TV Review: “The Crown: 48:1” (S4, Ep. 8)
By: Dr. Thomas J. West Iii
Tags: Culture, Tv Reviews, Television, TV Series, The Crown

One of the through-lines of the fourth season of The Crown has been the intense conflict between Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher. While Elizabeth tries, with her signature determination, to remain above the political fray, she can’t help but be more than a little discomfited about the ways in which Thatcher is running the country. This comes to a head in this episode when the Prime Minister steadfastly refuses to take strong action against South Africa in response to its brutal system of apartheid, which gravely affronts Elizabeth’s sense of duty, honor, and rightness. The growing rift threatens to ignite a constitutional crisis, and so the palace staff decide to scapegoat one of their own in order to give the Queen an escape hatch.

Of course, the emotional and narrative center of the episode is the seething conflict between Thatcher and Elizabeth. It’s been clear from the beginning of this season that the two are opposites, not only in terms of their personal demeanors and upbringings but in their political upbringings, and this has been reflected in their performances, with Anderson’s teeth-gritting and hoarseness conveying Thatcher’s iron determination and Colman’s crisp, clear, and somewhat light delivery continuing to suggest Elizabeth’s desire to be both mother to her country and yet above the political fray. In this episode, however, all of that threatens to be thrown out the window, since she cannot just stand by while Thatcher continues to create ill-will among the other members of the Commonwealth. It’s quite fun, of course, to see Anderson and Colman sparring with one another, lighting up the screen with the electric potency of their conflict, but it’s also quite serious, since their disagreement threatens to spill out into the public realm and disrupt the stability of the entire country.

Unfortunately for Elizabeth, she doesn’t exist in a vacuum. More than ever before, she has to play to the gallery, since the public — particularly the press — feels much more entitled to express their opinions about her and her actions, which she learns when revelations about her true feelings about Thatcher create a conflagration (which, in turn, detracts from the forthcoming wedding of her son, Andrew). While the country, and an outraged Charles, ding her for breaking the long-standing code of silence that has governed her relationship between herself and her prime ministers since she first took the throne, the episode makes it quite clear that in this instance Elizabeth is in the right. She may not be a radical advocate for racial justice but, as she has made clear time and time again, she does genuinely care about the people that comprise the Commonwealth. She knows far more about the nations and customs of many African nations, to take just one example, than Thatcher does and, unlike the Iron Lady, she tends to see the humanity in others rather than just their positions as assets in a political game. It’s to Colman’s credit that she is able to bring out this aspect of Elizabeth’s personality, allowing us to see, for once, some of her true feelings about her role and her people.

This episode also focuses on and develops one of the themes that has motivated this show from the very beginning, and that is the relationship between the monarchy and the media. After all, the episode begins with a very special cameo from Claire Foy, in which a much-younger Elizabeth delivers a radio address from Cape Town speaking eloquently and sincerely about how she views her role as the leader of the Commonwealth. As she speaks, the camera cuts to people living in all parts of the world that fall under her rule, all of them brought together, for that brief time at least, by the medium of the radio and by the woman who is using it to broadcast her regnal authority. Foy’s voice, as it did when she was in the role in the first two seasons, throbs with intensity, even as we can still detect just the faintest quaver, the faintest indication that this is still a very young woman attempting to figure out her exact role as the monarch. Since this is likely the only access that the vast majority of her subjects will ever have to her, it’s a moment full of significance.

Given all of this, it’s not surprising that this episode would pay so much attention to mediation of monarchy, from the recreated photo of Elizabeth with the other gathered members of the Commonwealth of Nations to the scapegoating of Michael Shea for leaking the Queen’s true feelings to the press. It’s rather striking that Elizabeth, of all people, has to re-learn a lesson that, before now, she seemed to have absorbed quite well: that it is not for the modern monarch to express any sort of opinion, let alone a feeling or an emotion on the matters convulsing the moment. As she put it to Fagan, her job is to float above it all, to use her perspective as part of a venerable, centuries-old institution to see how even the worst problems are temporary. In this instance, however, that belief buts up against her equally strong commitment to the Commonwealth and its well-being.

Personally, I found this one of the better episodes of an already-strong season, especially since it gave Elizabeth time to do something important, rather than simply hovering in the background (which has been what her role has mostly entailed this season). More to the point, it also allowed her to be the hero for once, rather than the out-of-touch villain that she’s largely been (particularly when it comes to her children and their truly tragic love lives). At the same time, it also allows us to see the ways in which Thatcher has become increasingly cynical as she continues to serve in the position of prime minister. It seems pretty clear that her relationship with Elizabeth has been irreparably damaged, with who knows what results.

Stay tuned for my review of the next episode, in which Charles’ and Diana’s relationship continues to crumble around them.