getty).

Prince Philip at a state dinner for the President of Mexico (Credit: Justin Tallis / Getty).

Philip has a TON of medals, mostly earned for his wartime service in World War II. Many many thanks to the Daily Mail for the medal descriptions below, because good lord, it would have taken me a long time to look these all up on my own.

He is, of course, wearing his Order of the Garter blue sash and the accompanying badge and star.

1939-1945 Star: A campaign medal of the British Commonwealth awarded for service during the Second World War.

Atlantic Star: Awarded this in 1945 for service in the Atlantic during the Second World War

Africa Star: Awarded in 1945 for service in Africa during the Second World War

Burma Star (with Pacific Rosette): Awarded for service in the Burma Campaign in the Second World War

Italy Star: Awarded for service in Italy and surrounding areas in the Second World War

War Medal 1939-1945, with Mention in Dispatches: Awarded to those who served in the Armed Forces or Merchant Navy for at least 28 days between 1939-45. The oak leaf on the ribbon denotes the Mention in Despatches

King George VI Coronation Medal, 1937: These medals were made to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal, 1953: A commemorative medal made to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

Greek War Cross, 1950: This is awarded for heroism in wartime to both Greeks and foreign allies. The Duke earned his for his bravery in fighting the Italians when they invaded Greece in 1941.

Croix de Guerre (France) with Palm, 1948: A French military decoration to honour people who fought with the Allies against Axis nations in the Second World War.

Philip’s Uniform: Occasionally, you’ll see Prince Philip wear his Naval uniform. This uniform is basically the same but there are slightly different details if you look. Matt Smith’s uniform when Philip was made a Prince had epaulettes at the top.
I’m not great at reading military uniform ranks, but I’m fairly positive that the yellow lines with the circle at the top seen on the sleeves of Matt Smith’s uniform at the far left and Prince Philip’s sleeves on the far right indicate his rank as a commander.

Philip’s Military Service: Prince Philip joined the Royal Navy at 18 , graduating from the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth at the top of his class. He served on several British battleships during World War II, despite the fact that two of his brothers-in-law fought on the opposing German side. He did very well, becoming one of the youngest first lieutenants at age 21. He was present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrender was signed.

Philip actually met his future wife Elizabeth because of his time in the Navy. Elizabeth’s parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth came to tour the college and asked Philip to escort the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret around. Although she was only 13 and he was 18, they began to exchange letters. Seven years later, after the war, Philip asked the King for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The King approved, but requested that any formal engagement be delayed until after she turned 21. In order to marry Elizabeth, Philip abandoned his own Greek and Danish royal titles, adopted the surname Mountbatten from his mother’s family, became a naturalized citizen of the UK, and officially joined the Church of England.

After their honeymoon, Philip returned to the navy, working in a desk job at the Admiralty, then at Greenwich, and finally being stationed in Malta. He was promoted to lieutenant commander and given command of the frigate HMS Magpie. Although his active naval career ended in 1951 when his wife became Queen, he was promoted to the rank of commander in 1952.

Over-Analyzing the Crown: S3E4 Bubbikins

November 20, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in English History, TV and Film

Princess Alice in The Crown, played by Jane Lapotaire

Princess Alice with her son Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

Our previous glimpse of Princess Alice in S1E1 “Wolferton Splash.”

Princess Anne in The Crown, played by Erin Doherty, compared with the real life Princess Anne. — Princess Anne in The Crown, played by Erin Doherty, compared with the real life Princess Anne (Credit: AP).

Prince Philip tries to do PR for the royal family and does a pretty terrible job at it. His chain-smoking nun mother saves his butt by being just generally amazing.

