Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
The fifth season moves into the 1990s, as Elizabeth faces declining public support and a family whose private troubles keep becoming public news. Charles argues that the monarchy must adapt, while his parents weigh the institution’s future against the breakdowns in their children’s marriages. Elizabeth and Philip also find themselves out of step: he takes up carriage driving and forms a close friendship with Penny Knatchbull, which unsettles the queen even as she tries to avoid giving gossip more fuel.
Before their separation is announced in 1992, Diana secretly works with journalist Andrew Morton through an intermediary on his book, Diana: Her True Story. Later that year, Charles and Diana announce their separation, but are not yet divorced. The season follows the escalating battle for public sympathy, including the damaging Camillagate recording and Diana’s Panorama interview with Martin Bashir. The drama depicts Bashir manipulating evidence to gain her confidence. With their marriage beyond repair, Elizabeth advises Charles and Diana to divorce; John Major helps negotiate terms, and the pair finally end their marriage in 1996. Diana’s relationship with surgeon Hasnat Khan begins and later falters as press attention intensifies.
The year Elizabeth calls her annus horribilis includes the Windsor Castle fire and the separation or divorce of three of her children. Charles’s public work and ideas for a modernized monarchy continue to draw scrutiny. After the divorce, he attends the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, while Elizabeth accepts that the royal yacht Britannia will be decommissioned rather than repaired at public expense. The finale turns toward a summer invitation from Mohamed al-Fayed: Diana agrees to holiday in Saint-Tropez with her sons and the Fayed family, setting up the next season without yet showing the events of 1997’s later summer.