Over-Analyzing The Crown: S3E8 Dangling Man

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

The Duke of Windsor, the former king whose abdication had put both Queen Elizabeth and her father on the throne, develops terminal cancer. The Queen, who’s visiting France to assist with the UK joining the EU, visits him and provides him some peace before his death. Prince Charles falls in love with Camilla Shand, while Princess Anne hooks up with Camilla’s ex/possibly not ex Andrew Parker Bowles.

The real life Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1955. Photo: Frank Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

Alex Jennings as The Duke and Lia Williams as the Duchess were featured in Season 1 and 2 of The Crown. (This scene was set during 1953)

Geraldine Chaplin and Derek Jacobi as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Season 3. This scene was meant to take place around 1972.

• The Duke of Windsor is such a controversial character historically. Modern eyes often want to look favorably upon his abdication to marry the woman he loved, but at the same time, he and Wallis Simpson undoubtedly supported Hitler and the Nazis (as shown in S2E6 Vergangenheit, which means “past,” by the way) and engaged in treasonous acts against England. They also clearly were somewhat petty and mean toward the royal family, although it’s hard not to understand their viewpoint. Apparently, Edward/David was under the impression that he would be allowed to live in England again a few years after he abdicated; he didn’t take well to being told that he could only enter the country again at the invitation of the sovereign. They were essentially in exile the rest of their lives, although Queen Elizabeth was far kinder to him then really anyone else in the family. This is shown in The Crown when both Philip and the Queen Mother are much harsher in their judgments toward the Duke and the Duchess than Elizabeth ever is, at least aloud.

  His actions did have a very significant result on Elizabeth’s life in forcing her to become queen, and as she stated in S3E5 “Coup,” it’s not something she would have chosen. His abdication has already been seen to have a huge impact on how the Queen and the government dealt with Margaret’s relationship with Peter Townsend. It will later also impact Margaret’s divorce from Antony Armstrong-Jones, and the relationships and divorces of several of the Queen’s children. It also led to the Queen having firmly held views against abdicating under any circumstance. A very recent article quoting a spokesman from Prince Charles’s office noted, “There are no plans for any change in arrangements at the age of 95 — or any other age.”
  I do have to say, Alex Jennings, the actor who played the Duke of Windsor in the first two seasons looks SO much more like him than Derek Jacobi does, as brilliant as he is.

• The Duke and Duchess’s meeting with Emperor Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kojun, really did happen. The photos from that event show off how close The Crown can get to reality if they so choose.

  The moment where doorman Sidney (who really existed) applies rouge/blush to the Duke’s face to make him less ill is very similar to the blush that was applied to George VI’s face in S1E1. And just as the Duke jokes that “we don't want it to look like kabuki,” the King’s assistant then said that they didn’t want to overdo it.
  Emperor Hirohito grumpily says, “They promised no cameras. I don’t want people to see me to visit a man who couldn't hold on to his throne.” I also love the contrasting comments at the end of their meeting: Emperor: "imagine living in exile from his homeland. I would rather die.” Duchess: “He never leaves japan. Imagine being stuck on an island your whole life.” Duke: “An island which is home and where you reign as sovereign. I can think of worse things." There’s that same nostalgia we saw in S1E5 “Smoke and Mirrors” (when he plays the bagpipes and cries after Elizabeth’s coronation) and in S2E6 Vergangenheit, when he looks for a way to be useful to England.
  The Duke of Windsor did indeed keep his red leather dispatch box marked “The King” in his foyer in real life.

• My husband (who speaks Japanese, works in a primarily Japanese law firm, and knows just a ton about Japanese culture) tells me that I shouldn’t actually call the Emperor Emperor Hirohito, as the emperor gets a new name after death! This is from Wikipedia: “In Japan, reigning emperors are known simply as "the Emperor" and [Hirohito] is now referred to primarily by his posthumous name, Shōwa (昭和), which is the name of the era coinciding with his reign; for this reason, he is also known as the Shōwa Emperor or Emperor Shōwa.”

The actual meeting between the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the Emperor and Empress of Japan took place in October 1971 (Credit: Bettmann / Getty).

The meeting between the Duke and Duchess and the Emperor and the Empress in The Crown.

• In real life, Prince Charles did correspond with his great-uncle, the Duke of Windsor. His other great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten (Uncle “Dickie”) encouraged this; he was both the Duke’s friend and keenly aware of the damage he caused with his abdication. Mountbatten was actually in charge of the Duke’s estate after his death and arranged for numerous items to be returned to the Royal Archives.
  Charles did visit the Duke and Duchess once in October 1970, but apparently they had a party going on at the time. Charles didn’t stay too long and didn’t seem too impressed by it all. After both the Duke and Duchess died, a businessman named Mohamed Al-Fayed purchased their home and estate; he took Charles on a tour of it in 1986 and said he could choose anything he wanted from the estate, but Charles wasn’t interested in any of their family albums or souvenirs. So it seems that perhaps Charles didn’t view the Duke as a mentor after all.
  I loved Olivia Colman’s line about this meeting in the crown: “One doesn't usually get the opportunity to meet a former king. Former kings are usually dead.” Also, in the show, Charles tells Mountbatten that the entire house smelled “Like joss sticks and dogs.” I had to look up what joss sticks are, but it refers to incense.