Note the colors in this beginning scene; they’ll show up in most of the costumes for the rest of the episode. This chain-smoking nun (who hasn’t been introduced yet in the episode, but is actually Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark) is in light blue and white, and the rundown convent itself is blue, green, yellow, and grey. There is blue visible in almost every scene in Greece; it’s highly associated with the country and is used throughout the rest of the episode to signal each character’s connection to Greece and this Grecian nun.
We’ve actually seen Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark before, by the way, in the very first season of the crown! She appeared briefly at Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding; Elizabeth’s mother and grandmother said some catty things about her being dressed as a nun and how she was kept in a sanitarium for much of her life.
Alice keeps a framed photo of Philip as a child on her dresser at the convent (specifically, the actor who played him in the S2E9 episode “Paterfamilias.”). It’s interesting that this is the only framed photo she has in her room; she would still have three daughters alive at this point (her other died in the late 30s in an airplane crash, also depicted in “Paterfamilias”). This may be because of her daughters’ known Nazi connections and sympathies; in contrast, Alice hid a Jewish family and gave them protection during World War II.
Color-spotting: I don’t want this entire post to turn into a list of who all is wearing what colors, but the colors are consistent enough that I really want to draw attention to them. Philip wears light blue shirts or dark blue ties consistently throughout the episode, the Queen and Anne wear blue or yellow in almost every shot, the reporter John Armstrong is seen in blue multiple times, against a yellow and green backgrounds, Martin wears blue when he picks up Princess Alice, the plane taking Alice to the UK is blue, Alice’s bag is blue and white, you get the idea. Almost everyone is blue in this episode. So much Greek. The colors blue and green are also visible in the Greece scenes that take post-military coup (blue window shutters on the street, the blue door of the convent, blue sapphire, blue police lights flickering against the convent walls, green tanks)
Interestingly, in the cabinet meeting we see at the beginning, everyone is in black and white except for one woman in red; this is the labour party’s color. There are a couple other notably red moments throughout the show (the red box given to the queen in the documentary, Anne’s red dress, John Armstrong’s pencil), but I’m not sure they mean anything, it’s just a color that stands out.
Princess Alice, mother superior, calls the jewelry salesman who called the police on her “sweetie” in the most deadpan manner. Her son Philip then himself uses “sweetie” as a pet name, when he hilariously calls on the intercom throughout the palace to various rooms, surprising numerous really confused secretaries, maids, and butlers in the process.
In the scene with the duke and Anne in his blue office (which I don’t believe we’ve ever seen before), a framed photo of his mother is visible on his desk (just like his photo is on her dresser). Philip is wearing a blue tie and a blue and white shirt, Anne is wearing yellow and blue, notably in a plaid skirt very much like those her mother favors (just in brighter colors).
I also REALLY enjoyed the queen’s matter of fact, “I’m darling or cabbage, sweetie is someone else” to Michael Adeane. It seems like Prince Philip continues his mother’s favoring of nicknames. She calls him “bubbikins” and the jewelry salesman “sweetie”; he calls his daughter “sweetie” and his wife “cabbage.”
I noticed that in this episode, Prime Minister Wilson’s meetings with the queen this episode are shot further away then they have been previously, using wide shots which emphasize the large distance between the two of them. This may symbolize the distance between the royal family and the British public, or perhaps even the Queen’s perception of herself and the British public’s perception. In their last meeting in the episode, the Queen notes that her family is normal; Wilson emphasizes that they are decidedly not.
“She is not of our world nor, frankly, suited for it,” Philip says about his mother, while wearing a ridiculously formal outfit (blue and white!, matching his wife) standing in the fanciest room surrounded by gold and crystal everything. This occurs right after we see a shot of tiny old Princess Alice in her rundown surroundings looking up and hearing amplified shouts about how foreign nationals should leave immediately. There’s a huge contrast between these two scenes.
There’s also a cute moment in this scene where the queen affectionately straightens one of Philip’s medal. This is an intimate moment that reminds me of the season 1 incident when a journalist saw Princess Margaret pick a piece of fluff off of Peter Townsend’s uniform and accurately guessed that they were in a relationship.
As Alice walks into the palace, with her blue and white bag, she’s clearly overwhelmed and compensates by saying “Thank” you very formally to every butler that helps her or calls her Princess (her highly cultured aristocratic accent in English gives her away as someone of high class). The shot of her entering the main room emphasizes exactly how small and dull she is in comparison to all the grandeur. The Queen and Princess Anne are both there to greet her and are both sporting blue, green, and yellow skirts.
On her way to her room, Alice very clearly eyes one specific clock in the hallway. Later, she suggests selling a clock for funds for the convent. She ends up placing Phillip’s photo directly by the clock in her blue room (which is blue, and the stairway up to it is green and white).
The next shot shows Philip steadfastly avoiding his mother while remembering some of his more painful memories relating to her. We’ve seen the one where his mother was taken away to the sanatorium and his sister comforts him in S2E9 “Paterfamilias,” but I’m fairly sure we haven’t seen the next shot of a forlorn young Philip sitting on his luggage at a train station before.

A scene from the Royal Family, which aired in June 1969 and attracted more than 30 million viewers. The Queen’s Christmas message that year was written, as she was afraid that another TV speech would lead to overexposure.

The film was last shown on BBC in 1972 to mark the Queen’s 20th anniversary on the throne. The Queen has not allowed it since. — The film was last shown on BBC in 1972 to mark the Queen’s 20th anniversary on the throne. The Queen has not allowed it since (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

Colin Morgan as John Armstrong in The Crown.

