Judi Dench isn’t a fan of the ‘cruelly unjust’ depiction of the royals on ‘The Crown’
Former ‘Downton Abbey’ star Judi Dench is outraged over the portrayal of the royals on ‘The Crown’ – where Princess Margaret is shown ‘as a vengeful murderer’ – claiming that the soap opera is “cruelly unjust”.
The Emmy-nominated actress spoke at the British Film Institute Awards on Wednesday evening (17.05.16) at the Royal Albert Hall.
She said: “I’m sorry that the public, I mean the British public, are seeing people who aren’t real people.
“This is a soap opera not a documentary – it’s hard to know what’s going on from this distance. They are portrayed in a very cruel way.
“I think it’s cruelly unjust. I’m not defending it… I think they should just have a lot of heart.
“But they are not real people.”
She continued: “You know what I mean? I think you have to remember you’re seeing the world through characters’ eyes. They are fictional characters.
“They’re not real people. They’re people who have been written for television.”
She added: “They haven’t been played by real people.”
“I can’t believe what I am hearing from everyone. It seems to be on all sides of everything.
“People saying it’s terrible. And to some degree I feel the same. I can’t believe that it’s still going on 20-plus years after the show ended.”
In 2011, Judi Dench was nominated for a BAFTA for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in ‘Downton Abbey’, but lost to Maggie Smith for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Queen’.
But the actress claims that she didn’t deserve to win because she had been a “spoilt princess”.
She said: “It was a very simple thing – if they don’t want my work then they shouldn’t pay me, because I didn’t deserve it.
“I was a spoilt