'The Crown' season 5 review: the show is still a gem for Netflix

There’s been enough drama in the British royal family this year. From jubilee celebrations to mourning the end of an era, it almost makes the return of The Crown for its fifth season too much to bear. With a new cast coming in, led by Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, the jewel in Netflix’s crown is back to cover that most turbulent of eras — the 1990s.

At the centre will be Diana (Elizabeth Debicki, seamlessly stepping in for Emma Corrin), locked in an increasingly unhappy marriage to Prince Charles (Dominic West).

“Don’t rock the boat — ever!” Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) warns her, as rumours swirl that she’s collaborating on a tell-all book with journalist Andrew Morton. Ever determined to tell her side of a painful story, she does just that. The year 1992 — the "Annus Horriblis", as the queen famously termed it — gets its own episode (directed by Danish-Egyptian May el-Toukhy), as Charles and Diana reach a point of no return, other royal marriages implode and Windsor Castle suffers horrifying damage from a fire.

As always, the Peter Morgan-scripted show does a fine job of drawing parallels to now. When the first episode opens, Britain is entering a worrying recession and Ukraine is pulling away from Russia. Prime minister John Major (Jonny Lee Miller, perfectly capturing the watchfulness of the Conservative leader) observes just how “dangerously deluded and out of touch” the Royal family is, with the queen demanding public money to repair the Royal yacht, Britannia.

Charles is left obsessing over his accession. He tells one dinner party that it’s like being “stuck in a waiting room” (as ever the show’s timing is impeccable, given he has now — finally — become King Charles). An opinion poll favours him taking to the throne with Diana by his side.

But as everyone knows that fairy tale dissolved into tragedy. By 1997, Diana would be dead, killed in a Paris underpass in a car crash, alongside her lover, Dodi Al-Fayed (Egyptian-British actor Khalid Abdalla), son to the garrulous business tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw).