The Crown (season 4)

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The Crown (2016–2023) is an English historical drama airing on Netflix about the life of Queen Elizabeth II, beginning with her marriage to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1947 and ending in the 21st century.

Gold Stick [4.1][edit]

Prince Philip: That's the last thing this country needs.
Queen Elizabeth II: What?
Prince Philip: Two women running the shop.
Queen Elizabeth II: Perhaps that's precisely what this country needs. I rather like what I've seen of her so far.
Prince Philip: What, the shopkeeper's daughter?
Queen Elizabeth II: An alderman shopkeeper's daughter who worked hard and gained a scholarship to Oxford.
Prince Philip: Yes, to study chemistry.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, but later changed direction and qualified as a barrister while raising twin children. You try doing that.
Prince Philip: What about her character? [reading from a newspaper article] It says here, "As a young woman, she applied for a job as a food research chemist and was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as being headstrong, obstinate, and dangerously self-opinionated."
Queen Elizabeth II: Really? Who else around here does that sound like?
Louis Mountbatten: Dear boy! My office rang Buckingham Palace what must be an hour ago, and I've been put through to about nine different extensions. Where have we finally reached you?
Prince Charles: Northeast Iceland, in a lodge on the River Hofsá.
Louis Mountbatten: What are you doing there?
Prince Charles: Salmon fishing with friends. You at Classiebawn with the gang?
Louis Mountbatten: The whole tribe, and everyone's asking after you. Are you gonna be in London next week? I'd like to see you.
Prince Charles: I won't. I have a rendezvous with Camilla. We've found a couple of days where we could catch up.
Louis Mountbatten: Oh, Charles, you're not still seeing her? You know what the family thinks.
Prince Charles: Yes, I'm perfectly aware of what the family thinks.
Louis Mountbatten: And what I think too?
Prince Charles: Yes, and the richness of that is not lost on me either. The idea that you, of all people, should lecture me about the sanctity of marriage...
Louis Mountbatten: [talking over Charles] I don't lecture you.
Prince Charles: ...and affairs of the heart needing to be conventional, because you and Edwina hardly blazed a trail in that department. At least when Camilla and I commit adultery, there aren't national security implications involved.
Louis Mountbatten: That was uncalled for.
Prince Charles: So is your unwelcome intervention in this matter. Honestly, you make a great show of being my ally in this family, watching my back, but when the chips are down, you're just a quisling. A fifth columnist playing for the other side. The fact is, I haven't met anyone I like as much as Camilla, who is herself trapped in a marriage of your engineering...
Louis Mountbatten: [talking over Charles] My own engineering?
Prince Charles: ...with a husband who's bedding half of Gloucestershire. Invite us both to Broadlands soon and you'll see how happy we actually make one another. That is, if my happiness is even remotely important to you.
Louis Mountbatten: My dear Charles, there exists no greater compliment than to be called a "prince among men." Such a person earns his title with his ability to lead and inspire, elusive virtues to which you must reach and rise. And it grieves me to say that you are not working hard enough to reach and to rise. The choice of a woman was the issue around which the last Prince of Wales came to grief. And it's astonishing to me that, forty years after the abdication, you are making so little attempt to conceal your infatuation for another man's wife. How could you contemplate such ruin and disappointment to yourself, to your family, to me? Must I remind you again of the importance of building your destiny with some sweet and innocent, well-tempered girl with no past, who knows the rules and will follow the rules? Someone with whom you can make a fresh start and build a new life. One that people will love as a princess and, in due course, as queen. This is your duty now, your most important task. You are more than a man, more than a prince, and one day, dear boy, you shall be king. But now, to the sea. I miss you enormously. There is no one whose company I enjoy more. But I think you know that. Your ever-loving honorary grandpa, Dickie.
Margaret Thatcher: I am sick and tired of those who would seek to rationalize and make excuses for the atrocities committed by the IRA. There's no such thing as political murder or political bombing or political violence. There's only criminal murder, criminal bombing, and criminal violence. And I give you my word, I will wage a war against the Irish Republican Army with relentless determination and without mercy until that war is won.
Princess Diana: Royal Highness, I just wanted to offer my condolences. It must have been completely devastating for you. And your reading at the Abbey, how you held it all together under the circs, I don't know how you did that. It was utterly brilliant.
Prince Charles: Thank you. I'm sorry. We haven't met.
Princess Diana: We have. I was in costume at the time. Sarah Spencer's younger sister.
Prince Charles: Oh, the mad tree.
Princess Diana: Diana.
Prince Charles: Yes.
Princess Diana: Sarah told me how close you were to Lord Mountbatten, that he was like a father to you.
Prince Charles: Yes.
Princess Diana: It must all be unimaginably awful.
Prince Charles: Thank you. It has been.

The Balmoral Test [4.2][edit]

Queen Elizabeth II: While stalking, the trick really is to disappear into nature. To preserve the element of surprise. So next time you might not wear bright blue. It means the stag can see you. Or wear scent. It means he can smell you. [Thatcher stumbles and loudly gasps] Now he can hear you, too.
Queen Elizabeth II: Always a mistake to assume just because people are privileged, they lack grit. And a dangerous game, I think, to make enemies left, right, and center.
Margaret Thatcher: Not if one is comfortable with having enemies.

Fairytale [4.3][edit]

Queen Elizabeth II: [talking to Charles on the eve of his wedding] When your great-grandmother, Queen Mary, was a beautiful young princess, she was about to marry her Prince Charming. But before they got to the church, he fell ill and died. But everyone had been so impressed with her, that they put her together with his younger brother. Only one problem. The younger brother was Prince Charmless. Dull and shy. There was no attraction, certainly no love. But in order to make the marriage work, they were encouraged to focus on the bigger idea. Duty. They worked and worked and worked. And out of that work, a tiny seed grew. A seed of respect and admiration, a seed that grew into a flower they could eventually call love. They were married for forty-two years. They stabilized a country that was at war with itself, and they left the Crown stronger, while all around them, the great monarchies of Europe fell. Now I cannot claim to be the most intuitive mother, but I do think I know when one of my children is unhappy. Whatever wretchedness you are feeling now, whatever doubts you harbor ... If you could follow the example of your great-grandmother, love and happiness will surely follow.
Archbishop of Canterbury: Here is the stuff of which fairy tales are made. The prince and princess on their wedding day. But fairy tales usually end at this point with the simple phrase, "They lived happily ever after." This may be because fairy tales regard marriage as an anticlimax after the romance of courtship. As husband and wife live out their vows, loving and cherishing one another, sharing life's splendors and miseries, achievements and setbacks, they will be transformed in the process. Our faith sees the wedding day not as the place of arrival, but the place where the adventure really begins.

Favourites [4.4][edit]

Margaret Thatcher: The very idea that the first time a prime minister should break down in this room and it be a woman.
Queen Elizabeth II: It is by no means the first time a prime minister has broken down in here. Over the years, this room has been part-office, part-drawing room, part-confessional, and part-psychologist's couch. We even have paper hankies. [gestures to the box on the table next to Thatcher] Or a brandy?
Margaret Thatcher: Whiskey, if you have one.
Queen Elizabeth II: Isn't this heaven?
Princess Anne: If you say so.
Queen Elizabeth II: I do. Tucked away in the country, rain and mud and horses and dogs, children, privacy. I do envy you.
Princess Anne: Well, it's not quite the Eden you imagine. For a start, there isn't privacy. They are there, wherever I go.
Queen Elizabeth II: Who?
Princess Anne: Journalists. Photographers who've just got it in for me. Bastards.
Queen Elizabeth II: Well, if you will keep calling them that...
Princess Anne: I told them to naff off. Once. And can you blame me? They're so mean to me all the time. I'm pretty low-key, as you know. I don't want praise or attention or thanks. But I'm only human. Sometimes even a pit pony needs a pat on the head.
Queen Elizabeth II: I know the feeling.
Princess Anne: It's not easy working in the heat and squalor of a Third World country doing real work for real charities. But do I get as much as a mention in any newspaper? Or a thank you? Do I heck. And yet all she has to do is put on a frock, and she's all over all the front pages, and everyone's falling over in shock at how wonderful she is.
Queen Elizabeth II: Who?
Princess Anne: Her.
Queen Elizabeth II: Diana.
Princess Anne: The only other young female in the family, yes, against whom I am now always compared. Lovely her, dumpy me. Smiling her, grumpy me. Charming her, awful me. And the constant questions about my marriage all the time, about Mark.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, how is Mark?
Princess Anne: That's it, exactly like that. "How is Mark?" Mark's fine! I'm fine. The children are fine.
Queen Elizabeth II: Well, I'm happy to hear that. Only there has been talk.
Princess Anne: I thought you didn't listen to talk.
Queen Elizabeth II: And a meeting recently with Commander Trestrail.
Princess Anne: Who?
Queen Elizabeth II: The head of the Royal Protection Branch. He felt compelled to mention rumors about a Sergeant Cross, and the two of you being intimate. And in light of these rumors, Scotland Yard has recommended his transfer back to desk duties in Croydon.
Princess Anne: Don't, don't do that to me. You ca ... You can't. He is the one thing that makes me happy.
Queen Elizabeth II: You have so much to make you happy.
Princess Anne: Then how come none of it does?
Queen Elizabeth II: It will again if you're patient.
Princess Anne: Is that it? Is that the advice? "Stick it out, grin and bear it. Persevere"?
Queen Elizabeth II: Well, these things usually pass if you have the patience to wait.
Princess Anne: I used to enjoy my reputation as the difficult one. I used to relish scaring people a bit because I could control it. But recently, I'm the one who's scared. Because it's starting to feel more like it controls me, and it's changed. It's not just feeling angry, but a kind of recklessness where I just want to smash it all up.
Queen Elizabeth II: But that will pass too.
Princess Anne: Is that it? Is doing nothing your solution to everything?
Carol Thatcher: Why is Mark so obviously your favorite?
Margaret Thatcher: What?
Carol Thatcher: You have twin children, and you clearly prefer one over the other.
Margaret Thatcher: Carol, that's not true.
Carol Thatcher: It is indisputably and painfully true. And what I want to say to you is, is that just because you had a difficult relationship with your mother ...
Margaret Thatcher: Darling, I really don't have time for this.
Carol Thatcher: You cannot let it affect your relationship with all women. Most of all, your own daughter.
Margaret Thatcher: Darling, you do pick your moments. I am busy. In a few minutes, I have the chiefs of staff coming.
Carol Thatcher: Then give me one of those minutes. You disregard me. You overlook me. And you favor Mark.
Margaret Thatcher: Because he's stronger. Like my father was stronger. Yes. You are right. I did struggle with my mother, but it had nothing to do with her sex. It had to do with her weakness. I could not bear how she was prepared to just be a housewife.
Carol Thatcher: Because her husband treated her as such.
Margaret Thatcher: That is not true! Your grandfather, my father, was wonderful with women. Wonderful. He encouraged me. He taught me. He made me who I am. He was determined my ambition be limitless. And he tried with your grandmother. But there is a limit to what one can do if people are themselves limited.

