Judi Dench slams The Crown and calls for addition in every episode

Dame Judi Dench has slammed The Crown for "crude sensationalism" and has called for a disclaimer to be added to each episode.

The acting veteran said while Netflix has made previous statements that the show is a "fictionalised drama", there is a very real risk that "a significant number of viewers" will believe the events depicted are historically accurate. She also noted that some of the things featured in the new series may be "damaging" to the monarchy and cannot go unchallenged.

Dame Judi's criticisms were made in a letter to the Times, after previous concerns were voiced by former Prime Minister Sir John Major ahead of The Crown's fifth season launch on November 9. Sir Major criticised the upcoming season as depicting the King - then Prince of Wales - as plotting to overthrow the queen as "malicious nonsense".

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It is expected to show Charles cutting a holiday with Princess Diana short in order to host a secret meeting with Sir Major at Highgrove in 1991. Dame Judie wrote: "Sir John Major is not alone in his concerns that the latest series of The Crown will present an inaccurate and hurtful account of history (News, Oct 17),” Dame Judi wrote.

“Indeed, the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism. While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true.”

She continued: "No-one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged.

“Despite