“Netflix is treating The Crown as if it’s Downton Abbey. But it’s not a work of fiction. These are real lives and real people, and they’re living people.”

THE upcoming series of The Crown has been blasted by a leading Royal expert.

Rafe Heydel-Mankoo slammed the Netflix programme for exposing a difficult time in the monarchy’s history, so soon after Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

Speaking to GB News he said: “Just looking at the latest trailer, I mean, you can see the headlines next month,, ‘Netflix November nightmare for the monarchy’ for delving into what is really the most painful and distressing decade, the 1990s, in the monarchy’s recent history.

“The problem is that Netflix is treating The Crown as if it’s Downton Abbey. But it’s not a work of fiction. These are real lives and real people, and they’re living people. And this is the key point that this is dealing with people’s raw emotions, and real life. And it’s not as if this is a documentary. This is using drama and fiction, half truths and twisting reality for dramatic effect. And the impact that that can have on any person is negative.

“It’s also dealing with a vital institution, the monarchy, at a time of great sensitivity and a delicate moment. The succession isn’t really complete yet, because we still haven’t got the Coronation done. The monarch is still cementing the bond between the Crown and the people, not just here, but importantly, also in the Commonwealth realms where they don’t really know the King as well as we do here, and also in other countries like America.

“And unfortunately, whether or not you have a disclaimer, and there’s a question as to why it’s taken five series for this disclaimer to come into being, we don’t know whether it’s going to actually be on the actual series.”

The fifth series of The Crown will air in November, and is expected to expose the difficult breakdown of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage.

Mr Heydel-Mankoo added: “It’s all about impressions. Because a month after The Crown has aired, a year after The Crown has aired, people aren’t going to remember the specifics of the show. But what they’re going to be left with is an impression. And it’s going to be a bad negative impression about the King and Queen at a time when their popularity has been surging and soaring. And I think that is to be lamented.”

The latest series of the Netflix royal drama will air scenes showing the affair between Prince Charles and Camilla, which Heydel-Mankoo slammed. He said: “Intimate Moments, a well known, very sensitive phone conversation between them, the King and the Queen, with the rather intimate affairs discussed there. Why should that become public knowledge?

“Why should a documentary that’s claiming to be sensitive portray something which is unnecessary for them for the larger story that’s being told. But the important point also, I think, is about the global reception, and the Commonwealth realms. We know how delicate the monarchy is in Australia for example, and in Canada, and US and New Zealand it’s more secure, but people haven’t got to know the King and the Queen.

“And every time there’s a royal visit to North America, 25 years after Diana’s death, Diana is still brought up. And the cloud of Diana hangs heavy in North America and in Australia and New Zealand in a way that it doesn’t do here, because we’ve got to know the King and Queen, and we’ve got to like them very much. And I think that the damage that this will cause will just bring back and do away with so much of the positivity that’s happened over the last 20 years. “

“The problem is what we’ve seen with The Crown is a harkening back to that old idea of black and white, you have the goodies, you have St Diana, and then you have the negative side which is the palace and our current King and Queen.

“And it’s that lack of sensitivity, the lack of nuance that I think is at the heart of the problem that we have with this series and this show and the inability of people who aren’t historians who aren’t fully aware of the facts to distinguish between fact and fiction.”