jewels on film – Page 12

Jewels on Film: VICTORIA (S2E2, “The Green-Eyed Monster”)

01.19.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Time for our second Victoria recap of the season! If you need to catch up on the first half of the season premiere (or any other episodes), you can check out all of my previous posts on the show.

After Vicky’s christening, the Coburgs are still skulking about the palace. Ernst Sr. badgers Albert for more money to take care of his home back in Germany, while Uncle Leopold creeps about as Victoria works, reminding her that she needs to produce a son.

Victoria, wearing a delicate earring-necklace suite set with blue gems, does not need to be reminded.

In a more exciting development, Albert pays a visit to the Royal Society, where Ada Lovelace shows off the new computing machine that she and Charles Babbage have been working on. One of the most brilliant minds of the era, Lovelace is considered by many to have been the very first computer programmer. (She was also Lord Byron’s daughter.)

(And, if you watch as much Call the Midwife as I do, you’ll recognize the actress playing Ada, Emerald Fennell, as Nurse Patsy. I kept waiting for her to deliver a baby!)

Back at the palace, Victoria and Peel discuss political issues in the Holy Land.

Albert arrives, excited about his meeting with Lovelace. Victoria proposes that they should throw a party and meet some of these scientific minds.

Meanwhile, Wilhelmina’s crush on Ernst gets crushier and crushier, helped along by a little Chopin. (He’s got VD, kid. Take your pearls and run.)

Charlotte Buccleuch is NOT HAVING IT. (Have we established why she’s dressed in mourning clothes and jewels? Her husband lived until 1884. Also: Charlotte wasn’t even close to being an elderly woman when she served as Mistress of the Robes. This episode takes place around 1841, when Charlotte was 30! She already had four sons, but she gave birth to her daughters in 1844, 1846, and 1851. She was actually five years younger than the Duchess of Sutherland, the woman she replaced at court.)

Invitations go out for the cultural reception, and Victoria writes to Lord Melbourne, summoning him for the evening.

You know what that means: RUFUS RETURNS.

As she dresses for the reception, Victoria can’t figure out why her corset is so tight. I’ll give you a hint, ma’am: it rhymes with Schmedward the Schmeventh. (That means this episode should be set around the spring of 1841.)

Emma Portman, wearing seed pearls, is surprised and pleased to see her old pal Melbourne arriving at the reception.

Victoria, who wears her dark purple brooch, is introduced to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. She remarks that she’s never met a lady mathematician before.

Ada replies that she’s never met another one, either.

Lord M is the subject of much discussion at the reception. Victoria is thrilled to see him again. Albert gives him study tips. Uncle Leopold sniffs in his general direction.

The entertainment at the reception is provided by a famous Victorian ballet dancer, Marie Taglioni. The real Marie, who is said to have been the first ballerina to dance en pointe, was still performing in 1841; she would retire six years later.

After the performance, Victoria and Melbourne watch Albert in animated conversation with Ada. Melbourne observes that Ada takes after her mother and her father. (He would know. Ada’s mother was one of Lord Melbourne’s cousins. And remember that Melbourne was very well acquainted with the other side of Ada’s family; his wife, Lady Caroline, had a famous affair with Ada’s father, Lord Byron.)

Lord M breaks the news to Victoria that Byron was Ada’s father, and she is very intrigued.

The entertainment continues with a performance from Othello by the famous American Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge. This later gives Lord M the opportunity to talk to Victoria about the “green-eyed monster” of jealousy.

Everyone is enraptured by Aldridge — except for Wilhelmina, who is enraptured by Ernst. (Interesting pearl headpiece on her here.)

Ernst doesn’t notice. He’s watching the performance with his Aunt Victoire, who has rediscovered her tiara-comb-thing in her jewelry box.

Later, Charlotte clutches her metaphorical pearls about a black man playing Othello. Peel, who looks as if he’d rather be literally anywhere else, reminds her that the part was written that way. He’s clearly regretting putting Charlotte on the list of acceptable ladies for the Queen.

And then Victoria embarrasses herself a little in front of Albert, Ada, and Babbage by not understanding math. She’s a little jealous of Albert’s easy, intellectual conversations with them. Leopold is jealous of Melbourne. Wilhelmina is jealous of anyone who looks at Ernst. Lots of green-eyed monsters in the palace.

Day dawns, and surprise! Victoria’s pregnant. She has a shocked mirror-reflection moment straight out of The Crown.