Fagan [4.5][edit]

Queen Elizabeth II: When you've been in my position as long as I have, you see how quickly and how often a nation's fortunes can change. Joblessness, recession, crises, war. All of these things have a way of correcting themselves. Countries bounce back. People do. Because they simply have to.
Michael Fagan: That's what I thought. That I'd bounce back. And then I didn't. First the work dried up, then my confidence dried up. Then the love in my wife's eyes dried up. And then you begin to wonder, you know, where's it gone? Not just your confidence or your happiness, but your ... They say I have mental health problems now, but I don't. I'm just poor.
Queen Elizabeth II: The state can help with all of this.
Michael Fagan: What state? The state has gone. She's dismantled it along with all the other things we thought we could depend on growing up. A sense of community, a sense of, you know, obligation to one another. A sense of kindness. It's all disappearing.
Queen Elizabeth II: I think you're exaggerating. People still show kindness to one another, and they still pay their taxes to the state.
Michael Fagan: And she spends that money on an unnecessary war and declares the feel-good factor is back again. In the meantime, all the things that really make us feel good (the right to work, the right to be ill, the right to be old, the right to be frail, be human) gone. You may think you're off the hook, but she's got her eye on your job, too. Let me tell you. You'll be out of work soon.
Queen Elizabeth II: Let me assure you, Mrs. Thatcher is an all-too-committed monarchist.
Michael Fagan: She has an appetite for power, which is presidential. And in this country, a president and a head of state cannot coexist. Mark my words, she's put us out of work. She's quietly putting you out of work.
Margaret Thatcher: On behalf of the government and the Metropolitan Police, I am so sorry. It is a national embarrassment that the Queen of the United Kingdom should be subjected to troublemakers and malcontents who feel at liberty to resort to violence.
Queen Elizabeth II: Oh, but he wasn't violent. In fact, the only person Mr. Fagan hurt in the course of his break-in was himself. And while he may be a troubled soul, I don't think he's entirely to blame for his troubles, being a victim of unemployment, which is now more than twice what it was when you came into office just three years ago.
Margaret Thatcher: If unemployment is temporarily high, ma'am, then it is a necessary side effect of the medicine we are administering to the British economy.
Queen Elizabeth II: Shouldn't we be careful that this medicine, like some dreadful chemotherapy, doesn't kill the very patient it is intended to heal? If people like Mr. Fagan are struggling, do we not have a collective duty to help them? What of our moral economy?
Margaret Thatcher: If we are to turn this country around, we really must abandon outdated and misguided notions of collective duty. There are individual men and women, and there are families. Self-interested people who are trying to better themselves. That is the engine that fires a nation. My father didn't have the state to rely on should his business fail. It was the risk of ruin and his duty to his family that drove him to succeed.
Queen Elizabeth II: Perhaps not everyone is as remarkable as your father.
Margaret Thatcher: Oh, you see, that is where you and I differ. I say they have it within them to be.
Queen Elizabeth II: Even someone like Mr. Fagan?
Margaret Thatcher: Mr. Fagan is another matter. Two different doctors have reached the conclusion he is suffering from a schizophrenic illness. If he is spared criminal prosecution on account of his condition, then a nice, secure mental hospital will ensure he will not be a danger any longer. Now, if you will excuse me, I really must go.
Queen Elizabeth II: Where to?
Margaret Thatcher: To the victory parade at the City of London.
Queen Elizabeth II: A victory parade?
Margaret Thatcher: Yes, ma'am. We have just won a war.