In the documentary explanation scene, most everyone is wearing blues and greens except Margaret, the family member most negative about the documentary scheme, is in white, black, and pink.
In the later TV-watching scene, Margaret voices her opinions about how boring the documentary will be in a truly hilarious way (Helena Bonham Carter is a treasure). Anne, the Queen, and the Queen Mother are all wearing blue, and Margaret is, again, set apart in checked pink, white, and purple. The Queen mother makes really funny faces when Margaret says they’d normally be off in separate isolated palaces and that sitting all together watching TV is like a prison; Anne laughs but tries to hide it.
FYI, every time I see the Queen’s corgis in this show, I freak out slightly with happiness. I love them so much. Here’s one article about the history of the Queen’s corgis. This article chronicles every appearance of the corgis in the first two seasons of the show and notes that the corgis NEED to be featured more in the show (which - agreed!).
Next, Alice walks around the palace looking forlorn, and trying to borrow a light from someone, saying “Hello?” a few times. She’s notably excited to find a reporter smoking outside and asks for a light (perhaps she’s more comfortable with “normal” people than the royals). They seem to be having a lovely conversation until Philip, who sees this from a window, angrily sends a servant out to stop the interview. That evening, Philip angrily shouts about this incident to the Queen. She’s already in bed, in a white and light blue nightgown, and he’s standing up, leaning against the bed frame. They’re clearly not on the same page when it comes to his mother; Elizabeth looks very surprised and concerned by his outburst that “she gave birth to me; she is not my mother.” (paraphrase, may get the exact quote later)
The next day, the Queen, in light green, goes up the bright green staircase to visit Alice and finds Anne there. The two (both wearing blue) are chatting, writing letters to patrons, and sharing a cigarette. The queen’s wry “we’ll hold a big jumble sale of all the palace valuables on our return” confuses Alice and it’s adorable (“What?”).
As they watch the documentary, everyone in the family is wearing blue or green (even Margaret, who’s sporting a green jacket over her brown print) except Anne, in bright red. Martin and Michael are in matching diagonal striped ties as they look at each other happily when the documentary talks about them as private secretaries.
That newspaper office is just so friggin fabulous and 60s, with a green carpet and brown walls.
Fun subtle continuity moment: In the “Aberfan” episode, Wilson comforted the queen’s concern about her own stoic, non-crying nature, by relating to her that although he prefers cigars, he smokes a pipe because it’s more relatable to the common man and better for him as a Labour politician. Notably, in this episode, Wilson is shown smoking a pipe in the cabinet meeting (in public) and a cigar while watching the royal family documentary (in private).
The Queen reads the bad newspaper reviews of the documentary while wearing a hideously unflattering dress in white dress with blue, green and purple florals, looking older and more out of touch then ever. There are some really interesting ideas presented in her next conversation with the Prime Minister, when he notes that the public doesn’t want a normal royal family, but an ideal. The Queen retorts, “I’d prefer to be in private and out of sight, hidden and out of view, for our own sanity and survival.” But since that’s impossible, the royal family must use “mystery and protocol, not to keep us apart but to keep us alive.”

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown.

Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip in The Crown.

Anne is so fabulous and calculating. “Is it really necessary to speak your mind quite so mercilessly at every opportunity?” “Well, where do you think I get that from?”
I love how John Armstrong shows his glee at being inside Buckingham Palace. Despite all his criticism of the royal family, he’s still only human, and this is one of the most exclusive and storied locations in all of the UK.
Sidenote: If Armstrong looks familiar to you, it might be because the actor Colin Morgan played the title role in the BBC series “Merlin.” I’ve never seen it, but I’ve certainly seen the title card on Netflix enough to recognize him.
Blue-spotting: Anne as she pretends to be sick and pushes Alice toward the reporter, Armstrong himself, the blue curtains behind Alice during the interview (similar to the blue curtains behind Philip in his Meet the Press scene at the beginning of the episode).
When the Queen and then Philip walk up to Alice’s room, we’re with them almost the whole way, as if to emphasize the distance at which they’ve been keeping his mother. The shots of Philip and Alice inside the room seem to really emphasize the distance between them as well; they don’t come near each other, despite it being the first time either of them as seen each other for years. She looks so happy to see him but also so tentative, as she says “Bubbikins?”
There are a few episodes this season seems that kind of carry over elements that were just introduced in the previous element into the next episode while introducing another new episode. This starts it off by introducing Anne and Alice; there’s also a shot of the queen which lingers on her collection of MANY horse portraits. The next episode features her love of horses and also introduces the new Lord Mountbatten and his sibling relationship with Alice. The episode after that will introduce new Prince Charles, whose character is chiefly fleshed out in conversations with his sister Anne.
They clearly made the choice to write Prince Charles out of this specific story; as you can see in the stills from the real documentary above, he was pretty prominently in the actual thing. I suppose they didn’t want to overwhelm the audience with too many new faces. Plus, Charles will get his own chance to shine in just a few episodes.
If you’re like my husband, by the way, and are curious about how Alice is Princess of Greece and Denmark, it’s an interesting story! Her husband’s father was a prince of Denmark who was basically imported to become king of Greece after Greece deported its previous king. That king was assassinated and the next king (Philip’s uncle on his father’s sad) was deposed and run out of Greece, along with the entire family, including Alice and Philip. I learned all about it from The Other Half podcast’s episodes on Sophia of Prussia (Episodes 2.16-2.19)

Princess Alice with her grandchildren, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. — Princess Alice with her grandchildren, Prince Charles and Princess Anne (Credit: Smith Archive / Alamy).

Over-Analyzing the Crown: S3E3 Aberfan

November 19, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in English History, TV and Film

Olivia Colman with the mayor in the crown, left (Netflix); the Queen with the Aberfan mayor in real life, right (Stan Meagher). — Olivia Colman with the mayor in The Crown, left (Netflix); the Queen with the Aberfan mayor in real life, right (Stan Meagher) (Credit: Evening Standard / Getty).

A really horrible disaster occurred and killed over 100 people, mostly children, in Aberfan, Wales. In accordance with tradition and out of concern of distracting rescue workers, Queen Elizabeth delays visiting the Welsh town until she is forced to by external pressure.

