The Crown writer Peter Morgan was thrilled and relieved — as were all the cast — when the Netflix show finally came to an end last year, after six blockbusting series.
The last two were particularly controversial, as the telling of the Queen’s reign reached the modern era, and took some (more) historical liberties, causing uproar.
Immediately after the last broadcast Morgan insisted he was done with the Royal family — but I hear there has since been a change of heart.
Insiders say the 60-year-old remains intrigued by two Royal stories which he might yet decide he wants to tell: the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936, to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson; and the tale of Queen Mary, wife of George V.
The idea would be to do a mini-series — or a couple of them — again for Netflix. I hear Morgan is working with one of the senior producers from The Crown, although at this point it’s all informal — no contracts have been signed, or deals done.
The Crown writer Peter Morgan could be tempted back to writing about the royals and take on an even bigger challenge – writing a series about the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936, to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson
Morgan has also been spending time with girlfriend Gillian Anderson in Morocco. Anderson played Margaret Thatcher in the hit show
King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in Nassau, Bahamas, circa 1942. The couple could be the focus of a new series
A source says: ‘Everyone felt slightly traumatised by the time we got to the end of The Crown but Peter is circling a couple of ideas again, and we shall see where it ends up.’
The abdication of King Edward VIII after a reign of just 325 days was announced in a BBC broadcast. He told his subjects: ‘I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.’
Simpson was a twice-divorced American socialite and the King’s infatuation with her caused a constitutional crisis. But the other story intriguing Morgan is that of Edward’s mother Queen Mary.
She was initially engaged to her cousin Prince Albert, who was second in line to the throne but died during an influenza outbreak. The next year she became engaged to his brother, George, who became King George V.
As Queen Consort, she instituted an austerity drive at Buckingham Palace in WWI. Her youngest son, John, died in 1919. He had epileptic seizures and was kept out of the public eye, to the extent that he did not attend his father’s Coronation. He died aged just 13.
However, while a friend of Morgan’s confirmed he is considering these new Royal stories, they added that ‘in the immediate future he is focusing on a number of different projects’.
Morgan has also been spending time with girlfriend Gillian Anderson — who played Margaret Thatcher in the show — in Morocco, where he has a house.
She’s mad as hell! How Anya found her inner Furiosa
Anya Taylor-Joy will be the Queen of Cannes this year, thanks to her starring role in Mad Max: Furiosa which is to have its world premiere at the festival on May 15.
The film is a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. And Taylor-Joy was picked for the title role — first played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road — after director George Miller saw her in the stylish time-travelling thriller Last Night In Soho.
Anya Taylor-Joy attends the Tiffany & Co. Fifth Avenue store’s re-opening in April last year. The actress is the star of Mad Max: Furiosa, a Mad Max prequel
Taylor-Joy was picked for the title role after director George Miller saw her in the stylish time-travelling thriller Last Night In Soho
Miller said he asked her to audition by reading a classic scene from the Oscar-winning film Network, in which anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) famously declares: ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more!’
‘I said to her: ‘I’d like you to do a very simple test’, and it was the speech from Network.
‘Apart from the brilliance of the writing, it’s a piece that can be done to camera, it doesn’t need an acting partner,’ Miller said.
‘Anya did one version, which was really good. I gave her a couple of simple notes about intention and then she absolutely nailed it. I think it was done on an iPhone.
‘I sent it to the studio. I explained why I thought she was right for the role. I said I was really happy to talk about it, but it was so persuasive that we didn’t need to talk.’
Naomi’s saving all her love for her children…
Supermodel Naomi Campbell is focused on her children — but has no man in her life.
Friends of the model, who will be the subject of an exhibition at the V&A this summer, say that reports of a romance with close pal Mohammed Al Turki are wide of the mark.
Al Turki (‘Mo’ to his friends) is the boss of the Red Sea Film Festival. He accompanied Naomi to the BAFTAs in London in February, and the pair were seen holding hands on the night.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell at her birthday party in May last year, hosted in Cannes
Campbell with her daughter. Th world was surprised by the announcement that at 51, the long time model had become a first time mother
The model and mother of two at her exhibition Naomi: In Fashion at the V&A Museum, London
She has also been spotted wearing an enormous diamond ring.
However a dear friend of Campbell’s tells me: ‘It isn’t a romance — all her friends know that he is actually in love with another model and in a settled relationship with them. Naomi is single and focuses on her children and her sobriety.’
Campbell, born in London, now lives mostly in New York. In May 2021 she took the world by surprise when she announced she had welcomed a daughter — at the age of 51.
She told Vogue magazine: ‘I always knew one day I would be a mother, but it’s the biggest joy I could ever imagine.’
Two years later, in June 2023, she announced the arrival of her son. Both children are believed to have been born to a surrogate and Campbell has yet to reveal the names (or faces) of either.
She has been friends with Al Turki for around a decade and is rumoured to get $1 million every time she walks a red carpet in support of his festival, which is bankrolled by the Saudi Culture Ministry.
