Dame Judi Dench Slams The Crown as 'Cruelly Unjust' & 'Hurtful'

Dame Judi Dench is the latest Brit to air her grievances with The Crown. 

In an open letter to The Times UK, the Oscar winner slammed the Netflix original for its "inaccurate and harmul account of history" and "crude sensationalism". 

"Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series — that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence — this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent. No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged," Dench wrote. 

"Sir John Major is not alone in his concerns that the latest series of The Crown will present an inaccurate and hurtful account of history," she continued, referencing former Prime Minister John Major's criciticism of the series. "Indeed, the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism."

Dench went on to echo calls for a disclaimer before each episode, as many viewers "may take its version of history as being wholly true." 

"This is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent," she continued. "No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged... Despite this week stating publicly that The Crown has always been a 'fictionalised drama' the programme makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode."

The actress then pleaded for change as a sign of respect to the late monarch. "The time has come for Netflix to reconsider — for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve its reputation in the eyes of its British subscribers," she wrote. 

Over the course of her prolific career, Dench has played British monarchs herself - she earned an Oscar for portraying Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love - but has never portrayed Queen Elizabeth II. 

The Crown's cast and crew defended the series' depiction of the royal family earlier this week after claims that the upcoming season, set to chronicle the tumultuous divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, was "exploitative". 

The Crown Season 5 debuts on Netflix November 9. Seasons 1-4 are currently streaming on the platform.

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Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. She was previously a reporter/producer at Decider and is a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.