Am aerial shot showing the extent of the devastation in the Aberfan disaster, 1966. (unknown)

The start of this episode is intentionally foreboding. It reminds me very much of the pre-accident scenes in HBO’s “Chernobyl.” I had never heard of the Aberfan incident before this episode, but just from the shooting style and content, I could tell that something bad was about to happen to those children. This haunting atmosphere is repeated during the credits, which are shown over film of children playing in their schoolyard.
The singing, incidentally, is a theme that comes back several times in the episode. The mourners at the funeral sing a haunting hymn in perfect harmony and Elizabeth can’t actually cry until she listens to a recording of the hymn at the end of the episode. I’ve included the lyrics to both songs sung at the end of this post.
There’s an absolutely gorgeous shot of a little girl running out into a heavy rainstorm with a red umbrella. It’s shot so that almost all color has been drained from the scene; it looks black and white except for that one red umbrella, with one singing little girl under it. It almost evokes the red balloon from “It.” I doubt that was exactly what they were going for though. Red umbrellas on a black and white background are a surprisingly common motif in a lot of photography and paintings, you can find it all over the place.
On second watch, it became obvious that the green coal tips are visible in almost every outside shot of the pre-accident sequence; they are so huge that they overwhelm and hang over every person and every thing in the whole village. You can see them at the end of the main street, behind the schoolteacher as he talks to his class, and behind the children and the miners as they go to and from their homes.
Interestingly enough, the green from the tips seems to become a theme throughout the entire episode, seen in both the costuming, the lighting, and the scenery. Almost everyone in this episode wears green. I believe this symbolizes the huge impact the disaster had on the entire nation; everyone was impacted and heartbroken over it. The Queen wears numerous green outfits (at least two house robes, a green floral shirt, and a green cardigan, I may have missed one or two as well), the crowd yelling at the politicians and the National Coal Board reps is wearing a LOT of green, Tony wears green as he goes off to Aberfan, Margaret wears a green dress as he kisses her on his way out the door and a green striped shirt at breakfast with her family. In the Buckingham palace scenes, they spend a lot of time in one particular green room. There’s even a green lighting over some of the scenes; the one that stands out most is when Harold Wilson is taking off his coal-dust covered shoes at the end of the day and looking absolutely defeated. The amount of green in this episode is just absolutely bonkers; I was half expecting to hear some proto-environmentalism come up to tie more into the “green.”
Of course, the most devastating use of green comes during the funeral, in the green cloth (?) lining the huge grave, filled with the coffins of 81 children. The crowd at the funeral is still surrounded by those giant green hills all around them (how many of them are coal tips vs hills? It’s so unnerving not to know).
There are also lots of brown costumes in this episode. Tony, Margaret, the Queen, and Harold Wilson all prominently wear brown. This may be referring to the brown coffins against those bright green cloth, or may just indicate sadness.
I’d like to note that this is the second time in the series that junior secretary Martin Charteris is shown expressing an opinion that, while not in keeping with palace tradition, accurately predicts the reaction of the people and the press. When senior private secretary Michael Adeane doesn’t take Martin’s advice in the season 2 episode “Marionettes,” the Queen ends up giving a very tone-deaf, patronizing speech which opens her to a ton of criticism. When the queen and Michael don’t listen to Martin’s timid suggestion that she visit Aberfan herself, it opens her up to criticism about not caring about her people. This all just indicates that Martin is the real down to earth secretary with actual insight here and definitely should have been made senior secretary as Elizabeth wanted in the season 1 episode “Scientia Potentia Est,” tradition be damned.
Continuity Note: It looks like Michael Adeane got to grow back his mustache after a while. Elizabeth asked him to shave it off in the Season 2 episode “Lisbon” to satisfy Prince Philip, who was complaining about all the “mustaches” ordering him around. This seems fair, since the events of “Aberfan” take place in 1966 and the events of “Lisbon” take place in 1957. You can’t ban a man’s facial hair for years at a time!

Jason Watkins as Prime Minister Harold Wilson (Netflix) — Jason Watkins as Prime Minister Harold Wilson in The Crown (Netflix)

Ben Daniels as Tony Armstrong Jones (Netflix) — Ben Daniels as Tony Armstrong Jones in The Crown (Netflix)

There’s a horribly sad contrast in the two scenes in the episode in which someone yells for those around him to be quiet. This first happens as the accident is just beginning, when a worker at the mine yells for the others to be quiet, as he can hear the tip start to collapse and race toward the village. The second happens in the post-accident cleanup while Harold Wilson is visiting; everyone becomes quiet to try to hear the sound of any child who might still be buried. This scene became even more eerie when I read about the accident and learned that there were no survivors found after 11 am (the accident itself occurred at 9:15).
The shots of villagers desperately digging with their hands, their helmets, anything nearby to try to rescue their children, is absolutely heartbreaking and haunting. They don’t draw too many direct comparisons to the children seen at the beginning of the episode (at least not that I noticed, please tell me if I’m wrong!), but at one point, a man did pick up a copy of the “All Things Bright and Beautiful” songbook that all the children were using as they practiced.

One of the most interesting things about this series is how its portrayals of events from decades in the past evoke more recent happenings. When Harold Wilson urged the Queen to visit Aberfan, I could not help but think of Tony Blair urging the Queen to say something about the death of Princess Diana.

Tobias Menzies in the crown. The mayor with his chain of office can be seen on the right. — Tobias Menzies in The Crown. The mayor with his chain of office can be seen on the right.

