On Wednesday, November 9, the fifth season of the popular drama show "The Crown" about the life of members of the British royal family was released on the Netflix streaming service.

The action of the new episodes covers the period from the early 1990s to 1997.

The events of those years are a very delicate topic for the royal family as a whole, and in 1992 Queen Elizabeth II herself (her role in the fifth season will be played by Imelda Staunton, known to many viewers as Dolores Umbridge in the films of the Harry Potter franchise) called annus horribilis - "terrible year"

The authors of the show presented on the screen the events of that time that were significant for the royal family: the fire at Windsor Castle, the divorces in the families of the Queen's children, the victory of Laborist Tony Blair in the fight for the post of Prime Minister, the scandals of Charles and Diana.

According to foreign media, earlier King Charles III was so dissatisfied with the series that he demanded that a disclaimer be added to each episode, informing that the events of the show are fiction, not documentaries.

Netflix partly went forward - in the description of the series on the Netflix page on YouTube and on the official website of the site, they added the phrase: "This is a fictional dramatization inspired by real events ...".

At the same time, however, the American company flatly refused to insert such a disclaimer before each series.

But not only Charles III, rumored to be very concerned about how his divorce from Diana will be shown, is outraged by the Crown.

Tony Blair, former head of the Labor Party and Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1997 to 2007, and his predecessor John Major also criticized the series.

Commenting in an interview with the Daily Telegraph on the release of the fifth season, the finale of which chronologically coincides with Blair's rise to power, a representative of the politician quoted him as saying: "It should be quite obvious that this is complete and utter nonsense."

Major, in turn, stated that the fiction in the series "causes pain for a family that is still grieving for the man on whose life this whole drama is based."

Conservative spokesman, former Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine endorsed Major and Blair's position.

“Great, I’m glad they spoke out.

They have public authority, and it is important that those who understand what is happening and what has already happened really speak out, because the royal family is in a position where it is very difficult for them to defend themselves, ”SkyNews quotes Heseltine.

Despite the dissatisfaction of the royal family and its entourage, film critics are convinced that The Crown brought great benefits to the prototypes of its heroes. 

Film critics, in turn, note the "strong ensemble" of the fifth season of the show, highlighting, first of all, Staunton's performance as the queen and Elizabeth Debicki, who embodied the image of Princess Diana on the screen.

Actors such as Jonathan Pryce, Jonny Lee Miller, Dominic West, Lesley Manville, Bertie Carvel and others were also involved in the work on the fifth season.

The premiere of the series "The Crown" took place in 2016.

The story begins in the 1940s, when the young Elizabeth II had not yet ascended the throne.

The events of the fifth season manage to “hook” even the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, played by Anatoly Kotenev.

Work on the sixth and final season started in 2022.

Partly it will be dedicated to the last days of the life of Princess Diana, and chronologically it will end at the beginning of the 2000s.

The sixth season will be released in autumn 2023.