Joanna Lumley blasts The Crown as ‘awful’ and pities ‘poor actors’

Joanna Lumley has blasted hit Netflix drama The Crown for making up conversations.

The former Absolutely Fabulous star, who is a friend of Prince Charles, told of her pity for the show’s cast, which includes Oscar winner Olivia Colman and international star Gillian Anderson.

And she said she doubts the Royal Family tune in to the show, which begins its fifth season next year.

The 75-year-old actress, who is an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust and attended Charles’s 2005 wedding to Camilla, said: “I don’t think they watch it and I never watch it.

“I know them, so I know it’s all made up and it’s rubbish. All the poor actors who are doing their best to copy them, it’s awful.

“Imagine somebody making up conversations they think you’ve had.

“It’s so laughable. They’ve used real people, whom they’ve copied, and then made up all the conversations. It’s insane.”

After a backlash over Season Four last year, which starred Emma Corrin as Princess Diana and Josh O’Connor as Charles, Netflix said: “We have every confidence our members understand that it’s a work of fiction broadly based on historical events.”

Joanna – who has written a book, A Queen For All Seasons, about the monarch – also told of her huge respect for the 95-year-old.

She told the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine: “When she goes, it will be a huge outpouring of grief. It’s losing more than a figurehead; a kind of mothership.”