There’s a shot of the Queen writing in her journal while listening to a newscast announcing her message of sympathy to Aberfan that intentionally blurs her for a bit. This indicates that this whole situation isn’t about her or her feelings about the proper role for the queen; this is a horrible incident which is hurting her people and her distance from it isn’t helping.
There’s an interesting juxtaposition between the line of female grocery workers in white behind Harold Wilson at the beginning of the episode and the line of female nurses in white at the end of the episode when the Queen visits Aberfan. Haven’t figured out a meaning there, it just stood out to me.
In case you were wondering about that giant gold chain that one man wears in some of the Aberfan scenes, that’s the mayor wearing his chain of office. Most British and Irish mayors wear a collar/chain of office, and new ones are still designed for new municipalities. These are worn over normal clothes when on official duties.
The little girl who gives the queens flowers “from the remaining children of Aberfan” (my heart broke into a million pieces at that) is wearing a light blue outfit with a notable collar that looks very much like Elizabeth’s own outfits as a child.

Line of coffins of victims (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

The memorial in Aberfan, Wales, today. — The memorial in Aberfan, Wales, today (Credit: Steve Parsons / PA).

All Things Bright and Beautiful

All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
each little bird that sings,
he made their glowing colours,
he made their little wings.

The purpleheaded mountain,
the river running by,
the sunset and the morning,
that brightens up the sky.

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, oh, leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing

Over-Analyzing the Crown: S3E1 Olding and S3E2 Margaretology

November 17, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in English History, TV and Film

I’ll be posting little analyses and observations on each episode of Season 3 of the Crown over the next week or two! I’m a huge Anglophile and LOVE analyzing all the hidden meaning in tv shows and movies, so I’m really excited to write about this series. :) I’ll be adding in more episodes and comparative photos as I go, so keep checking back for more updates!

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in a party scene in the first episode of Season 3 of the Crown on Netflix. — Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in a party scene in the first episode of Season 3 of The Crown on Netflix.

I really loved the first two seasons and am very excited about the new actors playing the roles. Olivia Colman (the new Elizabeth II) was astounding in Broadchurch and The Night Manager (I still haven’t seen her Oscar-winning role in The Favourite yet, I really need to). Claire Foy did such a good job of bringing the young Elizabeth to life and making a mild-mannered, quiet queen interesting; I’m delighted to see Olivia Colman take up the crown. And although this show has never prioritized making the actors look /exactly/ like their historical counterparts, instead, seeking to evoke the general idea of each character, there’s one scene in Season 3 Episode 2 in which Olivia Colman looks SO much like photographs I’ve seen of the queen from the 60s that I actually gasped (Any guesses as to which scene it is? :D).

I also greatly appreciated Tobias Menzies in Outlander; he was utterly terrifying as the villainous Jack Randall and beguiling as the kind, slightly pathetic figure of Frank Randall. He did such a great job giving life to two different characters and I was very excited to see him take over as Prince Philip from Matt Smith. I have a soft spot for Philip; I too love a grumpy man with an occasionally inappropriate sense of humor, and he’s such a great balance to Elizabeth’s primness.

Episode 1: “Olding”

The UK gets a new prime minister, the venerable Winston Churchill dies, and Elizabeth finds out about a KGB spy in her midst! Also, lots of art and a pretty awkward birthday party.

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in the first episode of Season 3 of the Crown on Netflix. — Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in the first episode of Season 3 of The Crown on Netflix.

