Over-Analyzing the Crown: S3E1 Olding and S3E2 Margaretology

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

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.

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.

• 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 (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 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 (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 (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 (Credit: Rowley’s).

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 (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.