Re The Crown (on Netflix)

[ananda]

I'm currently having a great conversation with some FB friends
regarding Churchill.

He is not quite as good and heroic as I used to think to put it
with great understatement.

The Crown is a very good show, btw. Loving it so far.

[Glorfindel]

1. The Crown is an excellent series. I really enjoyed it.

n/t

[viva la]

2. Well, "his finest hour" was long past when The Crown takes place.

1. He was a real character (boozing in the bathtub while aides had to take notes on his speech drafts)
2. He was a good thinker and writer, and fast with a quip.
3. His personal determination and great speeches really did make a difference in the darkest days of 1940-1941.
4. He could learn from mistakes-- many leaders can't.

He was a xenophobe, racist, anti-semite, sexist, rotten husband, booze hound, etc.

But he was what the world needed at a particularly dark moment in history.

The Crown is very good... I remind myself the royal family is (unlike Churchill) not nearly as interesting or deep as the portrayal here, but if we think of it as historical fiction, it's brilliantly written and especially acted.

[ShazamIam]

4. He fell because after WWII he wanted to put the ordinary citizens on an austerity program, not the

big social welfare programs that were needed and put in place. The people who won the war were to now continue to suffer.

[viva la]

6. They did manage to get the NHS in there by defeating him right after the war

Imagine deciding to go with a massive social program when food was still be rationed and bombsites were still being cleaned up! Impressive progressive and forward thinking-- and it has paid off for decades since.

Churchill was who he was, and the country recognized that wasn't a post-war leader.

(Then they elected him again in his oldest age! That was dumb.)

[ananda]

7. Attlee and Eden were beside themselves.

They and most others could not understand how
Churchill won, and they did everything they
could to get him to resign... but he really
loved the power and position and did everything
he could to prolong it.

[ShazamIam]

10. Yes, sentimentality elected him. The U.S. Lend-Lease aid helped all of EU with food and funds.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. Saw all 4 seasons.

Very good and detailed.

Saw familiar places about London I had visited. I do miss London.

[wryter2000]

5. I loved the first two seasons the best

Of course, you always fall in love with the first actors and miss them when they're gone. What I most loved was the history that I hadn't known. I had to check to make sure Elizabeth's uncle was really that awful. I knew he loved Hitler, but I didn't know he was going to collaborate with Hitler. As loathsome as Wallace Simpson was, at least she saved England from having him as king. I also knew pretty much nothing about Princess Margaret.

The whole third season was about Charles, Camilla, and Diana. Didn't they skip a few decades in there? Not nearly as interesting. I haven't see the fourth season yet.

[ananda]

8. The Mountbattens had strong Nazi ties.

Two of Philip's sisters were married to Nazis,
and the former king, Edward, along with
Wallis, was a Nazi sympathizer.

[viva la]

9. That was a fascinating tidbit

That Philip's sisters were with Nazis, but also that he was actually destitute as a child.

[ananda]

11. Yes, Philip was much more decent than I expected..

Also, I’m looking forward to more of a story arc
on Louis Mountbatten..

[viva la]

12. It's hard to believe that he and Philip's

Crazy old nun mother are siblings.

[ananda]

13. Prolly a lot of inbreeding in those royal families historically.

All of them, including Victoria and descendants.

[ananda]

14. Wow. I hadn't thought of that.

Louis was a pedophile and she became a nun while
still being a princess.

The whole thing seemed surreal and bizarre, but I've
always felt that way about royalty.

I mean, what is royalty propped up on, and what absurd
lengths will they go to in order to keep their titles?