Terra Nullius [4.6][edit]

Prince Charles: I'm not blind. I can see how unhappy you are. How thin you've become.
Princess Diana: Trust me, you don't know the half of it.
Prince Charles: I know more than you think. People talk. The staff. And I was, very saddened, horrified by what I learned. So, what do you want from me?
Princess Diana: To be heard.
Prince Charles: And I'm listening.
Princess Diana: No, more than that. To be understood, appreciated. I don't need endless flattery. No one wants that. But I am trying my hardest to please you, to live up to your standards, and I don't think you have the faintest idea of what it's like to feel this way. To be constantly overlooked, ignored...
Prince Charles: Don't have the faintest idea? I know what being overlooked feels like better than anyone. I've spent my whole life being unthanked, unappreciated, uncared for. And if I've been cold or distant with you, perhaps it's because I don't feel truly understood by you. I sometimes think you see me as an old man. Or worse, a gargoyle above the church door. Gray, made of stone, unemotional, but I'm not. You think I don't crave the occasional "Well done," or "Aren't you clever?" or even just a thank-you. I need encouragement and the occasional pat on the back too.
Princess Diana: Does that explain why you keep going to her? I'm not going to say her name. I'm worried if I do, I might spit.
Prince Charles: Camilla. What's she got to do with it?
Princess Diana: Well, what's what I keep asking myself. What's she got to do with anything? But, obviously, she's got a lot to do with everything because you can't leave her alone.
Prince Charles: She and her husband are close friends, not just of mine, but the whole family's.
Princess Diana: Remember I found your bracelet, the one with your nicknames engraved on it, Fred and Gladys?
Prince Charles: It was just harmless fun.
Princess Diana: Three days before our wedding, you gave that to her. And on our actual honeymoon, you wore the cuff links that she gave you, with the interlocking initials, the two Cs, interwoven and obscenely entwined like lovers. And on the same honeymoon, a photograph of her falls out of your diary. And then later in the year, I find your love letters. Page after page with a passion I'm not getting from you!
Prince Charles: Because you show no interest in me! You refuse to come to Highgrove, where I'm happiest.
Princess Diana: Yes, because she is there! Oh, and not just her, but the gardens and the polo and the hunts, and the boring old philosophers and father substitutes who patronize me and ignore me, but love her, presumably. Which is why the two of you are perfect for each other. So, where do I fit in?
Prince Charles: You fit in because you're my wife. And because I love you.
Princess Diana: [stunned speechless] I ... I...
Prince Charles: I do.
Princess Diana: Gosh.
Prince Charles: So, how are we going to solve it?
Princess Diana: Well ... Well, I suppose, I suppose we've got to learn to give it to each other on a more regular basis. The encouragement, I mean.
Prince Charles: Well, and the other thing.
Princess Diana: Well, yes, that too. 'Cause I still think you're gorgeous. Cleverest, handsomest man in every room.
Prince Charles: Do you really? [to himself] Pathetic, but I do need that sometimes. [to Diana] And you look gorgeous too. Your beauty, your radiance is a great shining, spectacular miracle. When I see the light in people's faces when they look at you, it makes me realize that I'm the luckiest man in the world and we're the luckiest family in the world. It makes me want to ring the Queen back in London and say, "Can you hear that, Mummy? Listen to that! It's 100 decibels louder than anything you ever got. Chew on that! Choke on that!"
Princess Diana: You know, I think this might be the most important conversation we've ever had.
Prince Charles: Yes.
Princess Diana: And the solution is so simple. Any time either of us feels we're not getting what we need, we simply need to give that very thing to the other. If you learned anything from today...
Prince Charles: We both need the same as each other. To be encouraged. To be supported. And to be... appreciated.
Princess Diana: [taking Charles' hand in hers] To be loved?
Prince Charles: Yes.
Queen Elizabeth II: We are rather a tough bunch in this family. We don't give out much praise or love or thanks. Perhaps someoe like Diana is best placed to...
Princess Anne: Hug everyone else too.
Queen Elizabeth II: To connect with the modern world. And isn't that how the Crown survives and stays relevant? By changing with the times.
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: Diana is an immature little girl who, in time, will give up her struggles, give up her fight, and bend, as Philip did. As they all do. And when she bends, she will fit.
Queen Elizabeth II: And if she doesn't bend, what then?
Princess Margaret: She will break.

