We start out our brand new show, The Recappery, with coverage of the Netflix series, The Crown, season two!
We were both so very excited for the season to start that we got up at 2:00 A.M. to watch the first episode as soon as it dropped.
Misadventure
Written by Peter Morgan
(spoiler alert: they are ALL written by Peter Morgan. He’s the show creator, producer, and writer.)
We give a brief recap of season one, to refresh all of our minds, before we talk scene-by-scene and fill in all the historical bits. For most of this episode Elizabeth is dealing with two crisis: Phillip is off on a five month time-out goodwill tour that will take him to Australia, Lisbon, the South Pacific and Antarctica; Anthony Eden, the new Prime Minister, is handling a situation in Egypt where a new President has taken control of the Suez Canal from Great Britain and France.
Both of these stories started at the end of season one and even before the opening credits we know that things aren’t going to play out smoothly for Phillip, and we know from history that the Suez Canal Crisis isn’t going to work out well for Eden. Nope. Not at all. So we’ll get to watch that train wreck over the next few episodes.
Speaking of train wrecks, Elizabeth’s younger sister Margaret has let the chip she got on her shoulder last season ferment into a deeply entertaining bitter streak. She’s in her Party Years and she’s doing them very well, much to Elizabeth’s dismay. But the Queen’s life isn’t without personal drama when she finds good reason to suspect that Phillip is cheating on her with a famous ballerina.
As far as historical accuracy goes, we point out the tiny oopses (and the examples of narrative economy), give you some background on the things that actually did occur…and Beckett plays Identify the Crown very well.
We’re going to be recapping an episode a week (yes, we know, you watched the whole season in a 10 hour marathon) but to keep you busy here are the links that we talked about for even MORE background intel.
The Court Jeweller covered the jewels of season one, and we can only hope they do that again because they know their jewels over there, but here is a post about all of Elizabeth’s tiaras
12 Juicy Bits from Prince Phillips biography
Details of the Suez Crisis and President Nasser
What is the deal with British Orders and sashes?
Paaartaay Princesss…Some of the antics of Princess Margaret
The real Anthony Eden meeting the real President Nasser:
While there is ZERO evidence that an affair happened in real life (with anyone, those Windsor-Mountbatten’s are quite skilled at keeping that kind of thing invisible) here is the beautiful ballerina, Galina Ulanova dancing Swan Lake.