The name of the episode derives from Harold Wilson’s supposed KGB code name but also cleverly refers to the aging of the characters and transition of the actors.
I really loved the introduction scene for Olivia Colman, where her face wasn’t in focus until after the updated portrait of her on the coinage as “an old bat” (as she so wryly noted) was revealed. It’s a great transition, and reminds me of other media’s excellent acknowledgment of the elephant in the room of the actor change. I’m specifically thinking of the change from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle as “Rhodey” in the Iron Man movies, where Cheadle’s first line in Iron Man 2 is “Look, it’s me, I’m here. Deal with it. Let’s move on.” The Capheus actor change in Sense8 from Aml Ameen to Toby Onwumere also springs to mind, although I’m struggling to find the exact introduction quote from Season 2 Episode 1 (I believe it was something along the lines of “things change but are essentially the same” or something, referring to the Van Damme’s new look).
I hope they don’t do the same thing in Season 5 when they switch actors again though, that could get overly precious really quickly. On the second actor change, it might be better to take a Doctor Who approach to the whole thing and just accept it and move on.
Princess Margaret has a pillow that says “it isn’t easy being a princess” on her bed. She also wears a diamond bracelet as she sleeps.
Lord Snowden is first seen sawing metal in his workshop, building metal pyramid outlines in his ship; those same pyramids appear to show up in their house earlier as Snowden walks to his dark room to develop photos. The fact that he is literally working with his hands while Princess Margaret is still sleeping and hanging up the phone to avoid conversations illustrates the sharp divide between the couple.
When he opens the door to the dark room, the first shot is a reflection against the mirror from the season 2 episode where he met Margaret; it specifically focuses on the “beryl” that she signed with a diamond.
The Queen is wearing a skirt suit in this episode, which she’ll become very famous for wearing. I don’t think we’ve seen her in one in this series before. I checked this by doing a quick skim of Tom and Lorenzo’s brilliant “The Crown Style” posts (which have heavily inspired me and taught me so much of the years!); it seems I was right. Although she WAS wearing more jackets and business like silhouettes by the end of season 2, we hadn’t seen her in an actual suit until now. Her suit in this episode is also pink, which may be a call back to her connection with Jacqueline Kennedy in season 2 (who was famously wearing a pink Chanel suit when JFK was shot).
I totally missed the queen’s “Great Britain/greatest Briton” pun to Winston Churchill the first time around. Winston is totally surrounded by art all around him, really engulfed, honestly. Art seems much more apparent and spotlighted in this episode than it has been previously, probably because of the plotline’s focus on art and inner meaning. The provision of paintings in Churchill’s house may also be a call back to Winston’s love of painting, highlighted in a season 1 episode.
The awkward birthday party scene firmly plants the episode in the 60s; all the women are in bright colors and many of them are in very mod silhouettes or otherwise sport very specifically 60s details, like beaded necklines and hens, and lots of very straight dresses rather than those that hugged the curves so common throughout the 40s and 50s. This scene is also set in a particularly opulent room with lots of bright colors and gold accents. The queen herself is in a glorious blue/green/gold dress. The party ends with the Queen announcing Winston’s death. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that next sequence of his funeral is almost completely devoid of color; the only bright spots of color are the Union Jack and the queen’s bright red lipstick (which ties into her close relationship with Winston; she doesn’t wear lipstick that bright anywhere else in the episode). It seems a very deliberate juxtaposition.
Interestingly enough, I noticed earlier in the episode that there were bright red and white roses directly behind Philip during the breakfast scene; this seems to be a foreshadowing to the patriotic UK plot/the loss of Winston.
After Winston’s funeral, the Queen is wearing light blue for the rest of the episode, first in a skirt suit, and last in her formal dress for the exhibit opening. Blue is the traditional color of royal mourning; this may symbolize her sadness over Winston’s death or perhaps is a tie into her patriotic love of her country, which is highlighted when the KGB mole is revealed. Her light blue dress stands out brilliantly against the yellow walls at the art exhibit later, which seems intentional. As the episode fades out, the Queen is standing by a set of dramatic red curtains, again, representing the Union Jack. Now that I think about it, the pink suit from earlier in the episode might have been foreshadowing, as it’s reminiscent of the flag as well without being an exact match.
The queen herself gives a highly symbolic speech at the art exhibit in which she describes a painting in which one man is painted over another. However, Sir Anthony explains that it’s the same man painted twice. The queen sharply disagrees and says that essentially they’re two different men. This is clearly a coded conversation where blunt says he is the same man he always has been, he has just grown and changed; in contrast, the Queen points out that he is clearly not the man she thought he was.
SPOILERS: Sir Anthony’s seemingly idle conversation with the queen early on in the episode about Harold Wilson’s possible KGB ties foreshadows the reveal of his KGB ties later. He also mentions in this conversation and later that he was more liberal as a young man, voted conservative, and doesn’t quite like Wilson, strongly implying that he really regrets his past actions. This is supported by his later conversation with Prince Philip when he points out that he also has incidents in his past life that he regrets. During his art talk, he also specifically discusses paintings using phrases that speak to his own situation, saying “as time passes, we learn,” noting that “the truth will out,” and discussing the two-faced nature of one painting. His conversation with Philip, while implicitly threatening the prince, saying he may reveal the scandal he covered up in the past, he also seems to point to how he’s protected and served the royal family well in the past and how he’s happy to do in the future.

Winston Churchill’s Funeral in 1965. Churchill is one of the few non-royals to receive a state funeral. His was also the last state funeral to occur as of 2019. Getty. — Winston Churchill’s Funeral in 1965. Churchill is one of the few non-royals to receive a state funeral. His was also the last state funeral to occur as of 2019 (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies in the Churchill funeral scene in Netflix’s The Crown

Second Episode: “Margaretology”

Elizabeth and Margaret with their mother at Windsor in 1943. Photo: Getty. Apparently the identical clothing and Peter Pan Collars seen in the flashback scenes are totally accurate. — Elizabeth and Margaret with their mother at Windsor in 1941 (Credit: Lisa Sheridan / Getty). Apparently the identical clothing and Peter Pan Collars seen in the flashback scenes are totally accurate .

The queen’s “dangerous little sister” Margaret goes on a whirlwind tour of America and has a dirty limerick contest with President Lyndon B. Johnson! Also, we get some charming flashback scenes of the two women as children.

