Where regals dare: Harry and Meghan’s TV takeover

With the sensational screening of the Harry and Meghan Oprah Winfrey interview, it is increasingly clear that the royal family is now working directly with Netflix to furnish plotlines for future seasons of The Crown.

Deploying the accuracy that has characterised that series, the FT can reveal that scriptwriters and equerries have been meeting in secret to collaborate on ideas amid growing concern at Netflix that the royal emphasis on dutiful stability was a ratings killer. “Since about 2000, the royals seemed to be on some weird new no-drama kick, which may be fine for a constitutional monarchy but simply does not work for event TV,” said one insider.

It was this secret committee that came up with the plan to parachute a bona fide TV actress into the ranks of the royals to improvise new dramatic plotlines.

The need for direct collaboration had become obvious during the happiness years. Although show runners were initially excited about Prince William’s courtship of and marriage to Kate Middleton, they fear audiences will tire of an outwardly stable relationship. Viewers are eagerly anticipating the bit in season five when the Queen takes a cameo role as Dame Helen Mirren but these are rare moments of stardust.

Producers were worried they would be unable to top the drama of the Diana story. “There was just no new Queen of Hearts to work with,” said one insider. “It’s crushing a winning franchise.”

It was amid this deepening sense of crisis that the radical “second son” strategy evolved. The spare-heir storyline had already been trialled with Princess Margaret. This twin-track approach allows the primary royals to go on being dutiful while permitting dramatic storylines for less constitutionally significant figures and the occasional confrontation in which an enraged Windsor purses their lips and says “I see”.

Not all has gone smoothly. Prince Andrew was furious when he discovered the storyline turning him into a global sleazeball but was soothed by the promise of a major scene in which his wrongdoing is exposed live in a Newsnight interview with Meghan Markle.

But it was the pairing of Harry and Meghan — or HazMeg — that guaranteed at least a seventh season, by which time the Queen will be played by a computer generated Celia Johnson. The FT understands that the storyline will see the beautiful and sensitive Princess Meghan criticised by a stuffy and racially insensitive British establishment as she battles to spring her prince from his royal cage and teach the values of compassion, intersectionality, Facetune and the Goop store.

The sixth season ends with Meghan and Harry tunnelling out of Buckingham Palace under the eyes of Her Majesty’s secret police. They then flee London disguised as the Earl and Countess of Wessex to avoid recognition.

The Oprah interview — due to air this weekend — is seen as a major moment in the seventh season and scriptwriters are looking forward to a lengthy montage juxtaposing furious Royals watching the Sussexes spill the beans.

Even so, series 7 could be the end of the line. There is the eventual accession of King Charles (Michael Palin) but writers were unenthused by plotlines in which he invents a new flavour of Duchy Originals and develops some marshland at Highgrove.

Scriptwriters now see the glamorous Sussexes, along with their children and direwolf, as the future, following them as they stylishly fight global injustice, environmental damage and the Daily Mail. There have even been approaches to Nicola Sturgeon for what would be a sensational Game of Thrones plotline in which Harry, played by Ewan McGregor, claims the Iron Throne as the first king of a newly independent Scotland.

The real-world royals may limp on across our TV screens but in the even more real world of Netflix, “Windsor is coming” and The Only Way is Sussex.

Follow Robert on Twitter @robertshrimsley and email him at robert.shrimsley@ft.com

Follow @FTMag on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Listen to our podcast, Culture Call, where FT editors and special guests discuss life and art in the time of coronavirus. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.