A Study on 'The Crown': History and Fiction about the Historical Figure of Queen Elizabeth II

Abstract

This dissertation intends to be a study on the relevance of the figure of the present Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, by focusing on the historical and social circumstances which marked the first period of her long reign as is portrayed in the Netflix original TV series The Crown (created by Peter Morgan in 2016 and still running). An exhaustive and contrastive analysis will be undertaken between the most relevant historical, bibliographical and biographical sources on this subject and their adaptation in the TV show in order to find out the reasons why the directors and the screenwriters reinterpreted Queen Elizabeth’s early life in the manner they did and how much is historical truth and how much is fiction. A historical and social introduction to the period will be also included and the analysis will be illustrated with the most relevant extracts taken from the TV series