The Hereditary Principle [4.7][edit]

Princess Margaret: Five. Five, Mummy! Five members of our close family locked up and neglected!
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: What do you expect us to do?
Princess Margaret: Behave like human beings.
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: Oh, don't be so naive. We had no choice.
Princess Margaret: They're your nieces. Daughters of your favorite brother!
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: They were unwell. Aunt Fenella was overwhelmed. And then the way things suddenly changed for all of us, none of us could have foreseen it.
Princess Margaret: It? What's it?
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The abdication...
Princess Margaret: No! Not everything that is wrong with this family can be explained away by the abdication.
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: Well, the abdication did change everything. You were too young to understand. Everything. It's complicated.
Princess Margaret: No, it's not! It's wicked, and it's cold-hearted, and it's cruel. And it's entirely in keeping with the ruthlessness I myself have experienced in this family. If you're not first in line, if you're an individual character with individual needs, and God forbid an irregular temperament ... If you don't fit the perfect mold of silent, dutiful supplication, then you'll be spat out, or you'll be hidden away, or, worse, declared dead! Darwin had nothing on you lot. Shame on all of you.

48:1 [4.8][edit]

Princess Elizabeth: On this, the occasion of my twenty-first birthday, I welcome the opportunity to speak to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire wherever they live, whatever race they come from, and whatever language they speak. As I speak to you today from Cape Town, I am 6,000 miles from the country where I was born. But I am certainly not 6,000 miles from home. That is the great privilege of belonging to our place in the worldwide Commonwealth. There are homes ready to welcome us in every continent of the earth. Before I am much elder, I hope I shall come to know many of them. Although there is none of my father's subjects, from the eldest to the youngest, whom I do not wish to greet, I am thinking especially today of all the young men and women who were born about the same time as myself and have grown up like me in the terrible and glorious years of the Second World War. Will you, the youth of the British family of nations, let me speak on my birthday as your representative? Now that we are coming to manhood and womanhood, it is surely a great joy to us all to think that we shall be able to take some of the burden off the shoulders of our elders, who have fought and worked and suffered to protect our childhood. To that generation, I say we must not be daunted by the anxieties and hardships the war has left behind for every nation of our Commonwealth. We know these things are the price we cheerfully undertook to pay for the high honor of standing alone seven years ago in defense of the liberty of the world. If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart, we shall be able to make of this ancient Commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing. More free, more prosperous, more happy, and a more powerful influence for good in the world than it has been in the greatest days of our forefathers. To accomplish that, we must give nothing less than what my father, King George, the first head of the Commonwealth, calls "the whole of ourselves." There is a motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors. A noble motto. I serve. I should like to make that dedication now. It's very simple. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service, and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. God help me to make good my vow and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.
Queen Elizabeth II: It is my fervent hope that Britain will join the other countries of the Commonwealth and impose sanctions on an apartheid regime that has no place in the modern world.
Margaret Thatcher: Let us be quite clear about this. Nothing useful can be achieved by sanctions.
Queen Elizabeth II: Really? It was my understanding they would devastate the South African government.
Margaret Thatcher: Well, they would devastate us too. Trade between our two countries is worth three billion pounds a year.
Queen Elizabeth II: I thought we might look at it from the South African point of view.
Margaret Thatcher: I am, ma'am. South Africa is already a disinvestment economy.
Queen Elizabeth II: But Black South Africans want sanctions, so shouldn't we listen to them?
Margaret Thatcher: Black South Africans don't want to inherit a wasteland.
Queen Elizabeth II: They will if they feel it is their wasteland. President Kaunda of Zambia would confirm as much.
Margaret Thatcher: It is not the business of a British prime minister to consult with unelected dictators.
Queen Elizabeth II: But it is a sovereign's duty when they are part of the Commonwealth.
Margaret Thatcher: Yes. The Commonwealth.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, the Commonwealth.
