In part two of season six of The Crown, the Royals are certainly coming of age. Prince William (Ed McVey) returns to school life at Eton in the wake of his mother’s death, Prince Harry (Luther Ford) struggles to find his own role in the royal family and the Queen (Imelda Staunton) reaches her Golden Jubilee. We also see the burgeoning relationship of William and Kate (Meg Bellamy).
Here, TV WEEK chats to Luther, an experienced actor, director and film editor, Ed and Meg – who are both making their acting debuts in the iconic show.
The Crown marked Meg and Ed’s acting debuts.
(Image: Getty)How did it feel finding out you were going to be starring in The Crown?
Meg: I was so excited and scared. I got a phone call while I was at work at Legoland and had to step out to be told I had the job, and I was totally shell-shocked. Guests kept coming up asking questions and I had to pretend I cared!
Ed: Like Meg, I had no experience at all and hadn’t trained, so it was very unexpected.
What did you learn about your characters researching and playing them?
Luther: I thought it was pretty extreme when we touched on Harry’s initiation with killing stags on the Scottish Highlands, having his head forced into the carcass of the stag.
Meg: I think one of the reasons why people connect with Kate is because her roots are so normal. We had quite similar upbringings, so it was lovely looking at the script and knowing I was just playing a girl who goes to university and falls in love.
Ed: With William, initially he’s in a very insecure place with the idea of stepping into his dutiful role and as the show progresses, you see him become more and more comfortable with his lot in life and seeing how the Queen deals with it – and Imelda does it so beautifully – in the sense that it’s a privilege and honour to do that job. It was an exciting part of the journey to get your head around as an actor.
The real Kate and Will met at university in 2001.
(Image: Getty)Were you surprised Kate’s mother is portrayed as so invested in pairing Kate and William?
Meg: I really think Carole and Kate, as characters, have a fascinating dynamic to play – knowing Carole has this ambition for Kate around education and people she wants to surround her with – so there’s a lot of complexity in that mother/daughter relationship. Also, Kate doesn’t know at this point she’s going to marry William, so I didn’t read any research beyond her at university so I could play it truthfully, as if we don’t know where it’s going to go.
