S05.E10: Decommissioned

[Salacious Kitty]

24 minutes ago, jeansheridan said:

They seem like good get-a-grip friends. At least as seen on the show! But I can also see why Anne couldn't be fussed with Diana. 

Anne and Diana strike me as polar opposites. Anne seems practical to the core, Diana seemed to exist in a dream world. 

[truthful]

1 hour ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Yeah, they had similar needs that could never be met.  They both needed to be coddled and given constant reassurance by their partners.  It's not about the spotlight, but having a partner who prioritizes your needs over theirs.  And also looking for your partner to give you the love and affection your parents did not when you were a child.  Charles has always had some serious mommy issues coupled with Philip being Philip,  and Diana's parents were a whole mess.

Disagree, both Charles and Diana crave the spotlight.

[BlackberryJam]

I'm tired of this show saying the same old things. 

I'm just watching for the clothes. 

[Notabug]

On 11/25/2022 at 4:44 AM, andromeda331 said:

Okay, this is probably a stupid question but why can't the Queen pay for the repairs to the Britianna herself? If she loves it so much. 

Because it wasn't really just the repairs.  The Brittania was hugely expensive to maintain and staff.  The crew were from the Royal Navy.  The whole thing was already costing British taxpayers millions of dollars annually even before the repairs and there was a great deal of public sentiment that they were not getting value for the money spent.

So, if Elizabeth paid for the repairs, she'd have been pressured to start covering at least a bit of the annual upkeep too.  The royals are known for being fairly tight with their own money and I don't think Elizabeth was willing to invest any of her own money into the yacht; she felt it was her due as Queen.

There's a rather famous story that, once, as a child, Charles took some of the corgis out for a walk and lost one of their leashes.  The Queen scolded him, telling him new leashes were very expensive and he needed to go find the one he lost.  He was sent  out to retrieve it.  The Queen wanted the yacht, she didn't want any of her own money invested in it.

After the fire at Windsor, there was a huge public outcry over the cost of the repairs which were in the 10's of millions.  The Royal family 'compromised' and contributed to the repairs by allowing public tours of the interior of Buckingham Palace, only during the summer when the Queen was at Balmoral, of course.  Wouldn't want to be inconvenienced by tourists, after all.  Prior to then, the Queen refused to allow any indoor tours of the Palace, considering them invasive of her privacy. The money from the tours paid for a good portion of the repairs and still goes towards upkeep.  I've done the Buckingham Palace tour a couple of times and highly recommend it.  The entire thing is only the public areas, of course, the royals' private apartments remain off limits.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Notabug

[Guest]

This season was so underwhelming and it culminated in this episode. I found myself thinking “oh poor thing, the people that pay for your multiple castles, staff, and extravagant lifestyle don’t want to continue to pay for your yacht. However will you survive.”

I really thought this season might be overly dramatic with the events they were focusing on, but instead it was dull. 

[dubbel zout]

One reason I found this season less interesting is that I lived through all of the Charles/Diana drama IRL. She and I are contemporaries, so none of this was new to me. I felt the same to a lesser extent last season. I have a feeling next season will be equally underwhelming for me.

[truthful]

19 hours ago, deaja said:

This season was so underwhelming and it culminated in this episode. I found myself thinking “oh poor thing, the people that pay for your multiple castles, staff, and extravagant lifestyle don’t want to continue to pay for your yacht. However will you survive.”

I really thought this season might be overly dramatic with the events they were focusing on, but instead it was dull. 

The overly dramatic stuff happened in season 4. 

[CeeBeeGee]

On 11/12/2022 at 12:18 AM, peridot said:

I loved his sour look when his painting gift was upstaged by the gag gift of the singing fish.

It was pretty awful that Dodi and Mohamed constantly talk in Arabic in front of others, and Mohamed's wife just says "you'll get used to it".  It's very rude, but I guess it's tolerable considering the money the Al-Fayids have.

Charles keeps on being a snake in the grass.  I'm glad this secret meeting with the PM got back to the Queen.  I loved that he was bumped to business class on the plane!

