The Crown’s Charles and Diana: ‘Hopefully people won’t hate them too much’

The Crown has taken on royal births and deaths, national crises and personal scandals, and seen prime ministers come and go.

But now, as the big-budget drama enters the glamour of the 1980s, the era of Diana and Margaret Thatcher – two of the most talked about public figures of the century – things are about to get even more interesting.

A relative unknown, 24-year-old actress Emma Corrin enters the fray as Lady Diana Spencer, the future People’s Princess, a role that is almost certainly set to turn her into a household name when season four of The Crown launches in November.

Idolised, criticised, heavily scrutinised, Diana’s memory is forever tied to the fall-out following the breakdown of her relationship to Charles, and the controversial circumstances of her death; millions feel they know her story, making it a huge role to take on.

“It’s incredibly daunting,” Corrin tells Sky News, in a Zoom interview alongside her on-screen royal husband, both looking decidedly less royal and far more relaxed chatting from their sofas rather than the regal Crown sets.