The queen and Margaret are in highly similar brown dresses in the opening flashback sequence. They also both wear a string of pearls as children, which will end up being a recurring theme throughout the episode. Both women wear pearls in almost every single scene in the episode, which signals their enduring connection as sisters.
The queen’s blue outfit in the next scene has a brown fur collar, which appears to call back to her outfit as a child. The queen, Margaret, and Tony are all wearing blue in this scene (right as Margaret and Tony are about to board a blue commercial plane). Margaret’s blue is the brightest and most fashionable, in a gorgeous floral hat, naturally. She is also wearing an olive green coat. Tony is wearing a red tie with his blue suit. In green and red, they are literally wearing contrasting colors; they’re connected by the blue, symbolizing the work they’re doing for the crown, but are otherwise on totally different wavelengths.
When Harold Wilson is going to Buckingham palace to see the queen, he’s shot in a way that makes him look small and insignificant compared to all the grandeur. This emphasizes his non-noble background and down to earth point of view as he asks the queen to “really roll out the red carpet” to persuade the Americans to give them a loan.
In the media montage that compares Margaret to the queen by saying that it’s like “going from a black and white film to one in color,” the show literally switches from an almost technicolor bright scene of Margaret wearing a bright blue dress against a bright red airplane scene to three men in black and white suits talking to the queen in a very dim and grey palace. The queen is wearing a pink skirt suit and pearls in this scene.
When they arrive in America, Margaret wears a bright light blue dress with a pink and white scarf. Her white shoes, decorated with multi-colored bright beads, are emphasized. Margaret is later seen in two different green dresses and a bright pink dress (she also poses in very little of anything as she poses nude in a bubble bath wearing a crown, which actually happened, and may also be a call back to the Season 2 episode in which she sent out a birthday portrait of herself looking nude). She is very notably not spending much time with her husband in these scenes; he is usually in a corner smoking or signaling her to leave and she’s always surrounded by people, laughing, smoking and talking loudly, dancing, posing for pictures, etc.
During her argument scene with Tony, Margaret’s wearing a green dress in multiple tones and metallics, and bright purple/pink shoes. The metallics were very in in the sixties, but this and the purple shoes could also be a subtle reference to her princess status. The clashing shoes and dress also indicate Margaret’s individualistic style.
Throughout this episode, Margaret and Tony are almost always presented on different planes, except when they’re actively moving from one location to another. When Tony is sitting, Margaret is standing. When Margaret is lying down while sick, tony is first sitting and reading the magazines, and then standing over her to kiss her before going off to “sing for their supper.” Even when on the plane to the White House, Tony is sitting while Margaret is slightly elevated. This shooting makes it clear that this is not a couple in sync.
In contrast, every time Elizabeth and Philip are shown, they operate on the same plane. They’re both sitting comfortably in their house robes while talking about Margaret at the white house; they’re both standing while discussing Margaret’s proposal at the end. Their relationship troubles depicted in the first two seasons seem to have come to an end; they are a pair united.
Johnson is always shot in a way that makes him look like a large dark silhouette taking over whatever scene he’s in, While cursing at the ambassador, while looming over his military officials, while urinating and yelling at his press secretary. Like most American historical figures in the Crown, he’s presented more as a caricature rather than a person, as he strives to come out from beneath JFK’s shadow.
Johnson is presented here as something of an ass, but underneath his bluster and fears is a good deal of truth. His frustration with Kennedy’s legacy is real - Kennedy was really held up as a martyr and a great statesman after his death, even when we know from his appearance in season 2 that he wasn’t anything of the kind. And Johnson is right in that the prime minister and the queen really could rely on each other in diplomacy, while Johnson cannot; he is the head of state and the chief executive and has to play both roles, no matter how much he might hate it. Fun fact: The scene where Johnson is talking to his press secretary (?) while urinating is pretty accurate; Johnson was pretty famous for conducting meetings while using the restroom.
All of Johnson’s blunt talk is a pretty good indication that he and Margaret will get along really well; she similarly has a habit of speaking harsh truths and saying things that may offend, but also makes one think.
Johnson specifically states that if he went hunting with the royals in Balmoral, he would likely make a fool of himself, while JFK would have known exactly what to do. This is really interesting, because in their season two episode, JFK and Jackie definitely made several very obvious protocol errors immediately upon meeting the royals and both were clearly embarrassed by it. Kennedy’s legacy has grown beyond who he really was, and Johnson feels intimidated by that.
Tony seems to blend in wherever he is – wearing a classic tux in LA and at the white house and a jeans and tan shirt in Arizona. This is in sharp contrast to Margaret, who stands out pretty obviously wherever she goes. In Arizona, she arrives in a brown fur coat (over a dress that can’t quite be seen but appears to be a green and white print) and a bright blue scarf, which may be a reference to Arizona (all that brown and turquoise). When she’s in bed sick, she’s still wearing her hair in a fabulous updo and smoking and wearing a dainty olive green slip, naturally.
Throughout the episode, the queen and Margaret are dressed in similar colors, constantly wearing pearl necklaces to illustrate their connections, but Margaret generally wears brighter and bolder colors and styles compared to the queen’s pastel blues and pinks and prim silhouettes. Occasionally though, they are dressed in more complementary styles to indicate an attempt at connection.
- When the queen calls Margaret to ask her to go to the dinner, she is in a yellow floral shirt which, while still very sensible, is one of the brightest and most Margaret-like things she wears in the episode. Margaret, on the other end of the line, is still in her olive slip and fancy updo, smoking a cigarette as she tells the queen she won’t do it.
  Isn’t it interesting how Margaret is so often shown in bed, smoking, ignoring any royal responsibilities? The real Margaret apparently was a great lover of sleep during the day and during her American tour, she skipped out on at least one private luncheon thrown in her honor in order to go nap instead.
- When Margaret agrees to go to the dinner, she boards the plane there in a white fluffy hat, a light pink dress/skirt suit with contrasting black florals on it, and light blue shoes. Basically, she’s putting on the royal uniform of light pink and light blue, but she’s going to do it her own way. This scene is interspersed with one of the queen writing the letter to Margaret; there, the queen is also wearing a floral, although it’s a more subtle pink and white collared shirt than Margaret’s outfit.
The queen has some wonderful lines in this episode:
The queen cuts off one of her private secretaries’ discussion of all the praise Margaret has been receiving in America by standing up and walking away, noting “I’m a queen, not a saint.”
When the prime minister says the white house dinner must be dealt with in the utmost delicacy, she asks incredulously, “So you want to send princess Margaret?” She also notes matter-of-factly in this conversation that LBJ’s invite to Margaret is “cunning,” which illustrates a growing ease with her role as queen.
At the White House, Margaret is wearing a wild pink, orange, and white floral dress and white gloves. When she enters the banquet room, it becomes apparent that she is literally matching the floral arrangements in there, along with the gold highlights throughout the room, visible on the white columns, the dishes, and the cups. In the interspersed scenes with the Queen discussing Margaret’s White House dinner with Harold Wilson, a lot of gold is seen in Buckingham, but it’s considerably dimmer and more subtle than that seen in the American scenes. In these scenes, the Queen is wearing a light green skirt suit, which contrasts with the bright pink worn by Margaret.
Margaret’s dress in the show is similar but not identical to that worn by Margaret in real life (which was light pink and worn without gloves), but Lady Bird Johnson’s dress seems pretty accurate to life