I mean, to be fair, his watercolor was lovely. And that fish gift was pretty crass (and in character for what I've heard of Andrew's personality).

Dodi and Mohamed acted like hot garbage. Mohamed's sense of entitlement is disgusting.

 

On 11/12/2022 at 5:11 PM, BuckeyeLou said:

I wondered if that scene of Diana watching the Opinion Quiz on TV & then pressing "NO" on her phone was fictionalized?  I cant imagine that Diana would be voting against her son's future

Right? That's William's birthright. There's no way that actually happened.

 

On 11/13/2022 at 3:59 PM, Marley said:

They did do a whole episode about Philip and his family in Germany a couple seasons ago. I think maybe it was season 2. 

Paterfamilias! Wonderful episode.

[rlc]

On 11/16/2022 at 2:27 PM, swanpride said:

It is less the fall itself which is interesting, but what it meant for the whole make-up of Europe. Keep in mind that Thatcher would have preferred Germany to stay split, and that was a common sentiment in Britain. Considering the German roots of Royal Family, a discussion about Britain's position in this matter would have been interesting (especially considering that the Queen visited Berlin no less than seven times, before and after the wall went down). Granted, since the Queen never voices a position, any discussion would have been entirely theoretical, but then, the whole Romanov discussion was even more fictional. There is no evidence that the Queen particularly cared about their funerals. 

The first seasons had more of a history background, with the prime ministers playing an important role, and important events (the Suez Crisis, the Fog in London, the debt situation of Great Britain, the dead of Kennedy, the moon landing) being addressed. But now the historical background is missing (and yes, it feels odd to talk about "history" regarding events I am old enough to remember, but that's what it is). Honestly, if not for Blair turning up, I would think that the show is still in the 1980s, it doesn't feel like anything changed. 

I think that this season was more about family dynamics and skimmed over what was happening in the world because by this point in time the monarchy was completely inconsequential to world events, which was why the need for them was debated so hotly in England. 

After reading many not great reviews of this season, I held off until now to watch. I enjoyed it much more than I expected. My main takeaway is that none of these people are even remotely likeable.

[Milburn Stone]

On 11/11/2022 at 11:30 AM, Dejana said:

In real life, the decommissioning ceremony happened in December 1997. At the time, I remember people saying it proved how out of touch the Queen was, that she could so openly weep about a thing (her yacht) but not a person. Which isn't totally fair, because the Britannia held decades of happy family memories for her as well. 

Thank you for this video, @Dejana. Something the reporter said at the end of the piece provided highly useful context to explain to me the Queen's attachment to the yacht. It wasn't just her years with the yacht. The decommissioning ended 300 years of the existence of a royal yacht. This decommissioning was an insult not only to her, but to the very existence of a centuries-long monarchy she had done her royal best to serve and preserve.

On 11/25/2022 at 12:18 PM, NUguy514 said:

It doesn't help that the writing this season was also very pro-Charles...

The show is something of a Rorschach Test, because I hated this Charles. I didn't hate the writing for him, and I didn't hate West's portrayal of him. I hated him! And not, primarily, because of his treatment of Diana. I hated him because he was always going on about modernizing the monarchy, and not coming up with one single concrete suggestion for how to do it! Not a single actual proposal! I consistently had the feeling that he'd be for any reform as long as it didn't involve giving up the smallest slice of his privilege. Which means, of course, that he wasn't really in favor of anything.

[sistermagpie]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

The show is something of a Rorschach Test, because I hated this Charles. I didn't hate the writing for him, and I didn't hate West's portrayal of him. I hated him! And not, primarily, because of his treatment of Diana. I hated him because he was always going on about modernizing the monarchy, and not coming up with one single concrete suggestion for how to do it! Not a single actual proposal! I consistently had the feeling that he'd be for any reform as long as it didn't involve giving up the smallest slice of his privilege. Which means, of course, that he wasn't really in favor of anything.

Yes, it was more like just demanding they make him cool, somehow.

[Thumper]

I have never seen Dominic West in anything.  I agree that he is too handsome to play Charles.