Margaret Thatcher: I recognize that for your family, the transition of this nation from Empire to comparative supplicancy on the world stage must have come as a greater shock than to the rest of us. But I would argue that the Commonwealth is not the way to fill that gap. There are ways of Britain being great again, and that is through a revitalized economy, not through association with unreliable tribal leaders in eccentric costumes.
Queen Elizabeth II: But isn't that all I am, Prime Minister? A tribal leader in eccentric costume?
Margaret Thatcher: Certainly not. You're head of an evolved constitutional monarchy that stretches back to William the Conqueror. It's not comparing like with like.
Queen Elizabeth II: Ah, now that's where we differ. You see, I consider myself to be exactly like them. To me, Ghana, Zambia, Malawi are all great sovereign nations with great histories. I am aware you probably don't share that view. To you, the Commonwealth is something of a distraction, a waste of time. But in many ways, I have given my life to it. It was the pledge I made forty years ago.
Margaret Thatcher: On the wireless. To our great imperial family. I remember listening to it as a student at Oxford. But we cannot let the values of the past distract us from the realities of the present, particularly where Britain's economic interests are concerned.
Margaret Thatcher: Before coming today, I checked with the Cabinet Secretary, and it turns out that in the seven years I have been Prime Minister, we have had 164 audiences, always the model of cordiality, productivity, and mutual respect. So it is perhaps not unreasonable to expect an isolated hiccup.
Queen Elizabeth II: What hiccup?
Margaret Thatcher: I was under the impression that Her Majesty never expressed her political views in public.
Queen Elizabeth II: I don't.
Margaret Thatcher: That there was an unbreakable code of silence between Sovereign and First Minister.
Queen Elizabeth II: If you're referring to the Sunday Times, I had nothing to do with that story. I've always advised my prime ministers against reading newspapers.
Margaret Thatcher: I don't, ma'am.
Queen Elizabeth II: They misunderstand, misquote, and misrepresent. Then everybody gets into a fluster.
Margaret Thatcher: But my press secretary does, and he has working relationships with all of the editors, and the editor in this case assured him that the sources were unimpeachable. Close to the Queen. Unprecedentedly close.
Queen Elizabeth II: Well, I'm sure a clarification will soon be forthcoming. In the meantime, should we make a start on the business of the week? Only I am mindful of the time.
Margaret Thatcher: This is the business, ma'am. The only business. I think we have enough respect for one another personally to ask ourselves some of the bigger questions, woman to woman. We are the same age, after all.
Queen Elizabeth II: Are we?
Margaret Thatcher: Just six months between us.
Queen Elizabeth II: Oh? And who is the senior?
Margaret Thatcher: I am, ma'am. [pulls a copy of the Sunday Times from her handbag] "Uncaring, confrontational, and socially divisive." That's how these sources so close to the Queen describe me.
Queen Elizabeth II: Prime Minister...
Margaret Thatcher: That I lack compassion. And that my government has done irretrievable damage to the country's social fabric. My responsibility, for the time I have in office, is to put sentimentality to one side and look after this country's interests with the perspective of a cold balance sheet. And while I greatly admire your sense of fairness and compassion for those less fortunate than us...
Queen Elizabeth II: Do you? Really?
Margaret Thatcher: Let us not forget that of the two of us, I am the one from a small street in an irrelevant town with a father who could not bequeath me a title or a Commonwealth, but only grit, good sense, and determination. And I don't want people's pity or charity or compassion. Nothing would insult me more. My goal is to change this country from being dependent to self-reliant, and I think in that, I am succeeding.
Queen Elizabeth II: I have had to learn many difficult lessons as sovereign...
Margaret Thatcher: Britons are learning to look after number one, to get ahead, and only then, if they choose, to look after their neighbor.
Queen Elizabeth II: Of those...
Margaret Thatcher: No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions. You see, he had money as well.
Queen Elizabeth II: Perhaps the hardest is that I am obliged to support my prime ministers on any position they take, even yours, regarding sanctions against South Africa. My question is, given the lack of impact it has on your day-to-day political fortunes, yet how important it is to me ... Could you not have supported me just once? My fellow Commonwealth leaders, many of whom I consider to be friends, now feel that I have betrayed them on an issue most important to them.
Margaret Thatcher: Well, they need only read the Sunday Times. It will give them no doubt as to your position. [checks her watch] Oh look, our time is up. How it flies. You must be very much looking forward to the wedding tomorrow of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, we are.
Margaret Thatcher: They seem like a good match.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, we think so.
Margaret Thatcher: My own son, Mark, recently announced that he would be getting married.
Queen Elizabeth II: Your favorite? The explorer?
Margaret Thatcher: Not an explorer, ma'am. That was just the once. He's a businessman now. In the Middle East, mostly. And South Africa.

