Sir Jonathan Pryce says public ‘will take comfort’ seeing Queen in The Crown

Sir Jonathan Pryce said the public will take “a bit of comfort” from seeing Elizabeth II in the fifth series of The Crown.

The 75-year-old actor stars as the former monarch’s husband Prince Philip, taking over from Tobias Menzies in Netflix’s royal drama.

Elizabeth II, who has the longest reign of any British monarch, died in September aged 96.

When asked about if her death will change anything for The Crown at a press conference on Tuesday, Sir Jonathan said: “I think people will, you know, I don’t want to sound too pompous about it, but they’ll gain a bit of comfort from seeing her, embodied again.”

He added: “(It’s also) a reflection of where our society is at the moment with a lack of trust and a lack of believability in our politicians.

“The same happened with Diana’s death for the public, people said, ‘You’re not gonna do it, we’re gonna do it’. And they came out in huge numbers.

“And I think part of for me seeing the crowds queuing for the Queen was saying: ‘This is the kind of person we want to be following and leading our country’.”

Imelda Staunton, who takes over from Olivia Colman as Elizabeth II, said people “admired” the monarch for doing her job and “keeping her promise” to the public.

The 66-year-old actress said: “You know, people say love, I think they admired (the Queen) and here we are celebrating a woman who… just did the job, not anything outside the job, not the stuff around it. Just a straight line.

“With her connection with horses, and horses have blinkers, and you just go straight on. And that’s what I feel she always did.”

Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki were handed the baton of playing Charles and Diana by Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin.

West also said that there is something unique about the way royal events are done in the UK.

The 53-year-old actor said: “The Queen’s funeral (was like) nowhere in the world.

“Does anyone do theatre like that? It was just the costumes and the cars I think, you know, nowhere does it like that.”

Netflix’s hit royal drama will return on November 9.