World News – GB – The Crown: Fagan, Season 4 Episode 5, Review: Lousy Queen Script needs a royal pardon

The outrageous but true story of Michael Fagan’s storming of Buckingham Palace revealed his Achilles heel – Queen’s Dialogue

The most bizarre episode on The Crown, the one you would have made fun of if Peter Morgan had made it from scratch, is the one that just happens to be true.. An intruder breaks into Buckingham Palace – not once but twice! – Of all the rooms he could stumble into, he ends up face-to-face with Queen (Olivia Coleman) in her nightgown.. It was a major security breach, a story that made headlines around the world, and made you wonder what the couple actually talked about..

In fact, as Michael Fagan told this newspaper last week, the conversation was short. The Queen apologized and left the room as quickly as her legs could carry her. But that wouldn’t make for a great TV, so Morgan let his imagination fly.

The episode gives us Fagan’s long dramatic story – living in a gloomy council apartment, unable to see his children after being separated from their mother, unemployed, and struggling with the social services bureaucracy and the aid office. Tom Brooke plays an understandably frustrated man with life, but also with an unexpected feature. However, it sometimes appears to be the voice of reason. When confronted by Fagan, the Queen protests: « I meet normal people all the time. ». « No, you don’t. Everyone you meet is at their best, kneeling and deceiving. He answers.

In a surprisingly sympathetic series with Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson), Morgan decided to make Fagan the mouthpiece of the hate that a large portion of the nation had towards her (as well as The Beat, who played the episode with their 1980 song Stand Down Margaret) ). Her speeches about hard work and self-reliance provide an ironic backdrop to his existence. Sitting at the back of the Queen’s bed, Fagan clings to the 3 million unemployed (« more than at any time since the Great Depression ») and « Thatcher’s appetite for presidential power ».

“They said I had mental problems now. I do not. At one point, Fagan says, it’s a line that gets home.

Morgan is better at writing the lines for Fagan than for the Queen. There was a wonderful comedic moment when the Queen tried to fill the silence with her favorite beauty in a short conversation: « Have you come a long way? » But the dialogue he gives her can be heartbreaking. Prince Philip then said, “This guy was clearly crazy and foolish” (Tobias Menzies had little to do in the series except to be a steady and supportive presence, but he does it well). The Queen replied, « Yes, but in its best sense. Like a fool of Lear. « This may be the worst line in all four strings this show has to offer.

Did the Queen indicate high unemployment rates among her fans with Thatcher? Was she really going to lecture the prime minister with words of support for a man who broke into her house, asking: “If people like Mr. Fagan are suffering, do we not have a collective duty to help them? What about our moral economy?” The crown is wonderful on many levels, but the Queen’s text is not one of them..

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The Crown, Michael Fagan, Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace, Margaret Thatcher, Diana, Princess of Wales