Jason Watkins hits out at The Crown’s critics

The Crown has often had criticism levelled at it over the years, and the closer the Netflix show got to modern memory the more this increased — but star Jason Watkins tells Yahoo UK how complaints over the show's historical accuracy disregards viewers' intelligence.

Watkins starred in the show's third season as former Prime Minister Harold Wilson, the series explored a multitude of real-life events from the time like the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster which killed 116 children and 28 adults. The actor, who will soon return to screens in ITV's McDonald and Dodds, reflected on his time on the Netflix juggernaut for Role Recall.

"The Crown is a behemoth, isn't it?" Watkins says of the series and the criticism it has received over the years. "And it is a brilliantly made piece of television. I don't know what the numbers are, but I think it's the most watched thing [on Netflix], and there are reasons for that.

"I would say from the start what is the truth? Even a perfect historical book about an incident is only a view of what has happened. I think it's condescending to think that audiences would believe that as verbatim, I think audiences are intelligent enough to know what is a fictional account of real events.

"You could say that Peter Morgan is a historian, it is his view on history... and [there are] some beautiful episodes that he's made throughout this."

Read more: The Crown’s head of research calls out criticism of the show's historical accuracy

Reflecting on his time on the show, Watkins went on: "If I talk about my own experience, the Aberfan episode is such a heartfelt, extraordinary piece of television.

"Having lost a child myself, being part of something about the loss of those children that is done in such an amazing way, with this incredible team and the emotional effect of that program, that would potentially affect change or [audience's] understanding of grief — I'm incredibly proud of that.

"You can invent, with a fiction[al show] based on real events, what may be going on inside a character's head, and all these views that Peter has about the mixture of public and private life within the Royal family — it's his view on it."

The actor starred in the series when Olvia Colman took on the role of Queen Elizabeth II. Netflix's hit series weathered quite a bit of criticism in its time, with royal biographers calling it "odious" and the depiction of Princess Diana's death in the final season also being torn to shreds by critics.

Watkins adds that he feels the show should be celebrated by the British public because of what it was able to achieve: "I think we should just make sure that we take a lot of pride in this British project that was made, that has become this enormous international hit. And the Royal family, I would argue, is more popular than it's ever been, partly as a result of The Crown.

"I was sort of torn apart by a historical biographer, a Royal biographer, [once] and I wish I'd said some of those things, but I felt slightly cowed by it. I perhaps should have been proud about what we had created, and also the way in which those shows are made."

The Crown is available to stream on Netflix.

McDonald and Dodds season 4 will premiere on ITV1 on Sunday, 21 July, and Yahoo's full Role Recall interview with Jason Watkins will be released on Thursday, 18 July.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/jason-watkins-the-crown-criticism-125527077.html