The Duke of Windsor and Prince Charles in The Crown.

Charles and Camilla in The Crown.

• If Andrew Buchan, the actor playing Andrew Parker Bowles looks as familiar to you as he did to me, you may have seen him before in his role as Mark Latimer in Broadchurch. Princess Anne and Parker Bowles did indeed date in real life, but apparently only for a short time. They have remained good friends and have been photographed together many times over the years.

• "Where's mehmsahib?" a friend asks Captain Parker Bowles, referring to Camilla. In case you were wondering, this is a leftover Indian colonialism term that means “a married white or upper-class woman (often used as a respectful form of address by nonwhites).”

• Apparently Charles’ real life first conversation with Camilla was rather hilarious. She joked “My great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-great-grandfather. I feel we have something in common.” I so wish they had actually shown that in The Crown; as it is, we don’t really see their first meeting, but just a bit of them checking each other out before Charles calls up Camilla to ask her out.
  At the time, Camilla was in a years-long on-again, off-again relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles. The couple only got engaged after their two fathers conspired together and published an engagement notice in The Times, which forced Andrew to finally act.

• Charles' inaccurate description of Camilla and Andrew’s relationship to Dickie (that she and Andrew fell out over ANNE, when we saw in the show that they had quite obviously fallen out before that) illustrates all the rumors and misconceptions around everyone involved. It’s also interesting that Charles’ description of his visit with the Duke of Windsor to Mountbatten doesn’t seem to quite align with the video we see of it later in the episode, while the Queen is reading Charles’ letter to the duke. This “audio says one thing, video says another” trick is a classic unreliable narrator film style which was also used when the Duke was writing to Wallis in both Season 1 and Season 2; his words often exaggerated the number of supporters meeting him, etc.

The real life Charles and Camilla (Credit: Shutterstock).

This scene was recreated in The Crown, but I don’t remember seeing it in the final cut.

• When Edward Heath disses Harold Wilson, by saying Wilson had expected the most recent election to be his coronation, the queen responds frostily, “nothing wrong with a coronation under the right circumstances,” indicating her subtle support of Harold Wilson. Wilson would end up being one of the Queen’s favorite prime ministers; he’s the only one other than Winston Churchill who hosted her and Prince Philip at a dinner at Downing Street.
  Heath is so awkward. When he’s with the Queen, he sits on the front of his chair the entire time, like he’s terrified to lean back.

• The Queen is wearing blue when she tells Philip she’ll be going to France to charm Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou, who was prime minister of France from 1962-1968 and then president from 1969-1974. The French flag, naturally, is blue, white, and red.

• Prince Philip reminds me so much of my husband, who also meets people several times and then somehow doesn’t remember them.
  "I never see the other one anymore…where's the other one… the bald one?" “He retired. Three months ago. You gave him a clock!”

• Philip-ism, on the Duke of Windsor and his visit from the Emperor and Empress of Japan: "He didn't cause them offense. He didn't abdicate the Japanese throne or kill the emperor's father. For the last time, no. That man, his shame - like the stench of livestock - it seeps into the woodwork and never goes away." What is philip doing during all of this - polishing a gun? That’s what it looks like.

• As Charles is getting everything ready for his date with Camilla, The Four Seasons’ “Beggin” plays in the background, with the curiously applicable lyrics:
  ”Ridin' high when I was king,
  Played it hard and fast cause I had everything
  Walked away, wonderin' then
  But easy come and easy go and it would end”

Princess Anne and Andrew Parker Bowles in real life.

Andrew Parker Bowles and Anne in The Crown.

• Camilla walks into Buckingham and just looks around shocked for a little bit, very in awe of the whole place, and then has to run to catch up to the footman. Charles looks pretty unhappy when Camilla keeps going on about him being prince during their date.

• Charles says something very profound about his life right before he plays a prank on Camilla; he plays it off as a joke, but I’m not so sure: “I live not so much an existence but a predicament. I am both free and imprisoned. Utterly superfluous and quite indispensable. One can never fully invest in one thing or another, because at any moment, it could all change.”
  “How can one be a good son even though [her dying] is the thing you most dread, it’s the thing you most, not desire, well yes, desire , because until she dies, I cannot be fully alive. Nor can I be the thing for which I have been born, so one is condemned to this frightful business of waiting.”

  Charles refers to “Dangling Man” by Saul Bellow and describes it as being about “existing in a timeless and slightly ridiculous abyss. … an unemployed man from Chicago waiting to be drafted to go to a war. And he actually wants to be drafted because it will give his life meaning.”

• Camilla wears a string of pearls on their date (with a really cute peach ruffled shirt, mini skirt, and black jacket). Most of her outfit doesn’t seem to have any deeper meaning, but the Queen wears a pearl necklace so often that I imagine it has to be an intentional callback to Charles’ mother, who is such a big part of their conversation.

