The decision to separate the final season of The Crown into two distinct parts suddenly makes a world of sense once you have finished the first four episodes Netflix released last month.
They retold in almost minute-by-minute detail Princess Diana's final days, her shocking death in Paris and its aftermath, a sombre sequence of events viewers had been dreading ever since Emma Corrin first appeared as the late royal in season four.
Much ink has been spilled over the supposed "ghost" scene – which sees Elizabeth Debicki's Princess Diana appear after her death with a charming "ta-da" to Dominic West's then-Prince Charles. Away from the pearl-clutching commentary, the scene gave us one, final moment of the magnetic chemistry between Debicki and West, which has shone in spite of very little screen time together.
West sat down with Digital Spy and told us how he had long admired Debicki before The Crown. "She's so damn good," he smiled. "Everything she does is good. I was really keen to act with her and then you realise, oh, I'm in the bit where they're either divorcing or she dies.
"I thought that this was an amazing scene. I loved it. She's an incredible actress."
West said it was the awareness that those scenes of raw, intense grief were to come that left him reluctant to continue acting across from his son Senan, who made his screen debut as Prince William in the fifth season.
"That was great and he was great in it," West said. "They wanted him to carry on but I just couldn't quite imagine doing those emotional scenes with my own son. They were so difficult and I thought that might start messing with our own relationship. He wanted to do it and I wish he had really, but I was quite relieved it was someone else."
While this season of The Crown has so far been fairly bleak viewing, the final six episodes – which land on Netflix on December 14 – will bring a tonal shift, as the show moves on to the royal romances of Will (Ed McVey) and Kate (Meg Bellamy), as well as Charles and Camilla (Olivia Williams), before it draws to its definitive conclusion.
"It was nice to end up on a happier note," says West.
It also allowed him to get out of the "freezing cold and rain and wind" of the Scottish moors where the Balmoral scenes were shot in part one, while Debicki was ensconced in the gorgeous Mallorca sunshine.
"I think, for Charles, those first four episodes are really about him as a father," West said. "It's less about him and more about our common humanity. Then the second half is so much happier for him because he's with the woman he loves and he gets married."
Charles and Camila's 2005 wedding will likely be a key piece of the finale, since show creator Peter Morgan has confirmed that is the year the drama wraps up.
Filming the wedding itself at York Minster was by all accounts a grand affair, with the whole regalia shebang: a full orchestra, full choir, two dozen bay trees, 400 bowing extras. It sounds a bit like 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'. West said he thinks it was probably "better than the real thing".
"It was amazing," he smiled. "It was absolutely lavish. Then we come out into the streets of Windsor and there's 400 extras waving flags with our faces on. It was incredible. It's great to end on a happy note. Great to end on a wedding rather than funeral."
But whether that will be the closing moment of the last episode is another thing. Following the Queen's death last year, Morgan has said he made changes to the finale script, so there will likely be a coda or a certain reverential tone to the show's closing scenes, to pay tribute to the sovereign who has been the eye of this royal storm.
"I think what became clear to me is that The Crown is about Queen Elizabeth II," West said. "Therefore, everything from Diana to Charles is secondary to that. So, you end with her.
"I think what he wrote in the end was very much influenced by what happened at her funeral and the reaction to it. I thought it was desperately moving reading it."
The Crown season 6 part 2 arrives on Netflix on December 14.
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Deputy TV Editor
Previously a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape for Digital Spy, when she's not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas.
When she's not bingeing a box set, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we're all watching.