There were a couple side shots of his profile as Charles at the Hong Kong ceremony, however, in which he reminded me of Elizabeth’s father when he was young.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Thumper

[gingerella]

On 1/13/2023 at 5:15 AM, Milburn Stone said:

The show is something of a Rorschach Test, because I hated this Charles. I didn't hate the writing for him, and I didn't hate West's portrayal of him. I hated him! And not, primarily, because of his treatment of Diana. I hated him because he was always going on about modernizing the monarchy, and not coming up with one single concrete suggestion for how to do it! Not a single actual proposal! I consistently had the feeling that he'd be for any reform as long as it didn't involve giving up the smallest slice of his privilege. Which means, of course, that he wasn't really in favor of anything.

Here, here! I just finished this season and feel like the real Charles is just like this. He's all about change just so long as it doesn't affect his cushy life style, etc. God forbid he had to give up a manor house or two!

[Bill1978]

On 11/14/2022 at 6:39 AM, monakane said:

The center of the show should be Elizabeth and she felt like a supporting player. 

I've just got around to watching this season - after the death of The Queen and all the Sussex drama I needed a break from The Royals. But I have to say even though I enjoyed the season, this would be by number complaint. It's no surprise that Imelda didn't get a nom for lead actress in a Drama at the Emmys as she was far from the lead.

I enjoyed the earlier seasons where the event of the year was framed in a way that showed how it impacted Elizabeth or how she responded to the event. As the series has progressed, they've leaned more into the drama of Charles/Diana. But I guess the 90s was the time when The Royal Family were the story and not reactants to a story. The episodes where The Queen was involved in the story were my highlights.

I was really disappointed we got nothing of the Andrew/Fergie show but I guess if they included Fergie they couldn't push the narrative that Diana was alone in the family. I would probably watch a spinoff of The Crown that focused on Charles' siblings to be honest, especially if it was just them bagging out their brother. My favourite moment of his episode was Andrew and Edward telling Charles no one wants him as King and laughing. It was a great little follow up moment from Season 3 (?) when Charles told his siblings no one cares about them (the day of Andrew's wedding)

Fingers crossed the final season focuses more on The Queen and less on Charles being jealous of anyone who takes his limelight, Phillip being all woe is me and Margaret telling her sister that her life was ruined because she wasn't allowed to marry her true love. And I will never ever buy the story that Charles and Camilla is some great love story.

 

[aghst]

On 11/11/2022 at 9:30 AM, Dejana said:

In real life, the decommissioning ceremony happened in December 1997. At the time, I remember people saying it proved how out of touch the Queen was, that she could so openly weep about a thing (her yacht) but not a person. Which isn't totally fair, because the Britannia held decades of happy family memories for her as well. 

They said a new yacht would cost £65 million?  That seems like nothing, even in late ‘90s dollars.  The super yachts now are several hundred million and aren’t as big as the Royal yacht, but they seem far more sleek and luxurious, though without the classic architectural and interior design style of vintage or “character” buildings.

In any event, it seems like the Royal Family or Elizabeth could have easily paid for it, though operational costs are probably high.  But the govt. would have paid those and had Royal Navy personnel operate it?

Was she just being cheap expecting the govt to pay?  Or was she more worried about public perception?  I remember in The Queen movie, Charles had to ask her to use one of their private jets to go to Paris to bring back Diana’s body because Elizabeth was loath for the public to think that the Royals lived a lavish, jet set lifestyle.

Certainly the Royal Family had the money so demanding public money for a yacht that would only be for their use wouldn’t be great for public perception either.

 

It was amusing, Charles had to settle for business class to Hong Kong while Tony Blair and other politicians were drinking champagne in first class.

Then you had Charles complaining that tHe £35 million that Diana demanded would ruin him but the settlement was half that and Elizabeth paid it.  I don’t know if Charles was expecting her to pay but he seemed grateful to mummy.

But then when Elizabeth died last year, there was talk that Charles was already a billionaire from various ventures he was involved with.  
 

Elizabeth was probably right, the extreme wealth of the Royal Family probably would diminish public support for the monarchy, at least the English Royal Family which receives far more public monies than any other royalty in the world.