The Crown - Season 3: "Aberfan" (2019)

REVIEW BY: ROBERT CHANDLER

THE CROWN season 3's ABERFAN episode was excellent.

I'd had my doubts about Olivia Colman as HRH, partly because Claire Foy was so good, but also because Colman is not a natural “royal". That's a very working class family name. (She played Queen Anne in THE FAVOURITE as a petulant child).

Watch how well Helena Bonham Carter essays her portrayal of Princess Margaret in this new season. Helena comes from money and prime ministerial stock, she has the class. You can see it in how her Margaret talks to her staff, and in her comportment.

Season three started by introducing Olivia as the Queen reviewing her appearance on the new Royal Mail stamps. On the left of screen, a portrait-sized silhouette of Claire Foy on the old stamp; on the right, a portrait-sized silhouette of Colman on the new stamp. A neat way to mark the change.

All well and good, but I started to worry that without Foy and Vanessa Kirby (Margaret in seasons 1 and 2) THE CROWN would lose its bite.

Helena B-C very quickly restored my faith in Margaret; but Colman gave me doubts through episodes 1 and 2... and then episode 3 came along. It depicted the Aberfan disaster, where, in 1966, a mountainside's worth of coal sludge engulfed a school in Aberfan, Wales, killing 116 young children and 28 adults. A tough subject to depict; the devastation still raw for many people.

Writer Peter Morgan handled it brilliantly, depicting the disaster with sensitivity while allowing it to tell a story of the Queen and her delayed response to it. At no point did it feel exploitative.

Colman stepped up to the part, conveying much without words; as did Jason Watkins as PM Harold Wilson. Their scenes together were particularly good.

That the Queen did not visit Aberfan until eight days after the disastrous event was depicted as giving her grave concern about her own conscience, as well as her role as ruler of her people. Morgan successfully dramatised the tensions behind her decision without ever making them wordy or expository. This was a remarkable achievement in itself.

When the episode was released a couple months ago, the Queen's decision not to visit immediately after the disaster would have provided some commentary on Boris Johnson's lack of apparent empathy and his non-attendance at the recent floodings in the UK, where many were forced out of their homes. Johnson was roundly criticised for this... now, in the grip of Corona Virus, that commentary seems redundant.

Still, an excellent episode that put THE CROWN back on track.