After seven years and three lead actresses, the great saga of Elizabeth II's reign ends. Over the years, it’s won both acclaim and controversy, showered with awards and, in the case of Season 5, the subject of statements by two former Prime Ministers. It has sustained its hit status, each season as eagerly awaited as the first and, with the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, becoming a focus for a mourning nation.
Season 6 brings the series to an end but doesn’t quite finish the story, ending in 2005 rather than the present day. Part 1, released in November 2023, focuses on Diana, Princess of Wales, including her relationship with Dodi Fayed and her death. Part II, released in December 2023, covers the happier times of the courtship of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and the marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.
Following the formula of previous seasons, the cast for Season 6 remains much the same as for Season 5: the Queen is played by Imelda Staunton, the Duke of Edinburgh by Jonathan Pryce, Charles by Dominic West and Diana by Elizabeth Debicki. Joining the cast as William will be Rufus Kampa (for the younger scenes), Ed McVey (for older), and Meg Bellamy as Kate. Since this is the final season, we are also given flashback scenes involving past cast members, including our former Queens Claire Foy (Seasons 1 & 2) and Olivia Colman (Seasons 3 & 4).
Then there are the locations over which around 75 per cent of the filming takes place. The series has always made good use of the UK’s many stately homes, including its portfolio of eight royal residences, as well as creative use of foreign sites for the many royal tours. Here’s our guide to Season 6 and the locations used in previous outings.
Is The Crown actually filmed at Buckingham Palace?
While The Crown uses many genuine stately homes, Buckingham Palace is not used for filming. Instead, it’s created with a combination of sets at Elstree Studios and several grand buildings around the UK. Alongside Wrotham Park, in Barnet, North London, the 18th-century home of the Byng naval dynasty, where Her Majesty’s audiences with her Prime Ministers are shot, there’s Lancaster House on Pall Mall, the 1820s home of the Duke of York (the Grand Old one, indeed), now owned by the Foreign Office and previously seen in royal flicks Young Victoria and The King’s Speech. Smaller rooms tend to be Wilton House near Salisbury, home to the Earls of Pembroke, while the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, South London, is used for exterior shots. Also employed have been the Palladian splendour of Moor Park in Rickmansworth and Goldsmiths Hall in the City (used in Season 1 for the late King’s operating theatre). For the first three seasons, we also saw the magnificent Waddesdon Manor, the 19th-century seat of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in Aylesbury, featured in both The Queen with Helen Mirren and Carry On Don’t Lose Your Head with Barbara Windsor.
Where is The Crown Season 6 filmed?
Spain
As in Seasons 3-5, filming for the royal family’s trips to sunnier climes took place in Spain. While filming in Barcelona to recreate one such visit, news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced. The crew paused filming as an act of respect. They then returned to Mallorca to shoot scenes with Diana and a young Prince William (played by Rufus Kampa) on a holiday with Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) spent on a superyacht owned by his father Mohammed.
Scotland
With the focus in the second part of Season 6 on William’s romance with Kate Middleton, filming took place in the real-life St Andrew’s University, where the couple met. Founded in 1413 and one of the oldest academic institutions in the world, St Andrew’s sits in the heart of the small town of the same name on the east coast of Scotland, also known for its similarly historic golf course and its beautiful beaches, which were used in the filming of the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire. For The Crown, as well as university buildings, we see the town streets, Molly Malone's pub and a mocked-up Italian restaurant, Pizzeria St Andrea, where Kate works as a waitress.
Scotland is an important location for the family, and continuing its high profile in Season 6 will be Balmoral, the royal summer residence close to Macduff in Aberdeenshire. In Season 4, this was the venue for some of the series’ most enjoyable moments when we saw the visits of Margaret Thatcher and then Diana to family gatherings, the two of them meeting rather different receptions. Balmoral was filmed chiefly at Ardverikie House near Inverness, a very grand 19th-century hunting lodge which also served in the Victorian saga Mrs Brown, BBC favourite The Monarch of the Glen and the latest Bond film, No Time To Die.
Winchester
The production returned to the ancient Hampshire city and its Cathedral, used in Season 3 for the funeral of Winston Churchill. This time, it is again standing in for London attraction Westminster Abbey, for the funeral of Diana.
York
With Season 6 ending in 2005, Part 2 gives us a happy ending with the marriage of Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams). For this, the real venue of St George’s Chapel in Windsor was played by York Minster. Since St George’s is a much grander building than the name “chapel” suggests and dates back to the 14th Century and Edward III, the magnificent cathedral of York was a fitting stand-in, particularly since it dates from the period in the 15th Century when St George’s was enlarged. Filming also took place in Rochester, Kent, where the town was made up to represent the streets of Windsor decorated with bunting.