Real life Prince Charles (Credit: Tim Graham / Getty).

Prince Charles playing polo in The Crown

• During the Duke’s interview with the BBC, his grey suit appears to be too large for him. The Duke of Windsor was known for being quite a natty dresser, so I imagine this oversized suit is meant to indicate his weight loss from cancer. The Duchess is wearing a scarf that makes her look incredibly French.
  The Crown is really good at showing the reach of media, how so many people are watching it. As the Duke talks about how he had wanted to change the role of the Prince of Wales when he was younger, the b-roll cuts to other people watching, namely, Lord Mountbatten petting his dog, the Queen Mother eating what appears to be strawberry ice cream, and the Queen and Prince Philip, before going back to Charles and Camilla.

• Some of what the Duke is saying in his interview call back to a lot of what was said S3E2 Margaretology. She referred to the black and white men, Duke of Windsor refers to the “grey men".” “I soon discovered that any attempt to make even the most trifling change was met with hostility and suspicion [by whom] by the establishment, the grey men of the court, and by my family too.”
  Just as in Margaretology, the reporters said that Margaret brought color to the black and white world for the royal family, Wallis describes David as a “colorful, dynamic”; he counters with “individualistic.”
  Philip calls them ghastly and monstrous and kisses the queen very sweetly, subtly checking her expression to see how she’s doing before he goes off to bed.

• Princess Anne shows up in the next scene wearing a kicky military style jacket and pants, with a striped shirt – all blue and white. I think this is meant to indicate both her close connection to her father and her approach to life. She knows her brother and knows he gets attached easily, so she checks in on him and warns him lightly about Camilla’s continuing attachment to Andrew.
  ”Yes. And you’re seeing her ex Andrew.
  “Not sure you can call what we’re doing seeing. Not sure you can call him an ex either.”
  “Camilla told me, he’s definitely an ex.”
  “Just make sure things remain the right way around; us playing with Camilla and Andrew, not them playing with us.”
  “What does that mean?”
  /Anne scoffs and walks out/

• I don’t see a specific color story in the Duke and Duchess’s clothing, but they do tend to match. When we see the Duke in his green and white robe after taking a turn for the worse, the Duchess is in a green dress.

• The Queen visits President Pompidou in Paris in order to support Prime Minister Heath’s push for the UK to join the European Economic Community (the precursor to the EU, which didn’t go by that name until 1993) and laying poppies on a memorial for the allied fallen in World War I. She wears two outfits for this - both light purple/lavender. This may be to emphasize her royal position in contrast to her uncle, who gave up the throne.
  She says: “Though we live through times of conflict, our two countries share an ancient relationship. Let us not forget our deeper bonds, our sense of common purpose, on which can be built a new partnership, a new entente. Joined together in this august European enterprise, a great adventure lies ahead.”

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip meeting President Georges Pompidou on their visit to Paris in 1972 (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown.

• Olivia Colman is so brilliant. Her face changes ever so slightly when Martin tells her that the Duke is dying and she needs to visit him now, just a strange falling of her expression.

• The moment the duke hears the queen is coming he struggles to get up. When his wife says “You can’t be serious,” he shouts “I’ve never been more serious!” and forces his way up and out so he can get dressed and at least sit in a wheelchair while talking with her.
  He wears lots of green and red for his meeting with the queen. Wallis is also wearing green, matching him as usual. I didn’t figure out where the red was coming from until I realized that this likely is a callback to his red dispatch box as king, which is the first thing Queen Elizabeth focuses on when she enters their house.

• In real life, the Duke was still in his bed when the Queen visited him ten days before his death, not in a wheelchair as shown on The Crown, but he still struggled to his feet to bow. In both real life and on the TV show, she seems to deeply appreciate this.
  "There was no need for that.” “If the roles were reversed, you would do exactly the same.” She smiles because she knows it’s true. “Yes.”

• In their meeting, the Duke says that he underestimated the Queen and works to reassure her about Charles’ fitness for the throne.
  “We’ve had our disagreements but you’ve always been my favorite uncle.” “Dear Lillibet.” “Shirley temple.” “I underestimated you. We all did. But the crown always finds it way to the right head. My father, my brother, you, and one day, god willing your son.”

• The Duke and Charles together have all the colors of the flag of the United Kingdom in their outfits. The Duke wears a bright coral suit, red pants, and a pink and blue tie. Charles is wearing a grey suit, light blue shirt, and dark blue tie. They’re not the same but they clearly coordinate.
  The Queen, as she reads Charles letter, is wearing the same colors as Charles - grey with black lining.
  Prince Charles’s letter to the Duke of Windsor: “I do recognize myself in you. Your progressiveness and flair, your individuality and imagination, what a king you would have made in a kinder world. What a king you were denied.” …”I will not be denied what you have been denied. The crown is not a static thing resting forever on one head. It is moving, alive, divine, the changing face of changing times, and if god willing, it has been ordained that I shall wear it, than I shall do so on my own terms, and hopefully make you proud.”

• I thought it was so dreadfully sad that the Duke’s dog ran away from his door whimpering when he died. :(