Alex Bailey, Netflix
Historical fiction enthusiasts, costume lovers and general television fans: stop everything because Netflix’s latest visual masterpiece is about to air.
Oh, and did we mention that it has a modest budget of $160 million… making it the most expensive television series ever produced.
Here’s the lowdown on the royal series that has everyone talking.
The highly anticipated new drama from Netflix follows Queen Elizabeth II and her ascension to the throne, documenting the trials of dealing with family and public life and the immense pressure of The Crown.
Directed by Stephen Daldry who also directed Billy Elliot and created by Peter Morgan, an expert on the topic who penned The Queen and The Audience (starring Helen Mirren as, ahem, The Queen), the series is set to be wrought with family drama and tension.
The narratives are based on true events and reminiscent of say a House of Cards or Game of Thrones, albeit more subtle. Daldry describes it as “not just the story of a family, it’s the story of post-War Britain,” in a sneak-peak featurette released by Netflix.
Elizabeth is played by Claire Foy (Wolf Hall) and the young Prince Phillip is played by British hunk Matt Smith, who you may recognise from his days as the eleventh doctor in Doctor Who.
The budget of the series is a whopping GBP100 million and a lot of this ginormous sum is dedicated to the breath-taking costumes – detailed replicas of the Queen’s actual outfits, as well as more fictionalised period outfits seen in her private scene’s, giving an insight into the then-26 year old royal’s life.
Elizabeth’s wedding dress in the series even cost more than the original it duplicates and took 6 embroiderers, working 10 hour days 6 weeks to make.
The production is massive and even the 7000 extras have between two and five costumes each.
The series streams on Netflix from November 4.
