The Crown sparks row over replica of mangled Mercedes which carried late princess

It’s an award-winning show that has sparked controversy countless times as it follows the fate of the royal family since the 1940s.

Now The Crown is risking a new row after images emerged showing a replica of the wrecked Mercedes that had driven Princess Diana, on the set of Elstree Studios.

Diana and Dodi Fayed died in the early hours of August 31, 1997, after the S-Class they were traveling in crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.

Images obtained by the Daily Mail show a recreation of the wreckage with the front wheel of a black Mercedes crooked, the bonnet crushed and the dashboard hanging from the obliterated front windscreen.

The vehicle was said to have been secretly transported under a tarpaulin to Paris, one of two cars brought there for filming last year.

In October, Netflix crews in the French capital were spotted piecing together Diana’s final journey. Other scenes filmed in December show investigators examining her remains.

While Netflix insisted at the time: “The exact moment of impact of the crash will not be shown,” a source told the Post: “I think a lot of people will find it quite sick that they went into so much detail to recreate how the car was wrecked. I think it’s going to cause a lot of upset with the Royal Family, if it were any other family I’m not sure they would.

Fayed and the driver, 41-year-old Henri Paul, died instantly, while Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki, was taken to hospital and later died of her injuries. British bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only survivor.

The sixth series will follow the royals from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. Netflix has declined to comment.

Netflix faced fierce backlash for the latest series, which features Elizabeth Debicki as Diana and shows the late princess sitting down for her infamous 1995 Panorama interview with disgraced former BBC journalist Martin Bashir.

When they released the trailer for the fifth season, they accompanied it with an online statement acknowledging that the drama is a “fictional dramatization.”

But so far he has refused to add a similar statement on television.

Actress Dame Judi Dench accused the show of being “cruelly unfair” and backed calls for a disclaimer.

Dame Judi, 88, who played Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, said the series risks damaging the monarchy.

The Oscar-winning actress blamed the show for “crude sensationalism” and for blurring fact and fiction.

In a letter to The Times newspaper, he asked Netflix to display a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode to say it is a “fictional drama.” He said he should also show respect for the bereavement suffered by the royal family and the nation.

Dame Eileen Atkins, meanwhile, who played Queen Mary in the first series, said: ‘My friends in America tell me a lot of people think it’s a documentary.

“Most of the time, if you’re talking about real people, you say this is fiction based on fact. I don’t know why this hasn’t happened with this.

The latest skepticism about the series also follows a call for a boycott of the show by friends of King Charles who claimed it was fabricating a ‘hurtful’ smear against the monarch.

Last fall, the show came under fire for a scene showing Charles secretly plotting to overthrow the Queen when he was Prince of Wales.

Carlos was shown lobbying prime minister major john in a bizarre attempt to force his mother’s abdication.

But Sir John told The Mail on Sunday that the meeting never happened, calling the scene a “barrel of malicious nonsense”.

Another well-placed source said: ‘All the dialogue is completely made up.

“All the one-on-one conversations you see on screen are pure fiction and some scenes have been created entirely for dramatic and commercial purposes with no regard for the truth. The people should boycott it.

Writers for The Crown suggested that Charles believed his mother, then 65, was repeating Queen Victoria’s mistakes by refusing to step aside for a younger heir.

But critics point out that Charles was actually well aware that abdication was unthinkable and would devalue the institution.

Other sources said the Queen’s death just weeks before the episode’s release made it all the more “particularly painful”.

The latest controversy also comes after Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Anne Glenconner, said last month that she was “mad with rage” after seeing The Crown.

Lady Anne, 90, admitted she could not believe the “rather hideous” portrayal of the late princess, having previously invited Helena Bonham Carter to tea to advise the actress, 56, on court manners. the royalty.

The bridesmaid reveals that she was so upset with the portrayal of Princess Margaret and herself (played by Nancy Carroll), that she confronted Helena to express her dismay at the third season.

‘I saw Helena Bonham Carter, she came to tea, about the performance of Princess Margaret: how she talked and walked. I said I never saw her run,” she says.

“After seeing Helena in The Crown, I was very disappointed in the performance and said, ‘It was pretty awful, wasn’t it?’ She said that she had no choice but to do as she was told.

Lady Ana added to old magazine that the production “could not afford to film The Crown at Glen” [her family’s ancestral home].

She says: “When Princess Margaret was filmed first meeting Roddy Llewellyn, we were sitting by a pool in what looked like a hideous country club, they had me pimped out for her, both of us in bikinis; Princess Margaret never I was wearing a bikini.” So cheap.

“They really should put a disclaimer at the beginning of The Crown, saying it’s not true.”

Lady Anne adds that she thought The Crown “began well” and called the scene of the Duke of Windsor watching the coronation in France “excellent”.

In 2021, politicians and royal experts backed a Mail on Sunday campaign to demand that Netflix put a disclaimer on The Crown, making it clear that it was presenting fiction as fact.

It followed mounting criticism for the distortion of a series of incidents depicted on the show. The streaming giant quietly added a disclaimer to its marketing for the show last year.