Netflix series reflects on turmoil of 1990s in Royal Family

The splintering marriage of Charles and Diana and more woes for Queen Elizabeth II are in the drama's elegant but intrusive spotlight.

STORYLINE:

The safe distance of history is gone in the 10 new episodes of the drama "The Crown", which is set within recent memory for many.

The Netflix series began with Elizabeth's marriage in the late 1940s and, in its fifth season, takes on the British royal family's turbulent 1990s.

The queen famously labeled one stretch her "annus horribilis" -- Latin for "horrible year."

1992 saw the end of the marriages of three of the Queen's four children.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson split in March, Princess Anne divorced her husband in April and married navy commander Timothy Laurence in December.

That same month, Prince Charles and Diana separated.

In November, fire damaged Windsor Castle, public outcry over the cost of repairs during a recession prompted the queen to volunteer to pay income taxes.

Also in 1992, Andrew Morton's first book about the princess, "Diana, Her True Story," was published. It revealed she had attempted suicide and suffered from an eating disorder.

Some of Charles' detractors still fault him for the break-up of his marriage to Princess Diana and his not-too-carefully-concealed extra-marital affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, now his second wife.

Charles and Diana's divorce was finalised in 1996.

Diana threw herself into charity work.

The death of Queen Elizabeth, 96, in September adds an uneasy dimension for the drama.

Among the prominent critics is Judi Dench, an Oscar-winner for her role as Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love."

In a letter to The Times of London, the actor blasted elements of the drama as "cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent".

She called for each episode to carry a disclaimer labeling it as fiction.

It's a demand that Netflix has heard before and continues to resist, framing the series as drama inspired by historical events.

Series creator Peter Morgan was unavailable for comment, Netflix said.

Dench is not amused by the streaming service's intransigence.

"The time has come for Netflix to reconsider — for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years," she wrote.

Her plea followed a rebuke of the series from former Prime Minister John Major, shown in the new season being lobbied by Prince Charles — now King Charles III — to help maneuver the queen's abdication.

A spokesman for Major labeled the scene as false and malicious.