The TV Series the Crown and Its Reception in the Czech Republic
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SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě Marcela Cimprichová Obor: Angličtina a Český jazyk a literatura The TV Series The Crown and its Reception in the Czech Republic and Great Britain Bakalářská práce Opava 2021 Vedoucí bakalářské práce: Mgr. Marie Crhová, Ph.D. Abstract This bachelor thesis deals with the historical drama series The Crown. The first part focuses on the creator and writer Peter Morgan, his work, and the TV series itself. The second part covers the popularity and reception of the series by the media in the Czech Republic and Great Britain. In the end, the thesis compares the reception of The Crown in these two countries. The aim of this thesis is the comparison of perception from media in the Czech and British environments. Keywords: The Crown, TV series, Peter Morgan, Queen Elizabeth II, media reception Abstrakt Tato bakalářská práce pojednává o výpravném historickém seriálu Koruna. První část se věnuje tvůrci a scenáristovi Peteru Morganovi, jeho dílu a samotnému seriálu. Druhá část se zabývá popularitou a přijetím seriálu v médiích v České republice a ve Velké Británii. V závěru práce srovná hodnocení seriálu v těchto dvou zemích. Cílem práce je srovnání mediálního ohlasu v českém a britském prostředí. Klíčová slova: Koruna, TV seriál, Peter Morgan, královna Alžběta II, mediální ohlas Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto práci vypracovala samostatně. Veškeré prameny a literaturu, které jsem pro vyhotovení práce využila, řádně cituji a uvádím v seznamu použité literatury a internetových zdrojů. V Opavě dne ........................................ 2021 Podpis: .......................................................... Marcela Cimprichová Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Marie Crhová, Ph.D. for her kind help, support, and valuable advice. I also want to thank my family and friends for their patience and encouragement. Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1 The writer and TV series ................................................................................ 2 1.1 Peter Morgan and his work...................................................................... 2 1.2 The Crown ............................................................................................... 3 1.3 Awards ..................................................................................................... 5 2 Reception ........................................................................................................ 5 2.1 Czech reviews .......................................................................................... 5 2.2 British reviews ....................................................................................... 13 2.3 Comparison ........................................................................................... 20 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 23 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 24 Appendix 1 Introduction In the last decades, it has been common in the film industry to depict famous figures or events from history. A lifelong interest of screenwriter Peter Morgan in public figures led to the creation of scripts for films, plays, and lastly TV series about prime ministers or the members of the royal family in Great Britain. His first significant piece of work about Queen Elizabeth II was the 2006 movie The Queen. The stage play named The Audience was another important work, premiered in 2013. These two works were the inspiration for creating more extensive work that could render a bigger part concerning the royal family’s life and mainly the life of the monarch, and so Peter Morgan’s successful historical drama series The Crown arose. The series was inspired by the life of the longest-reigning British monarch and the history and political situation in Great Britain. The main aim of this thesis is to compare the perception of The Crown series from Czech and British media. The methods used are analysis and comparison. The materials used for the thesis mainly include articles and reviews from quality media in the Czech Republic and Great Britain. It is specifically Český rozhlas (Czech Radio) and ČT art (Czech Television, Channel Art) that specializes in culture. In Great Britain, the reviews are taken from BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and further from broadsheets, as they are usually referred to, The Telegraph and The Guardian. The thesis is divided into two chapters with additional sub-chapters. The first chapter focuses on the screenwriter’s personal life, his work, and the TV series. The second chapter unfolds the perception of the series in quality media in the Czech Republic and Great Britain. The reviews are sorted out into the evaluated topics, namely portrayal of the royals and acting performances, depiction of relationships between characters, the recast, Peter Morgan and his dramatization, episodes, the problem of fact and fiction of the TV series, and appreciation. Lastly, the sorted topics are compared one by one as Czech and British media evaluate them. 2 1 The writer and TV series 1.1 Peter Morgan and his work Peter Morgan is a British writer, well-known as screenwriter and playwright, who was born on April 10, 1963, in London. He is one of the most prominent figures in creating The Crown series. His parents came to England as refugees who escaped from chaotic Europe in the Second World War. Growing up was not so easy for young Peter after his father died when he was nine years old. He did what his father could not, graduated from the University. While studying at the University of Leeds, he found his passion for theatre. In the beginning, he was pursuing the idea of being an actor.1 He quickly discovered that he does not have a talent for acting, however, work as a writer made him able to stay in his beloved environment – theatre. Peter Morgan was asked at Febiofest: Prague International Film Festival in the interview about the moment he decided to write. He answered that he had not wanted to be a writer at all. He called himself a “reluctant writer” because he simply had never wanted to write. He continued that then he was happy to be a writer, to have a job, where he could at least do as many other things as writing – casting, producing, working in the cutting room. His journey had been one of falling in love with writing.2 The important turning point in his career was The Deal, a 2003 British film. The idea came to him when he was waiting for a plane at Gatwick Airport and saw a book The Rivals, that immediately drew his attention because of a specific artwork on the cover. The artwork portrayed a black-and-white photograph of Tony Blair (former prime minister) and Gordon Brown (his opponent), which reminded him of characters from a play.3 From this point onwards, he dedicated his life to writing about public figures. Another significant piece of work, about the royal family, was the 2006 movie The Queen, where Helen Mirren starred Queen Elizabeth II and won the Oscar for Best 1 Giles Harvey, "How the Man Behind 'The Crown' Made the Monarchy Relevant Again", 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/magazine/the-crown-peter-morgan.html?smid=fb- nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0F5GWcmJRNz0GCmI2nyuzYxnqPSCDn2XAlN86LvolFr7UbY478 fpqymnc. 2 Peter Morgan, "Peter Morgan Master Class | MFF Praha – Febiofest", 2016, https://youtu.be/S3d4XwgAOr0. 3 Giles Harvey, "How the Man Behind 'The Crown' Made the Monarchy Relevant Again", 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/magazine/the-crown-peter-morgan.html?smid=fb- nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0F5GWcmJRNz0GCmI2nyuzYxnqPSCDn2XAlN86LvolFr7UbY478 fpqymnc 3 Actress.4 The movie depicts the death of Princess Diana and how the royal family, mainly the Queen, responds to it. The stage play named The Audience, which premiered in 2013, is about private meetings, in other words, the audience. These meetings have been held at Buckingham Palace for more than 60 years. Elizabeth, originally starred by Helen Mirren, meets her prime ministers. Morgan put together top moments of these private sessions that she had had during her long reign, from Churchill to David Cameron. This play led Morgan to a deeper consideration of the relationship between old Churchill and young Elizabeth. He started to think of creating a film, but then he reconsidered and began working on TV series, which could cover more.5 The Queen and The Audience could only render a small piece of the extensive problematics concerning the royal family, and so the idea for The Crown series began to emerge from these two writings. In 2016, when the first season of the TV series was released, Peter Morgan was appointed C.B.E – Commander of the Order of the British Empire in Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year Honours for his services to drama. There he had the opportunity to visit Buckingham Palace for the first time.6 1.2 The Crown It is a historical drama inspired by the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest- reigning British monarch, as well as the political situation in her time. The story starts not long before she succeeded to the throne and will continue up to the present day. The series is broadcasted on Netflix, an American online subscription service, and produced by Left Bank Pictures, owned by Sony Pictures Television. It is the first Netflix original series produced and