Paul Burrell says The Crown got Queen Elizabeth all wrong as he calls out two stars

Paul Burrell has explained how The Crown got Queen Elizabeth all wrong and called out two of its stars. The former royal butler, who is best known for working for Princess Diana, was not impressed with the Netflix series that documented the reign of the late Queen because he thinks the monarch was painted in the wrong light.

During the first two series, Claire Foy portrayed Queen Elizabeth before handing the baton to Olivia Colman and then it all wrapped up with Dame Imelda Staunton in the leading role. But with the latter two actresses, even though he is a fan of them to begin with, he felt as if they portrayed her as 'icy and cold' when he recalled that as being far from the case in real life.

During an appearance on Wednesday's Lorraine, he said: "She took time and care. There are two people. There's the Queen on the world's stage and and Elizabeth behind closed doors. "

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The former I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! star, 67, did not think that the actresses had portrayed the late monarch, who died in September 2022 after a record-breaking reign of 70 years, in any way like he remembered her.

He added: "I'll tell you, she wasn't like anything you've seen in The Crown, I wasn't happy with it. I love Imelda Staunton and Olivia Colman but I didn't like their portrayals. Icy and cold. The Queen wasn't, she was warm and affectionate and you'd want her to be your granny."

Paul previously took umbrage at the way the programme had decided to show the death of Princess Diana, who was killed in a car accident in 1997 at the age of 36. Although the crash itself did not make it on screen, the dramatic opener lurched viewers immediately into a specific time and moment that everyone remembers as the build up to the tragedy was teased.

At the time, Paul furiously slammed the streaming-giant's decision to cover the harrowing last few days of Diana's life. Paul served as a footman for the late Queen before working for Diana as a butler for 10 years until her death in Paris in 1997. Speaking to The Mirror, Paul said the current series is too close to recent history, thus opening old wounds for Diana's close friends and family, including her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

Burrell, who Diana described as “the only man she ever trusted” said he felty a duty to watch the sixth season of the Netflix show about the royal family to see how her memory is preserved – but explained that he would be watching the “grotesque” scenes through his fingers.

"It's too close to our memories and it's too close to people's hearts, to William, to Harry, to all the people that knew her and loved her,” he said. “It seems macabre to show the vehicle in which she died. I find the whole scene of Diana's death portrayed in a fictional TV show to be grotesque.”

At the time of Diana’s death it was rumoured that she was pregnant and expecting her lover Dodi Fayad’s child. The rumour was later disproved by a pathologist at Diana’s inquest but The Crown once again rehashes the untruth. “Please don't say that Diana was having a baby when she died because she wasn't. That is not true,” Paul said.

“Please depict the crash with elegance and style. Please don't go into gory details. We know what happened, it wrecked all our lives. We don't want to see it again.”

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