Avalanche [4.9][edit]

Princess Anne: [discussing Charles and Diana's marriage with the Queen] Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl who fell madly in love with a handsome prince. Unfortunately, the prince was already in love with someone else, who was herself in love with someone else, and they all lived unhappily ever after. That's it. In a nutshell. Do you need more?
Queen Elizabeth II: A little.
Princess Anne: There's already a big age difference, but Charles is older than his years, and Diana is younger than hers, which makes it not an age gap but an age chasm. On the face of it, they come from similar aristocratic backgrounds, but their personalities come from different planets. They have different interests, different friends. He doesn't understand her. She doesn't understand him. And considering all that, they've actually done remarkably well. But there comes a point in any failing marriage, and here I speak with some experience, when you realize there's no point in trying anymore, and it's easier to just let the current take you away. And the minute Harry was born and duty was done, the marriage was effectively over, and they started to find comfort in the arms of others.
Queen Elizabeth II: How many others?
Princess Anne: Diana's been with her bodyguard, her riding instructor...
Queen Elizabeth II: And Charles?
Princess Anne: He's just been with one. He's also been a bit more discreet. The only people who know about Camilla... well, pretty much the whole of Gloucestershire, who all seem involved in facilitating it. You can't conduct an extramarital affair without somewhere to meet, or sleep, or...
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, thank you.
Princess Anne: But Diana... Aunt Margot tells me at Kensington Palace, it's like a revolving door. That "suitors" park outside her office because it's the only place with no security cameras. One after another. In and out. In and out.
Princess Anne: I'm going to be frank with you. No one wants your marriage to end, not a single person. Not Diana, not your children, not your mother or father, not me, not a single one of your friends, and, most importantly, not even the woman you think loves you.
Prince Charles: Oh, what rubbish!
Princess Anne: No, listen! Listen to me. No one can bear to watch the mess you are making, and someone needs to explain things to you. I'm close to Camilla's husband, as you know...
Prince Charles: Yes, I'm aware.
Princess Anne: ...and speak to Andrew regularly. And while theirs is not a perfect marriage...
Prince Charles: Understatement.
Princess Anne: ...it is a long-lasting marriage. And, in its own way, a happy marriage.
Prince Charles: She's not happy.
Princess Anne: She's happier than you think.
Prince Charles: That he's bedding most of her friends?
Princess Anne: It's complicated! The majority of marriages survive because the majority of people aren't fantasists. They are realists and accept the imperfect reality of being human. And although Camilla doubtless has feelings for you, deep feelings, it is maybe not quite the great Romeo-Juliet thing you imagine.
Prince Charles: What? You're lying.
Princess Anne: No, I'm not. I'm trying to protect you.
Prince Charles: I come here seeking comfort from my sibling, and what do I get?
Princess Anne: The unvarnished truth.
Prince Charles: What does one have to do to get some kindness in this family?

War [4.10][edit]