Spokesmen for both Naomi and Mohammed declined to comment on the extent of any financial arrangement, or the nature of their friendship.
Everyone loves to have a little ‘nosey’ on Rightmove, but Thursday Murder Club author and broadcaster Richard Osman has his very own take on it.
‘I go to Rightmove, and sometimes I zoom in on the shelves, just to see if they have got my books. That’s the worst thing I have ever admitted to! Also, any time there is a TV show and there is a bookshelf you always look.’
He added: ‘I am not interested, by the way, in buying a house — but I like to look at Rightmove.’
Richard Osman recently revealed he likes to take a look at the bookshelves of houses for sale on Rightmove – just in case his book is on there
Let them eat clafoutis
The nerve! A nasty Daily Mail columnist is the central figure in The Trouble With Jessica, a pitch black social comedy out in cinemas today.
Starring Rufus Sewell, Olivia Williams, Indira Varma (as the hack) and Shirley Henderson, the action unfolds at a Hampstead dinner party where one of the guests ends up dead, and everyone is mostly worried about how this might affect the price of their house, and nobody can work out if they are going to eat pudding.
The Trouble With Jessica is a dark comedy. The story takes place over a Hampstead dinner party where one of the guests end up dead
The film, out in cinemas, stars Rufus Sewell, Shirley Henderson, Olivia Williams and Indira Varma (both pictured)
The pud in question is clafoutis — a French dessert which is like a crustless tart with fruit.
Director Matt Winn said this week: ‘I wanted to put a pudding in there that was obscure. They used to sell it in Gail’s [the posh bakery]. This movie is about people who don’t want to be more than 200 metres from a Gail’s.’
Olivia Williams chipped in: ‘We never got to eat the bloody thing either! The props department made hundreds, but we weren’t allowed to touch any of them.’
She added: ‘There’s this myth, by the way — spread by food stylists — that if you eat the set food then it’s seven years of bad sex. But I have to tell you: it is not true!’
Will it be a Megaflopolis? There are, ahem, concerns about Francis Ford Coppola’s mega-budgeted passion project Megalopolis.
He’s been working on the idea for 20 years, and spent $120 million of his own money bringing it to the screen — selling off part of his vineyard holdings to do so.
But Megalopolis has just been screened for the first time for potential buyers and reviews are distinctly mixed, with one critic describing it as ‘bat****’ and arguing that it has ‘zero commercial prospects’.
The movie, which is about the post-apocalyptic rebuilding of a city and stars Adam Driver, John Voight, Dustin Hoffman and Aubrey Plaza, will probably be in cinemas later this year.
Adam Driver pictured delivering flowers in the rain while on set for Francis Ford Copolla’s new film Megalopolis
Shia LaBeouf pictured as a Greek goddess in full drag while filming the mega-budgeted passion project
Stop rewriting, naturally
Sir David Attenborough may turn 98 next month, but he remains as determined as ever to deliver word-perfect narration for his TV series.
‘He literally changed every sentence of the scripts sent to him for Mammals, in one way or another,’ reveals series producer Scott Alexander, who says he had no problem with the great man putting his stamp on the scripts.
Sir David Attenborough who turns 98 next month is still dedicated to his television work and will often re-write his scripts
‘Sir David is a fantastic writer and has a great way with words. He also has a passion for what he does. I first worked with him when he was in his early 70s and he still has that amazing enthusiasm for nature and wildlife.’
Mammals airs on BBC1 on Sunday evenings.
Barbie was the billion-dollar sensation of the box office last year, but Sharon Stone says she wanted to turn the iconic doll into a film THREE DECADES ago.
Stone pitched the idea of a ‘powerful’ Barbie without success when she was about the same age as actress and producer Margot Robbie.
‘I had the then-CEO of Mattel on my side. But we got thrown out of the studio. They were like, ‘Why would you take this American icon and try to destroy it? What is wrong with you?’
I got a lecture and an escort to the door.’
Linda: ‘Posh’ co-stars asked me to fetch their sarnies
Birds Of A Feather star Linda Robson has revealed there was so much class snobbery when she started acting that fellow cast members on the same production would ask her to go and buy their sandwiches.
Robson, right, who was born in Islington, North London, said upper-class actors would treat working-class cast members as their inferiors, and feel it was acceptable to order them to run errands.
Linda Robson on This Morning. The 65-year-old actress says she struggled to be treated with respect by her posher co-stars while filming The Case Of The Middle-Aged Wife
Now a favourite on Loose Women, 65-year-old Robson said: ‘I did a thing called The Case Of The Middle-Aged Wife, an Agatha Christie thing, and all the actors were really posh.
‘And they did like sometimes say, ‘Ooh, would you pop over to Marks and get me a sandwich?’ So you were treated like you were downstairs, rather than upstairs.
‘We were all in the same cast, but then I think because we were Cockney and working class they thought we should run and get their lunch for them or whatever. If they said it now I would say, ‘Go and get it yourself!’ But years ago I did it.’
