UK and Netflix Battle

The U.K. government is not relenting in its battle with Netflix, despite the streamer’s repeated denial of requests to clarify The Crown’s status as a drama. The Crown focuses on the lives of the Royal Family, but in the current season, its focus on modern events has made several members of the family uncomfortable, according to reports.

Season 4 covers events in Prince Charles’ courtship with and marriage to the late Princess Diana, mother of Princes Harry and William. It also covers his alleged affair with the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, whom he is now married to; while they did reportedly conduct an affair for part of Charles and Diana’s marriage, the show dramatizes and lengthens their relationship.

Since the show began airing, Camilla and Charles have come under so much fire on social media, they’ve turned off comments on their Twitter feed.

Culture minister John Whittingdale told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that it “does no harm” for Netflix to make explicit to subscribers that The Crown, although pegged to real events, is Peter Morgan’s “speculation or imagination as to what might have happened.”

Last month, culture secretary Oliver Dowden wrote to Netflix asking the streamer to warn viewers that the show is a work of fiction. Netflix denied the request, saying: “We have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events.”

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Whittingdale said: “These are events that are quite raw and controversial, and they involve people such as the existing Prince of Wales and his sons. It does no harm, particularly because those events did generate strong views and emotions on both sides. It is not unhelpful to remind people… that this is not based on any insider knowledge, but is a dramatization of somebody’s speculation or imagination as to what might have happened.”

He warned that if Netflix does not cooperate, there could be consequences: “UK traditional broadcasters are subject to quite stringent requirements… and then you have the video on demand services, which are really subject to no regulation or requirements at all. That is something that is quite a stark difference. Whether or not we would want to look at having some kind of basic requirements on the video on demand services is something which I think the government might well think about.”