Prince Philip: [commenting on the news of Sir Geoffrey Howe's resignation] It's the Ides of March. It's Julius Caesar. Or should I say Julia Caesar.
Margaret Thatcher: President Bush called to tell me he thought it barbaric. Chancellor Kohl said it was inhumane. Mikhail Gorbachev reminded me that ten years ago, it was Britain holding democratic elections whilst Russia staged cabinet coups. Now it's the other way round. What they all agree on is that getting rid of me is an act of national self-harm, which is why I've come to you, ma'am, that together we may act in the national self-interest.
Queen Elizabeth II: How might I help?
Margaret Thatcher: By dissolving Parliament.
Queen Elizabeth II: What?
Margaret Thatcher: We are on the brink of war. What kind of signal does that give to our enemies, to Saddam, if we were to change leadership now? It would make us look hopelessly weak and divided.
Queen Elizabeth II: I agree it's not ideal. Have you consulted Cabinet on this matter?
Margaret Thatcher: I have not, ma'am.
Queen Elizabeth II: Surely that would be the normal course of action?
Margaret Thatcher: With all due respect, the decision to dissolve Parliament is in the gift of the prime minister alone. It is entirely within my power to do this if I see fit.
Queen Elizabeth II: You are correct. Technically, it is within your power to request this. But we must all ask ourselves when to exercise those things that are within our power and when not to. Your first instinct as a person, I think, is often to act. To exercise power.
Margaret Thatcher: Well, that is what people want in a leader. To show conviction and strength. To lead.
Queen Elizabeth II: I'm merely asking the question. Whether it is correct to exercise a power simply because it is yours to use. Power is nothing without authority. And at this moment, your Cabinet is against you. Your party is against you. And if the polls are to be believed, if you were to call a general election today, you would not win. Which suggests the country is against you. Perhaps the time has come for you to try doing nothing for once.
Margaret Thatcher: The difference is you have power in doing nothing. I will have nothing.
Queen Elizabeth II: You will have your dignity.
Margaret Thatcher: There is no dignity in the wilderness.
Queen Elizabeth II: Then might I suggest you don't think of it as that. Think of it as an opportunity to pursue other passions.
Margaret Thatcher: I have other loves. My husband, my children ... But this job is my only true passion. And to have it taken from me, stolen from me so cruelly ... What hurts the most is that we had come so far. And now to have the opportunity to finish the job snatched away at the very last ...
Camilla Parker Bowles: If you care about me as much as you say you do, sir, then you will let go of these ideas about breaking up with Diana.
Prince Charles: Why? Don't you want us to be free? To live our life in the open?
Camilla Parker Bowles: I do. But I want to be humiliated and attacked even less. That's what'll happen if you put me in a popularity contest against her. I will lose. I'm an old woman. I'm a married woman. Nowhere near as pretty, nowhere near as radiant. Someone who looks like me has no place in a fairytale. That's all people want, is a fairytale.
Prince Charles: If they knew the truth about our feelings for one another, they'd have their fairytale.
Camilla Parker Bowles: No. To be the protagonist of a fairy tale, you must first be wronged. A victim. Which, if we were to become public, we would make her. In the narrative laws of fairy tales versus reality, the fairy tale always prevails. She will always defeat me in the court of public opinion.
Prince Charles: I have done my best. My very best, and I am suffering!
Queen Elizabeth II: No, you are not suffering. We're suffering having to put up with this! Let me make something clear. When people look at you and Diana, they see two privileged young people who, through good fortune, ended up with everything one could dream of in life. No one, not a single breathing, living soul anywhere, sees cause for suffering.
Prince Charles: They would if they knew.
Queen Elizabeth II: Knew what? They know that you betray your wife and make no attempt to hide it. They know that thanks to you, she has psychological problems and eats or doesn't eat or whatever it is she does or doesn't do. They know you're a spoiled, immature man, endlessly complaining unnecessarily, married to a spoiled, immature woman, endlessly complaining unnecessarily. And we are all heartily sick of it. All anyone wants is for the pair of you to pull yourselves together, stop making spectacles of yourselves, and make this marriage and your enormously privileged positions in life work.
Prince Charles: And if I want to separate?
Queen Elizabeth II: You will not separate or divorce or let the side down in any way. And if one day you expect to be king...
Prince Charles: I do.
Queen Elizabeth II: Then might I suggest you start to behave like one.
Prince Philip: We can be a rough bunch in this family. And I'm sure, on occasion, to a sensitive creature like you, it must feel like ... Well, let me ask. What does it feel like?
Princess Diana: A cold, frozen tundra.
Prince Philip: Right. Like that, then.
Princess Diana: An icy, dark, loveless cave with no light. No hope. Anywhere. Not even the faintest crack.
Prince Philip: I see. He will come around. Eventually. When he realises he can never have the other one. Would it help you to realise we all think he's quite mad?
Princess Diana: That might have reassured me once. But I worry we're past that point now, Sir. And if he, if this family, can't give me the love and security that I feel I deserve, then I believe I have no option but to break away, officially, and find it myself.
Prince Philip: I wouldn't do that if I were you.
Princess Diana: Why not?
Prince Philip: Let's just say I can't see it ending well for you.
Princess Diana: I hope that isn't a threat, sir.
[The door to Diana's bedroom opens and an Equerry steps inside]
Prince Philip: [to the Equerry] No, not now! Out.
Princess Diana: Although we are both outsiders who married in, you and I are quite different.
Prince Philip: Yes. I can see that now. You're right to call me an outsider. I was an outsider the day that I met the ... the 13-year-old princess who would one day become my wife. And after all these years, I still am. We all are. Everyone in this system is a lost, lonely, irrelevant outsider apart from the one person, the only person, that matters. She is the oxygen we all breathe. The essence of all our duty. Your problem, if I may say, is you seem to be confused about who that person is.
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