The Netflix show that staked its claim on the British television landscape as one of its most talked-about dramas has finally come to an end after six innings. When The Crown arrived in 2016, it made immediate critical waves for touting the masterful writing of the Oscar-nominated Peter Morgan, a roster of A-list acting, and a budget normally reserved for feature films.
The Crown broke the mould with a mass recast of its actors every other season, injecting new life into the depiction of an institution which could have been dull in less capable hands than showrunner Peter Morgan. The unique approach also allowed decades to pass as the drama whizzed through the twentieth century and into this millennium.
Since that first season the call sheet has only increased in star-power, while the conversation surrounding the show has turned ever more febrile. So much so that it feels right the show has come to an end, because the closer and closer we get to present day, the more the whole thing starts to feel like an oddly reverential episode of Have I Got News For You.
So as we draw to a royal conclusion, how do each of those seasons stack up? Here's Digital Spy's definitive ranking of every era of The Crown.
Season 6 - Part 1
The first half of the latest and not-so-greatest season struggled to land largely because it already exists in a far superior form, with Morgan's own film The Queen. But also because dramatising the death of Diana, played hauntingly by an Elizabeth Debicki – who rises above the material – was always going to be the trickiest balancing act. The 2006 film avoided it altogether.
Did The Crown pull it off? As well as could be done, but perhaps one scene with an imagined post-mortem Diana would have been sufficient, as opposed to two.
Season 5
Fresh off the back of the spectacular fourth season, the follow-up proved somewhat disappointing. The messy drama was now so much closer to present day and had been covered in splashy, lurid detail in the tabloids, so we were constantly comparing and contrasting scenes with our own memories of them. It became like watching a true crime drama of a documentary you've already seen.
These last two seasons have been difficult to measure up to the first batch, in part because the Queen Imelda Staunton is playing is at her most diminished and out of touch. She's reduced to huffing and puffing on sofas over the War of the Waleses, surrounded by an ever-increasing wreath of corgis.
Then, when she's not doing that, she's lobbying with the PM for royal yacht funds, a metaphor to underline the increasing uselessness of the royal family. But the side effect of pulling on that thread is that none of this feels as important as the stories of those early seasons.
If anything, this is Debicki's season, reshaped into as close an incarnation of Princess Diana as there ever has been on screen. She's similarly isolated, passing scenes anxiously lounging in the Kensington Palace sets, but whenever the cameras are on her, it's impossible to look away.
There are still glimmers of the brilliant offbeat approach The Crown can possess, like in the highlight 'Mou Mou' episode, which shows an aspirational outsider looking in at the royal family from a colonised perspective. It was superb.
Honourable mentions go to the Charles (Dominic West) and Diana scrambled-eggs scene, which served up a snapshot for the trajectory of their entire marriage, as well as the unexpected return of the beloved Peter Townsend – and in the form of James Bond star Timothy Dalton, no less.
Season 6 - Part 2
In these final years of the show, the monarchy and the real world have only grown further apart. Instead of presiding over major historical events, the world has shrunk so drastically that only the royals themselves are the story.
But after the abject heartache of part one, the sweet but bordering on saccharine tale of Will and Kate's university romance in part two was a balm.
The final episode is a deeply moving one, which after a season spent round the houses tending to virtually every other character aside from Elizabeth, she suddenly comes back into dramatic focus once again.
There's an – albeit anachronistic – tone to the scenes, generated straight from the BBC coverage of the Queen's funeral. But it feels a fitting conclusion to her reign as well as the royal tenure of this very show, which has been an institution in British TV for years now.
Season 4
With season four came what many had been waiting for: Princess Diana, played by Emma Corrin, who mastered the ever-so-slight head tilt of the People's Princess and also brought quiet, heartbreaking pathos to her scenes, as the fairytale began to morph into a nightmare.
Both Corrin and Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles were perfectly cast and carried the souring mood of the season as their marriage disintegrates. The whole thing culminated in what is now a TikTok-viral fight, in which Charles screams: "I refuse to be blamed any longer for this grotesque misalliance!!"
Yes, we had a somewhat schlocky Margaret Thatcher from Gillian Anderson and hammed-up messiness in Helena Bonham Carter's careening Princess Margaret, but whenever Corrin or O'Connor or both were on screen, the season sang.
Season 2
Here we reach one of The Crown's many sweet spots, with all the right elements of the first season – namely Claire Foy, Vanessa Kirby and Matt Smith. But the second season is hampered by the lack of real-world events in the decade or so these episodes span.
Instead, the season finds drama in the tumultuous love lives of its royals. Kirby again shines as the perpetually partying Princess Margaret, reeling from the agony of being barred from marrying her great love Peter Townsend. In a perverse game of romantic one-upmanship when she discovers he's engaged, she becomes shackled to the less-and-less-desirable society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones (Matthew Goode).
With this season, Peter Morgan again took the famously remote royals, who had long been held in such reverence that trying to dramatise what went on behind closed doors was a no-go, and he humanised them. Elizabeth and Philip's marital woes and suspicions of infidelity culminate in the finale's almighty face-off over a Russian ballerina's picture. A forever rewatchable scene.
Season 3
With the third season came The Crown's first cast overhaul, when Claire Foy was siphoned off to be replaced by Olivia Colman. Despite the Oscar-winner's acting chops, she never manages to dissolve into Elizabeth's skin in quite the shapeshifting way Foy did. Although we did here get to see the life she could have led without being duty-bound to the crown, with her horse-breeding bestie Porchey.
But where Colman was stilted, the introduction of Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles proved to be a career-making revelation. Nobody has ever been able to capture Charles' testy whining in the single word "Mummy".
The standout Welsh-centric episode 'Tywysog Cymru' was a perfect instance of the show powerfully reflecting a single historical moment, capturing both a nation's struggle and also a personal one. This is Morgan at the peak of his powers, because when he gets it right, he really gets it right. And brilliant spin for Charles, who here is akin to likeable.
Another unforgettable episode from this run came with the retelling of the devastating Aberfan catastrophe, which again showed how The Crown could weld historical events with royal drama.
This season was, surprisingly, somewhat marred by Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, who failed to fill Vanessa Kirby's shoes and contributed to a fairly lacklustre finale which was only saved by the escapism of the Caribbean setting.
Season 1
The one that started it all. When The Crown first burst onto our screens, it was still traversing a period of history that was not in the living memory of many viewers, so when episodes spotlighted a single event, like the London smog which descended in 'Act of God', they were both informative and narratively fascinating.
What's more, this season first gave us the regal majesty of Claire Foy as Elizabeth, which might be the single best bit of PR the royals have ever been treated to. She seamlessly managed the transition from naïve heir to assured monarch, with a strong resemblance to Liz to cap it all off. Foy brought heart to someone who on a banknote or pound coin could often seem inscrutable and haughty.
The tenderness of Jared Harris' King George VI in the initial episodes built up a real sense of loss when he dies, leaving a very young Elizabeth to take the throne.
Post-ascension, the centrepiece of this season was Elizabeth's fascinating tussle for power with her husband Prince Phillip (Matt Smith). When details emerged of the very real gender pay gap between the two actors behind the scenes, it only added another layer to the dramatic texture.
In hindsight, the early parts of this season feel like the sumptuous party before the inevitable hangover to come. There's the young love of Liz and Philip, the undeniable magnetism of Margaret and Peter Townsend, but with an inevitable sense of doom hanging over it all, because all good things must come to an end.
The Crown is available to stream on Netflix.
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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.
