Dominic West, the actor, has told how he did not want his son to appear in the latest series of The Crown.
West, who began playing Prince Charles in the fifth series of the drama, was joined on screen by his son Senan who played a young Prince William.
However, he said he decided the younger West could not continue into series six, which started on Netflix last month.
West told Radio Times magazine: “I didn’t really fancy doing the scene at Balmoral, telling a boy his mother has died.
“They invited Senan back because he did such a good job, and he was great, but I did slightly baulk at that. It was unfair of me, because he did want to do it, but I wouldn’t have fancied that, to be honest.”
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West said that he found playing the Charles of the 1990s a sympathetic exercise. “In some ways, he was a villain of the piece, or of the Diana story,” he said. “As in any divorce, there are two sides, and we got to see what Charles’s side was.
“This series is much more about a man facing the imperatives of being a father. It’s not about him, it’s about his kids. It made it much clearer to me what I had to portray.”
In series six Prince William is played by two actors, Rufus Kampa, 17, who plays the young prince including the scenes when he and Harry, played by Fflyn Edwards, are told their mother, Princess Diana, has died. The young princes were 15 and 12 at the time.
Ed McVey, 24, portrays William as he attends St Andrews University where he meets Kate Middleton, his future wife. Series six also includes the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles, played by Olivia Williams.
West previously described seeing his then 14-year-old son act in the series as “very moving”.
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“He’s never acted before because Covid put a stop to all of his school plays,” he told reporters at the launch of series five, adding that it made watching Senan’s first performance unfold on-screen all the more significant.
He said that having his own son in the role also made his job easier as “it’s difficult to have physical intimacy, obviously, when you are with child actors”. He added, however, that the casting did add an extra emotional layer: “You know, I’m talking about your mum but not your real mum … that’s a bit weird.”
There have been widespread concerns about the dramatisation of events that are within the living memory of most people alive and which, it is argued, intrude upon the grief that will still be felt by William and his younger brother Harry.
West defended venturing into contemporary events, telling The Times last month: “The monarchy is public property … as long as monarchy has been around, dramatists have dramatised it. In that way Peter [Morgan, the show’s creator] is no different to Shakespeare.”
West said people were “often surprised” that the princess’s death was 25 years ago, adding: “The story of Diana was so central to the story of our monarchy in recent times that of course you are going to include …. I really don’t buy the argument that it is too close for comfort.”
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The producers of the Netflix show, which has already been nominated for 27 Bafta awards and 67 Emmy awards in its seven-year history, previously pledged to handle the topic “delicately” and with sensitivity.
Suzanne Mackie, the executive producer, told the Edinburgh TV Festival in August: “The show might be big and noisy, but we’re not. We’re thoughtful people and we’re sensitive people.”
