The Royal Wedding is a buzzword that still incites interest, curiosity and excitement among much of the British public.
Now, Netflix have decided to recreate the Queen’s royal wedding for a new TV series. The series will document the life of Queen Elizabeth II and her royal wedding to Prince Phillip in 1947. The project, which will air in 2016, has a reported budget of $150 million.
The Crown, the newest hour long drama to join the Netflix lineup, may be the largest budget ever assembled for the network.
The Netflix original series was recently being filmed on location in Cambridgeshire. The producers have supplemented Westminster Abbey, the home of the royal weddings, with Ely Cathedral. The cathedral is in the countryside around 14 miles from Cambridge and 80 miles from London.
The series will feature only a small amount of the media fluff that surrounded the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s recent nuptials, complete with golden carriages and pearl necklaces. In true Netflix style, the show will focus on the evolving political relationship between the Crown and No 10 Downing Street.
That is not to say that special attention will not be paid to the 1947 wedding. Rumors suggest that the entire wedding was recreated for the small screen. Every detail from the Queen Elizabeth’s Norman Hartwell white satin wedding dress to the attire of the wedding party was captured by filming crews.
Even a replica of the Queen’s gold horse-drawn carriage will make an appearance on the show.
Each season will document a new decade of the Queen’s life. The balance will avoid the emotional pitfalls of other period dramas like Downton Abbey, and instead balance the political life and the personal life of Britain’s reigning monarch.
Netflix has also assembled an impressive team for this show. The show runner, Peter Morgan, is the man behind The Queen, the 2006 biopic starring Helen Mirren. The leading roles are held by Claire Roy and Matt Smith, who play Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, respectively.
With a budget of $150 million, it is possible that Netflix can breathe new life into Britain’s aging monarch.