London
As well as the usual blend of different buildings used to represent the Queen’s chief residence in the capital, Buckingham Palace (see above), other scenes are filmed or set in London. For the Hôtel Ritz in Paris, the last destination of Diana and Dodi, filming was at Dartmouth House, a Grade II Georgian building on Mayfair’s Charles Street, now home to the English Speaking Union. In East London’s Docklands area, Canary Wharf was transformed into Chicago for scenes featuring President Clinton.
Meanwhile, another scene set in London is filmed elsewhere in the country. In a flashback, we see the young Queen (Viola Prettejohn) and her sister Margaret (Beau Gadsdon) in 1945, given leave by their father to join the people celebrating V-E Day in the streets of London. For this, filming took place in the historic centre of Hull, around Alfred Gelder Street and Queen Victoria Square, the same area used for the 2015 film about the event, A Royal Night Out, as well as for other scenes of early-20th-century London in Enola Holmes and the ITV series Victoria.
Season 5
This season saw the Queen facing perhaps the most difficult period of her long reign. Covering the 1990s, it included her “annus horribilis” of 1992, with the separations of three of her children and a devastating fire at Windsor Castle. Taking on this dramatic period was a new cast, led by Imelda Staunton as the Queen and Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, with Dominic West as the young Prince Charles and Elizabeth Debicki as Diana.
Mallorca
As in previous seasons, filming for foreign visits took place in Spain. For Season 5, this was in Mallorca, standing in for Italy where Charles and Diana took a family trip in 1991. Scenes were filmed in a speedboat and on the 99-metre Christina O, a yacht previously owned by Aristotle Onassis and the venue for his wedding reception to Jackie Kennedy as well as that of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly. The production also visited the town of Andratx, and the beaches of Sant Elm and Port de Soller.
Yorkshire
For a visit to Moscow, taken by the Queen and Prince Philip with Charles and Diana in 1995, The Crown headed to the town of Rotherham. Here, the area of Little Germany and the streets around Forster Square were redressed for post-Glasnost scenes. Filming also took place nearby at Wentworth Woodhouse, the home of the Earls Fitzwilliam, recently seen in Downton Abbey and Churchill biopic Darkest Hour.
Sussex
The final scenes shot for Season 5 were in Eastbourne, where the production took over the Queens Hotel and the seafront. The county was previously used for Season 3, where Rye stood in for Peebles in Scotland for a shopping trip by Princess Margaret.
Scotland
Although the Queen did visit the small town of Macduff on the Royal Yacht, for the purposes of the series this became Belfast, site of a tour in 2003.
Windsor Castle
This residence took a lead role in Season 5, at the centre of a disastrous event in royal life. For three seasons, Windsor Castle was embodied by Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire, seat of the Duke of Rutland and a much-visited film location, seen in Young Victoria and The Da Vinci Code. For Season 4, though, it moved down the road to Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire, which is where it’s remained for the latest episodes. This 16th-century house, built for Sir William Cecil and still owned by his family, is famed for its 18th-century gardens designed by Capability Brown and has hosted several period dramas, including Bleak House and the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. For a Christmas scene, filming also took place for Season 5 in nearby Stamford.
London
For this season, some of Diana’s high-profile encounters with the paparazzi were filmed in Croydon, notably around the Fairfield Halls, the celebrated 1960s-built concert hall.
Also significant this season was Charles and Diana’s home, Kensington Palace, which became Diana’s alone after their separation. For this, the production made use of two locations. The first was Harefield Grove in Hillingdon, to the west of London, a 19th-century house currently being converted that has hosted several shoots over the years, including the 2015 Agatha Christie adaptation And Then There Were None. Then there’s Brocket Hall near Welwyn Garden City, an 18th-century stately home that has enjoyed a colourful past under owners including Lord Melbourne, Lady Caroline Lamb and its current non-resident holder, Baron Brocket, known as Charlie and often seen on TV himself. Run as a golf course and hotel, it has a long-screen CV including The Queen, the 1995 Pride and Prejudice and even EastEnders.
Season 4
The fourth series, the last with the Oscar-winning Olivia Colman as The Queen, took us from 1979 to 1990. With it came two new icons, Princess Diana (Emma Corrin) and Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) – and some more equally impressive architecture.
Gloucestershire
New to Season 4 was Highgrove, the Gloucestershire estate brought into the royal fold in 1980 as a home for Charles. This was played by Somerley House in Ringwood, close to Hampshire’s New Forest, a Georgian block built at the end of the 18th century and now home to the Earl of Normanton.
We also saw more of Princess Anne (Erin Doherty), and with her Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire, her home close to Highgrove. This was played by Wrotham Park in Barnet, Hertfordshire, as seen in Gosford Park, Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2011’s Jane Eyre and also in The Crown itself, as the venue for the Queen’s Buckingham Palace audiences with her prime ministers.
Sandringham
Also new was Sandringham, the royals’ Norfolk getaway. Previously played by the Elizabethan-era Englefield House, near Reading (as seen in The King’s Speech), for Season 4, it was shot at Somerleyton Hall near Lowestoft in Suffolk, a 19th-century Renaissance Revival pile.
