Peter Morgan, the creator and writer of Netflix's The Crown, tries to guess which character said well-known lines from the show. He discusses John Lithgow's casting as Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth's memorable 21st birthday speech, and why he almost didn't include Princess Diana in the series.
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00:00 I'm not an actor, okay.
00:03 Go on.
00:04 - Yeah, you're good.
00:05 That's good.
00:06 - Okay.
00:08 Hi, I'm Peter Morgan.
00:09 I'm going to be guessing who said what and when
00:12 on "The Crown".
00:14 I think?
00:14 - Yes.
00:15 - Right.
00:16 (upbeat music)
00:19 We're all dying.
00:22 That's what defines the conditions of living.
00:26 Are you sure this is from "The Crown"?
00:28 Okay.
00:30 I have no idea.
00:31 I don't remember writing that.
00:32 I mean, it sounds, it feels familiar as,
00:36 yes, linguistically.
00:38 I just, this is AI.
00:40 Is this AI?
00:42 This is a, it's chat GPT.
00:45 - We're all dying.
00:47 That's what defines the condition of living.
00:51 - Who's Winston Churchill?
00:53 No, I'm kidding.
00:54 He was so inappropriate for the role
00:56 that the fact that he became so stunning in the role
00:59 involved elasticity and talent.
01:04 And so you were just boggling at what he was up to.
01:07 And then he had great power and presence.
01:11 I mean, physically, he was so wrong for it
01:14 and he ended up being so right for it.
01:16 So that's about the inhabiting of a part.
01:19 I don't think of myself as royalty.
01:21 First and foremost, I'm a wife and a mother.
01:23 That's what's most important to me.
01:27 Diana?
01:27 I'm imagining season six.
01:31 [buzzer]
01:32 No?
01:33 Four?
01:34 Really?
01:37 - I don't think of myself as royalty.
01:40 No, first and foremost, I'm a wife and a mother.
01:43 - I sort of felt to myself,
01:44 I'm prepared to write this show without Diana
01:47 if we can't find someone who I believe is Diana.
01:51 You could get a lot of people to act
01:54 that class and that age,
01:56 but Diana is so totemic, so unique.
01:59 And I felt that, obviously,
02:01 that those two actors could do it.
02:04 And so it was a pleasure and a privilege to write the part.
02:07 But I think I would've been paralyzed
02:09 writing for someone that I didn't believe could do it.
02:12 And so I would've tried to reconfigure the whole show
02:15 almost without a Diana, which seems now impossible.
02:19 But that's only because I did feel it was possible
02:21 because of who we got.
02:23 [typing]
02:24 That was impressively cunty.
02:26 I think I gave that line to Prince Andrew, didn't I?
02:28 [buzzer]
02:30 Oh, Prince Edward?
02:32 Okay, one of the brothers.
02:34 - That was impressively cunty.
02:37 - Yeah, that was done with a sort of eyebrow going up.
02:40 It's amazing that you could use that word
02:42 and it loses some of its offensiveness
02:45 when wrapped up in an eyebrow-raised delivery.
02:49 It looks like a line out of "The Succession,"
02:51 but it's actually a line out of "The Crown."
02:53 I wonder how many lines from "The Crown"
02:55 could be in "Succession."
02:56 - There's this fancy new business theory.
02:58 It's called make more than you spend and you're King Cunt.
03:01 Dad, come on.
03:03 - I declare before you that my whole life,
03:04 whether it be long or short,
03:05 shall be devoted to your service
03:06 and the service of our great imperial family
03:08 to which we all belong.
03:09 I didn't write that.
03:11 The Queen wrote that.
03:12 [ding]
03:13 Or somebody wrote it for the Queen.
03:15 Well, she would've said that,
03:16 I think we had that in episode eight of season three.
03:20 [buzzer]
03:21 Four.
03:22 Three, four.
03:23 Eh.
03:24 Eh.
03:25 - That my whole life,
03:27 whether it be long or short,
03:30 shall be devoted to your service.
03:34 - And it's really beautiful.
03:35 I declare before you, I declare before you,
03:38 you know, not to you,
03:39 that my whole life, whether it be long or short,
03:42 that parenthesis is nice,
03:44 shall be devoted to your service.
03:46 Again, that's so, there's so much humility in that.
03:50 There's no declaration of it.
03:52 It's almost like a question.
03:54 And the service of our great imperial family
03:56 to which we all belong,
03:57 it's a beautiful, inclusive piece of writing.
04:00 I could never do it justice.
04:03 They're not the job, she is the job.
04:05 She is the essence of your duty.
04:06 Well, episode one,
04:10 George VI to Prince Philip.
04:15 - She is the job.
04:18 (dramatic music)
04:20 She is the essence of your duty.
04:23 - That was actually done
04:24 right at the very end of the first episode.
04:26 Jared delivered the line beautifully.
04:28 It was with real intensity.
04:30 And there was pain,
04:31 the pain of imminent death in the delivery.
04:34 She is the oxygen we all breathe,
04:38 the essence of all our duty.
04:39 Well, that's like the last one.
04:41 Oh, shoot, I didn't mean that.
04:42 Okay, sorry, sorry, I'll do it again.
04:47 Okay, I can't remember,
04:48 but I think it's Margaret.
04:51 No, of course it wasn't.
04:53 Damn right, yes.
04:57 When he gives her the bollocking.
04:59 Yeah, he repeats the line.
05:02 Of course he does.
05:04 - She's the oxygen we all breathe,
05:06 the essence of all our duty.
05:10 - What kind of marriage is this?
05:11 What kind of family?
05:12 You've taken my career from me,
05:13 you've taken my home, you've taken my name.
05:15 Well, that would be early.
05:18 It was definitely when Prince Philip
05:19 is starting to have doubts or he's struggling.
05:22 Season two?
05:23 Season one.
05:25 What kind of marriage is this?
05:27 What kind of family?
05:30 Well, first of all,
05:32 he had fantastic chemistry with Claire Foy.
05:35 They were brilliant together.
05:36 So as a couple,
05:37 they were sort of pretty electric, I thought.
05:40 And Matt, he comes with a restlessness,
05:44 which was really fitting.
05:46 And also, it's very straight-backed Matt.
05:48 Of course he's had no military career,
05:51 but he'd do well, I think.
05:54 You have no enemies, you say.
05:55 Alas, my friend, the boast is poor.
05:56 He who has mingled in the fray of duty
05:58 that the brave endure must have made foes.
06:01 Well, that's Thatcher.
06:03 Season four.
06:05 Episode two, "The Balmoral Test."
06:08 Yes, it was that one.
06:10 Yes, I enjoyed writing that episode.
06:12 - You have no enemies.
06:14 You say, alas, my friend, the boast is poor.
06:19 - I haven't had a conversation with either the Queen
06:21 or with Margaret Thatcher about it,
06:23 but you read up about it, you talk to people,
06:27 and you do your best.
06:28 And then you also have to make, you know,
06:30 you have to make a whole load of suppositions.
06:32 I hope we got it right.
06:33 Well, there were three of us in this marriage,
06:36 so it was a bit crowded.
06:37 Diana, next.
06:40 - Well, there were three of us in this marriage,
06:42 so it was a bit crowded.
06:44 - This is terrible.
06:46 I've got like zero.
06:48 I'm seeing, null point.
06:50 And it all sounds the same.
06:51 (upbeat music)
06:54 (upbeat music)
06:57 (upbeat music)
07:00 (upbeat music)
07:02 (upbeat music)