How the actors from The Crown compare to the real-life British royals

Helena Bonham Carter is an incredibly talented actress, and she’s especially memorable in the film Fight Club, in which she starred as Marla Singer, the deranged girlfriend of the main character, Tyler Durden. Why are we bringing that up? Arguably, and with all due respect to Bonham Carter’s acting chops, it appears she is channelling Marla Singer when playing Princess Margaret in middle age. Plus, appearance-wise, Bonham Carter doesn’t look even a bit like Princess Margaret.

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Peter Townsend was, arguably, the love of Princess Margaret’s life. An officer with the Royal Air Force, he acted as equerry to King George VI from 1944 to 1952 and to Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 to 1953. Having such close proximity to the royal family, Townsend fell in love with the beautiful Princess Margaret, despite the fact that he was married at the time. And the feelings were apparently mutual. The handsome Ben Miles plays Townsend to perfection, and when Margaret does not accept his marriage proposal after his divorce, his heartbreak is palpable.

After spurning Peter Townsend’s marriage proposal in 1955, Princess Margaret went on to meet and marry a handsome and charismatic photographer, Antony Armstrong-Jones, who became the first commoner in four centuries to marry into the royal family. Following the wedding in 1960, “Tony” became the 1st Earl of Snowdon. Played on The Crown by Matthew Goode during the early years, Lord Snowdon is handsome, smarmy and seemingly irresistible, at least at first.

Unfortunately, the Snowdon marriage was plagued by infidelity on both sides. When the couple divorced, Princess Margaret became the very first royal to be divorced since King Henry VIII. Ben Daniels plays Tony in the later years when things got incredibly weird between the Snowdons (more on that next).

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Harry Treadaway appears in only two episodes of The Crown, but he’s quite memorable nonetheless. In the last episode of Season 3, Princess Margaret falls for Roddy, a gardener nearly 20 years her junior. In real life, the two carried on a romantic relationship for eight years. That’s not entirely clear from the way it’s portrayed on The Crown (which characterises the relationship as more of a fling). Treadaway as Roddy perfectly captures both the young man’s admiration for the much-older princess and his frustration over their impossible-to-ignore differences.

Treadaway appears once more in the seventh episode of Season 4, but it’s so fleeting, it’s easy to miss, and this is likely because in real life, the two had parted ways before the events depicted in that episode happened.

Jared Harris was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of King George VI, the former Prince Bertie of York (born Albert Frederick Arthur George), who spent most of his life never suspecting he would become king. Yet he did, thanks to the romantic antics of his older brother, David, who for one brief year of his life was King Edward VIII. As depicted by The Crown, King George VI was an all-around good guy who was dearly loved by his family, who never wished to be king, and whose unintended ascension to the throne may have cost him his life. (He died at 56 from lung cancer.)

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Victoria Hamilton’s portrayal of the Queen Consort to King George VI (the former Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who was also called Her Majesty), the mother of Princess Elizabeth, and the eventual Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (still Her Majesty, along with her daughter, the Queen) really sells her fierce loyalty to her husband. You can genuinely feel her pain when she learns of her husband’s death. You can also feel her anger and disgust at her brother-in-law, David (the Duke of Windsor and former King Edward VIII), for putting Bertie in the position of having to be king.

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When Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne, the wife of the late King George VI was also known as Queen Elizabeth. Up until that time, it had been customary for the wife of a late king to be titled “Dowager Queen.” However, this title, while accurate, also didn’t quite hit the mark because the elder Queen Elizabeth was not just the widow of the king, but also the mother of the new queen. Hence, she became Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

We see a lot of the Queen Mother in The Crown, and we should expect to continue to do so because in real life, she lived until 2002, the same year her younger daughter, Princess Margaret, passed.

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In a stroke of casting brilliance, Erin Doherty portrays Princess Anne in The Crown. As played by Doherty, Princess Anne is completely relatable as the often sarcastic, sometimes surly, horseback-riding younger sister of the man born to be king. So far, we’ve seen Princess Anne’s talents as an equestrian take her all the way to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. We’ve also seen that Anne enjoyed a brief dalliance with Andrew Parker-Bowles, who would later marry Camilla Shand. What we have not yet seen is the acrimonious tailspin of the last years of her marriage to Mark Phillips, nor her acquaintance with the man who eventually became her second and current husband, Timothy Laurence.

Alex Jennings plays the younger version of King Edward VIII, who abdicated to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. When King George V died in January 1936, his eldest son, David, Prince of Wales, ascended the throne. But being king meant nothing to David if he couldn’t rule alongside his lady love of two years, American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Notwithstanding the unequivocal will of the King, the government had rules to follow, which forbade a king’s marriage to a divorcée. In order to prevent a constitutional crisis, King Edward VIII abdicated, leaving his brother, Bertie, the Duke of York, to rule – and transforming Princess Elizabeth of York into the heir apparent. This decision also forever damaged David’s relationship with his own mother, Queen Mary, as well as the rest of his family.

The former King Edward VIII went on to marry Wallis. Ostracised by the royal family, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor lived most of the rest of their lives in exile from the UK while rubbing elbows with anyone rich, famous, or powerful who would tolerate them. That included Nazis, although The Crown only briefly touches upon that. Acting legend Derek Jacobi plays the Duke of Windsor at the end of his life, but Jennings’ performance, which captures a sense of bravado and entitlement that makes the Duke seem at once despicable and pathetic, is so iconic that he will likely be the one most associated with the role.

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Wallis Simpson was still married to another man when she began her relationship with David, who was then the Prince of Wales. However, she was divorced by the time King George V died, leaving the throne to David, who became King Edward VIII. The new king wished to marry Wallis, but that was unacceptable as the rules then stood (not allowing a divorced consort), leading to King Edward VIII’s abdication. And that, of course, changed the line of succession forever.

That being said, since the Duke and Duchess of Windsor never had children, it’s arguable that even if King Edward VIII had not abdicated, Queen Elizabeth might very well have ascended anyway upon his death (based on the rules of succession). For the Duchess’ later years, The Crown cast the iconic Geraldine Chaplin.