Princess Margaret’s trip to the White House in 1965. From left to right, Lord Snowden, Lady Bird Johnson, Princess Margaret, President Lyndon B Johnson. — Princess Margaret’s trip to the White House in 1965 (Credit: Bettman / Getty). From left to right, Lord Snowden, Lady Bird Johnson, Princess Margaret, President Lyndon B Johnson.

This photo from Entertainment Weekly is the only one I could find showing Margaret’s dress for the White House dinner in all its glory. However, she did not wear a tiara during the actual scene. — This photo from Entertainment Weekly is the only one I could find showing Margaret’s dress for the White House dinner in all its glory. However, she did not wear a tiara during the actual scene (Credit: Julian Broad for EW).

I love when Prince Philip calls Queen Elizabeth a “sparkling cabbage” so much.
Margaret at window, in green skirt suit with black plaid, three strands of pearls, - queen is in white collared shirt with green floral, green skirt? Also three strands. And they’re a big contrast against the red carpet and feel of the room in Windsor. – Margaret actually is much more businesslike there than the queen here, as she’s trying to show Elizabeth that she can be of use to the crown and be of assistance and would be good at it. She’s really trying to reach her here. She’s wearing toned down shoes and such
The dramatic room in Windsor with that gorgeous white and black ceiling is used in the flashbacks and leading up to Elizabeth and Margaret’s final conversation. Margaret is framed standing in the window waiting for Elizabeth, who’s on the inside behind a solemn door, both as a child and as an adult.
It’s interesting how Elizabeth’s look as an adult is still very similar to her look as a child, down to similar hairstyle, colors, silhouettes, and sparse makeup (in season 2, it was noted that they specifically had to put makeup on her for her Christmas speech on television, implying she wasn’t wearing much before). That was when she and her sister were dressed identically, presumably by adults around them intent on keeping them proper.
In contrast, Margaret has changed her hair and styling very considerably now that she can define herself. Her clothes are brighter, more modern, more stylish and shape hugging, and she wears considerably more makeup and even fake lashes.
She looks most like her youngest self at the end, when she consciously mimics Elizabeth by putting on a relatively toned down and business like skirt suit in a green plaid, even with matching black shoes; it’s not terribly obvious until the next scene, but as they talk, Elizabeth herself is actually wearing a green plaid skirt that echoes Margaret’s dress. She is trying to show Elizabeth that she can help the royal family but showing their similarities. But as Philip says, she’s not dependable; her outfits and styling change considerably throughout the episode.
Elizabeth’s last outfit in the episode makes her look SO SO MUCH like the actual queen. That brown jacket, those sensible shoes, that subtle plaid skirt, there are so many pictures of the real life Elizabeth dressed exactly like that. She and Philip also match in this scene, as he’s in brown, but the subtle checks in his suit seem to signal his sympathies for Margaret and similar status as someone who always plays second fiddle to the queen. He’s just accepted his role finally, while Margaret still hasn’t.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh enjoy a picnic in Balmoral. This photo was apparently owned by author Daphne Du Maurier. Courtesy of Rowley’s — The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh enjoy a picnic in Balmoral. This photo was apparently owned by author Daphne Du Maurier (Credit: Rowley’s).

Tobias Menzies and Olivia Colman in the Crown, looking ridiculously like their historical counterparts. — Tobias Menzies and Olivia Colman in The Crown, looking ridiculously like their historical counterparts.

Helena Bonham Carter gives some of the most amazing wordless acting as she sees the queen and Philip walk out and realizes she’s not going to be allowed to represent the crown again. Her initial hope dissolves into a crushing despair and resolves into a stoic face, accepting her fate. As a child, she sobs at her vanity, as an adult, she simply takes off her pearls and eyelashes and stares hopelessly in the mirror.

Elizabeth as a girl in 1936, wearing almost the same outfit she wears as an adult. Photo: Getty. — Elizabeth as a girl in 1936, wearing almost the same outfit she wears as an adult (Credit: Lisa Sheridan / Getty).

Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret in The Crown, wearing a plaid outfit very much like what Elizabeth wears her entire life.