She wears delicate jewels later in the day as she and Albert discuss conditions for children working in mines. (The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Children’s Employment’s report was issued in 1842.) They argue over whether Lord Melbourne and his party would have made time to investigate the problem. She accuses Albert of being jealous of Lord M; he says he believes it’s inappropriate for Victoria to invite him to the palace now that he’s no longer PM.

We also see the brooch pinned at the waist of Victoria’s dress as she and Albert bicker over his scheduled dinner with the Statistical Society. She’s jealous of Ada Lovelace, and she doesn’t want him to go to the dinner. He goes anyway.

That evening at the palace, a diamond-decked Victoria has to tell everyone that Albert’s not eating with them. She flees from the table when Ernst Sr. makes insinuations about his son. Leopold, who is still not taking care of Belgium, joins in. (In 1842, the same year that the report on children’s working conditions in the UK was released, Leopold advocated for better working conditions for children in Belgium, too. He was much more than just the meddling, gossipy uncle depicted here.)

Victoria cries to Lehzen about her pregnancy — she feels as if she’s going “to prison.” She sends for Albert, asking him to come back to the palace, but he refuses to leave the dinner. She sends for him again, but once more he resists.

When Albert does come home, he finds the door to his wife’s bedroom locked.

A disheveled Charlotte is surprised the next day when Victoria and Emma attempt to leave the palace without her to go to Brocket Hall. They leave her behind with instructions to tell Albert exactly where they are if he asks. (He doesn’t.)

At Brocket Hall, Melbourne is tending to his orchids. Victoria finds him in his greenhouse, and he shows off the unusual plants in his collection, including a Venus Flytrap. She really wants his advice on marriage, though, which is hilarious given his own track record. She doesn’t know how to be both a ruler and a proper Victorian wife.

Her proper Victorian husband is busy again with his own pursuits, talking once more with Babbage and Lovelace about their analytical engine. Ada, wearing a fashionable cameo brooch, reveals that sometimes the answers to her theoretical questions come to her in her dreams. Babbage thinks that’s silly, but Albert says he sort of gets it.

While they wait for Victoria and Melbourne to finish their conversation, Alfred and Emma have a sneaky drink in the garden.

Victoria confesses to Melbourne that much of her current conflict with Albert stems from his work as substitute monarch during her pregnancy and confinement. She’s worried that Albert wants more children so that she can constantly be on maternity leave — and he can basically become king. She thinks that Albert thinks he can reign better than she can. Melbourne quips that Albert wouldn’t be the first man to underestimate a woman. She’s the sovereign, and she shouldn’t forget that.

Back at the palace, Uncle Leopold — who is still not reigning over his own country — has heard from his palace gossip network that Victoria’s expecting, and he lets Albert know.

He goes in to talk with her about the baby, but she’s super salty with him, reminding him that she tried to tell him last night, but he refused to come home so she could speak with him. They fight about Melbourne and Lovelace, and then she storms off.

At Brocket Hall, Melbourne’s not doing so well. His doctors have brought out leeches for a spot of bloodletting to try to ease headaches and weakness on his left side. (The real Lord M had a stroke a little over a year after leaving office.)

The Coburgs finally head out. Ernst Sr. tells Victoire about the new baby as he leaves, because apparently her palace gossips aren’t nearly as good as those arranged by her brothers. Leopold advises Albert to be attentive to his wife. Less logic, more emotion. The younger Ernst is staying behind; Uncle Leopold wants him to get married, and he’s decided to hide out in Britain to avoid it. (Spoiler, Ernst: you’ll be getting a German princess bride soon, whether you like it or not.)

Victoria informs Peel that she’s expecting, and he congratulates her with an attempt at scriptural motivation. She tersely tells him that she wishes she had been born a man, which sort of squelches his big speech. (Anyone else notice that she wears basically the same dress and jewels for days at the end of this episode?)

Melbourne writes to Victoria, sending his regrets — he can’t come to London right now.

He encourages her to seek Albert’s counsel, looking to the future, not the past.

And so she does seek the future, going to meet with Lady Lovelace to see the analytical engine. But Ada has to hurry out — one of her children has been injured. The two bond a little over the difficulties of balancing work and motherhood. Turns out Victoria isn’t the only one who has sometimes wishes she’d been born male.

Wearing a pair of modern earrings set with white and blue gems, Victoria reminds Albert about their pre-wedding romance.

She apologizes for being jealous, and she admits that she’s a little unhappy about the pregnancy, mostly because it’s happening so soon after Vicky’s birth. He understands, and he doesn’t want her to be permanently confined.