Clarence House
This London residence, home to Charles III until his accession and where the young Queen grew up, appeared in its guise as the new home of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. It was filmed at High Canons House, a 19th-century manor in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
Australia
Southern Spain and the deserts of Almeria, home of the classic spaghetti westerns, and nearby Malaga stood in for Australia, the venue for Charles and Diana’s 1983 tour, including their visit to Uluru (then better known as Ayers Rock), played by the Llano del Buho formation near the Tabernass Desert.
New York
For this season, the Big Apple was played by the streets of Manchester. Scenes depicting Diana’s visit of 1989, when she famously visited the city’s homeless and AIDS patients, were shot in Stevenson Square, which has also filled in as NYC onscreen in Captain America and Morbius.
Season 3
With the arrival of the regally wonderful Olivia Colman, this run took us from 1964 to 1977, bringing some groovy fashions, industrial unrest and a new focus on Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter) and Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) and their various complicated love lives.
Wales
With the rising profile of Charles, we saw his 1969 investiture as Prince of Wales. This was, remarkably, filmed in the place itself, amid the Edwardian battlements of Caernarfon Castle in the north-west of the country. For the recreation of the Aberfan disaster of 1966, where a landslide covered a south Wales primary school, the production turned to Cwmaman. The unused Glynhafod Junior was turned into Pantglas Junior School, and further filming took place at Blaenavon’s Big Pit National Coal Museum.
London
For Winston Churchill’s funeral in Episode 1, St Paul’s Cathedral was played by Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire, a medieval Gothic giant that’s one of the largest places of worship in Europe but still a great deal less busy than the real thing.
Meanwhile, for Marlborough House, home of Liz’s widowed grandmother Queen Mary, the production enlisted Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, its Jacobean glory still largely intact, from the gold-leaf roof of its Long Gallery to the drawing room lined with paintings over tapestries.
Scotland
Princess Margaret’s travails took her this season to The Glen, the Scottish seat of Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner. Footage for this was filmed at Rhinefield House Hotel in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, mostly around the pool, where she spies Roddy Llewellyn (Harry Treadaway).
Mustique
We also saw Margaret find her paradise on Tennant’s newly purchased Caribbean island of Mustique. This was southern Spain, with scenes shot around Málaga. While there, the production crew took full advantage of the landscape, employing it for scenes of Margaret and her new husband, Lord Snowdon, living it up in California on their US tour.
Washington
When Margaret and Snowdon flew to Washington DC to butter up President Johnson (Clancy Brown) in 1965, the White House they visited was in fact Hylands House, an 18th-century neoclassical stately home in Chelmsford.
France
For the Duke of Windsor (Derek Jacobi) in exile in the Bois de Boulogne outside Paris, we were really in a drawing room of West Wycombe House, the country pile of 18th-century rogue Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the Hellfire Club. It’s a popular screen location, featured in Downton Abbey, Taboo and Patrick Melrose.
Season 2
Focusing on the years between 1956 and 1964, this season portrayed challenges at home and abroad, including the Suez Crisis and the Profumo Affair, and the Queen (played by her first incarnation, Claire Foy) as a very busy working mother.
South Africa
For this season, South Africa was the show’s go-to foreign location, covering most of the globe on Prince Philip’s world tour: Cape Town covered for Melbourne, the Keurbooms River was the Amazon, Kogel Bay on the Western Cape was Tonga and Hermanus was Bermuda.
Likewise, the Eastern décor of Elveden Hall in Suffolk, onetime home of the Maharajah of the Punjab, played Ghana for the Queen’s 1961 visit in Season 2, though here it was South Africa that did the heavy lifting, particularly Cape Town’s Castle of Good Hope, built by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th-century.
Scotland
For Gordonstoun, the outward-bound Scottish public school that Charles so famously hated, the production stayed south of the border in Gloucestershire at Woodchester Mansion – though only the façade was used since the 19th-century building was abandoned before it was ever completed.
Season 1
While the first outing, taking us from 1947 to 1955, established the familiar locations that have endured through six seasons, a few settings remained one-offs.
Scotland
One particularly spectacular location was Slains Castle, in Aberdeenshire, which appeared as Castle Mey, bought by the Queen Mother as a getaway. It’s dramatically positioned on a cliff overlooking the North Sea, but its ruined state meant it only furnished exterior shots.
Kenya
As in Season 2, a good deal of time was spent in South Africa, standing in for the then Princess Elizabeth’s tour of Kenya, where she hears about her father’s death.
Bermuda
Throughout the filming of The Crown, grand homes have proved as useful for period details as for scale, as in the case of South London’s Eltham Palace, which lent its beautifully preserved Art Deco panelling and glass ceilings to scenes supposedly set in Bermuda’s Government House, and also in the Royal Yacht Britannia.
The Crown Season 6: Part 1 will stream on Netflix from November 16 2023, with Part 2 following on December 14.