That’s all she wanted to here — and they’re officially on good terms again. (Hope she doesn’t hold him to that “confinement” promise, though, because they’re just getting started…)

No spoilers for future episodes in the comments, please! Our next recap of Victoria will be posted on Monday afternoon.

Jewels on Film: VICTORIA (S2E1, “A Soldier’s Daughter”)

01.17.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

It’s time again to delve into the history and the jewels of PBS’s Victoria! Today, we’re recapping the first half of last Sunday’s season premiere, “A Soldier’s Daughter.” (You can catch up on last season’s recaps over here!)

The episode opens in early 1841, with Victoria holding her newborn daughter, Princess Vicky, and wearing pearl earrings with a delicate pendant necklace.

Vicky is quickly whisked away by a nurse, while Victoria is taken out in a pushchair with Dash in Vicky’s place on her lap. The Duchess of Kent, Baroness Lehzen, Harriet Sutherland, and Emma Portman accompany her.

In another room in the palace, Albert is doing the Business of Men: helping to make decisions about the First Anglo-Afghan War, so that no one will “trouble” Victoria with such things at the moment. (Your wife’s the crowned head, kid, not you.) The war has been going on since 1839, but things are not looking good. (This part of the storyline took place in the winter of 1841-42, a year after Princess Vicky was born.)

Albert’s reminded of his place when Victoria abandons the pushchair and interrupts the meeting, doctor’s orders be damned.

The Duchess of Kent, who has apparently sworn off daytime tiaras this season in favor of doilies and brooches, is very unhappy with her daughter. Victoria doesn’t care.

Lehzen goes below stairs to inform the servants that the Queen is returning to her duties sooner than expected. (I’m including this mostly as a reminder that, once again this season, I’ll be largely ignoring the tedious plots in this section of the show. To summarize: the new cook threatens to kill one of the kitchen maids, the old chef returns, Skerrett becomes the Queen’s head dresser, a new junior dresser arrives.)

Victoria is ready to go outside and rejoin the world. But not so fast: Sir Robert Peel (who became PM in August 1841) and his private secretary, Drummond, slow her roll by reminding her that she’s not yet been churched, so she can’t go out in public.

No problem: wearing no jewelry at all, she goes straight away and gets herself good and churched…

…and then heads for the stables to finally get to go riding again for the first time in months.

She’s also keen to rekindle other parts of their relationship, but the canoodling that results is interrupted by Vicky and her nurse.

Meanwhile, Victoria is relieved to get back to work. She wears a matching earring and necklace suite, plus hair jewelry, as she returns to her desk. When Lord Alfred Paget pops in to inquire about the state of his brother’s military commission, she confesses that Albert’s been “doing the boxes” — that is, handling the state papers and decision-making — while she was in confinement. Albert even offers to keep reading and summarizing all the state papers for her (so that she won’t get too tired), but she gives him a firm no.

At least Albert gets a fancy new uniform, though.

Wearing the production’s teeny-tiny version of the Albert Brooch, Victoria expresses her approval, and then decides to help him inspect the 11th Hussars.

It’s all very colorful and pageant-y. They have a disagreement over military uniforms, though. Victoria thinks it’s most important that they’re “splendid,” while Albert just wants them to function efficiently.

While all this is going on, Peel has gotten bad news from the army in Afghanistan. No one has told Victoria, because Albert still doesn’t want to stress her out unnecessarily. Wellington thinks this is a terrible idea.

We get a glimpse of Victoria’s tiara-esque hair combs as she sneaks in to check on Vicky.

Harriet Sutherland also drops in to see Vicky one last time before she goes. Peel’s the prime minister now, so to avoid all the fuss from last time, she’s agreed to replace some of her ladies. Harriet, who is still clinging fiercely to the ferronniere trend from last season, is going to be replaced by a new Mistress of the Robes. (The real Harriet departed in September 1841, shortly after Peel took office.)

Victoria wears production-invented jewels, including a very modern brooch, to meet with Harriet’s replacement…

…the eccentric and dramatic Duchess of Buccleuch, played by Dame Diana Rigg. She wears a large brooch pinned to her dress.

She’s accompanied by her niece, Wilhelmina Coke, who is in era-appropriate coral jewelry. (Wilhelmina appears to be fictional.)

Emma Portman, inexplicably wearing a strange-looking tiara and coordinating necklace in the daytime, offers to show them to their new rooms.

Back on red box duty, Victoria burns the midnight oil. She discovers that Albert has turned down Paget’s brother’s commission. They argue about what makes a good soldier, and then Albert lets it slip that the army is retreating from Kabul. OOPS. He’s actually shocked that the Queen of the United Kingdom knows what the Khyber Pass is. Oh, come on, Albert.

The next day, Victoria has tea with her ladies. Wearing her little daytime earrings and pendant, she raves about the latest Dickens novel. (The book in question, The Old Curiosity Shop, was originally published in installments, from April 1840 until November 1841.)

Wilhelmina, wearing a hair comb, pearl drop earrings, and a cameo, enthuses about the book as well.

Buzzkill Buccleuch, however, thinks novels are silly. She also doesn’t like that a German woman is in charge of Princess Vicky’s nursery. Oh, and she doesn’t like the decor or cleanliness level of the palace. Such fun!

Victoria runs into Peel and Albert, who are deep in conversation about exciting topics like sanitation systems. She lets Peel know that she knows what’s up in Afghanistan, and because she’s “a soldier’s daughter,” she’s interested in military things. (Also, surely, because she’s the monarch?) He promises to keep her updated.

Not trusting Peel or Albert to tell her the truth about what’s going on, Victoria summons Wellington, who gives her the gory details about the defeats suffered by the army in Afghanistan. He warns her that she’ll need to be ready if the army doesn’t make it back from their mission.

As the Coburgs arrive from Germany for Vicky’s christening, Victoria lays in to Albert for failing to tell her the truth about what was happening in Afghanistan. She’s wearing a new, production-created tiara with a floral design, plus turquoise drop earrings and the teensy Albert Brooch. The Garter sashes also look different this season — they’re darker than the normal “kingfisher blue.”

Charlotte Buccleuch, who is wearing an odd tiara set with a cameo, is left holding Dash’s leash when the Coburgs storm the reception room. Wilhelmina also gets a pearly hair ornament.

Looks like the production has recycled one of the Windsor Uniform jackets for Leopold, who also wears medals galore and the Order of the Golden Fleece. His reddish-purple sash appears to be the Order of Leopold, which was founded by (and named after) him in 1832. Since he assumes Victoria’s busy with baby care these days, he offers to help Albert keep up with all the rest of the work of reigning. (Does Leopold ever remember in this series that he has his own nation to look after?)

Albert’s always-charming father, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, declares that he expects them to give him a grandson by Christmas. (Ernst Sr. didn’t really attend his granddaughter’s christening.)

Ernst shows up too, ready to charm the Queen and (I’m assuming) Harriet Sutherland, since she’s coming to the christening.

Emma, wearing a monstrosity of a tiara undoubtedly created for a ’90s prom queen, informs Ernst that Harriet has left royal service and gone back to her husband.

Victoire Kent doesn’t fare well on the tiara front in this episode, either. Here’s the “tiara” she wears while they all choke down a disgusting dinner prepared by the controversial new cook. (Charlotte Buccleuch loves it, thinks they’re all just weak, and comes this close to saying the word “menopause” at the dinner table.)

Victoria wants the old chef back. (They eventually get him back.) It’s one more decision made without her, and after dinner, she and Albert have it out. He says he wants to protect her; she’s tired of that kind of paternalistic BS. She’s a queen, not a child. Albert goes off to sleep in his own room.

Albert complains about his wife as he and Ernst fence the next morning. Ernst points out that maybe, just maybe, Victoria isn’t thrilled that her husband is trying to do her job. Albert hadn’t thought of that. He tells Ernst that he’ll make a good husband one day. (Spoiler: he will not!)

Drummond drops off the army list, and Victoria reiterates that she wants to be the first to know any news from Afghanistan, good or bad.

The Siblings Coburg have a gossip fest at the palace. Victoire complains that Victoria is even less manageable now that she’s a mother. Ernst Sr. says Albert needs to get Victoria pregnant again, stat. (Actually, he says schnell, which cracked me up.) Leopold needlepoints and decides to stick around after the christening to try to manage the whole thing. (Forget you, Belgium!)

Leopold has already decided that baby Vicky should be married off to the nephew of the King of Prussia. Victoria tells him to hold his horses, and she cuts off the rest of the family’s attempts to talk about the many, many more children she should have.

In grand splendor, Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa is christened in front of her family. The show sets the christening in one of Britain’s grand churches, but the actual ceremony took place in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace on February 10, 1841. (That date was also Victoria and Albert’s first wedding anniversary.) The baby had been made Princess Royal a few weeks earlier, on January 19.

Little Vicky had six sponsors, including the Duchess of Kent and King Leopold. The Duke of Wellington stood as proxy for another godparent, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (who, again, didn’t attend). The other godparents: Queen Adelaide, the Duke of Sussex, and the Duchess of Gloucester.

Victoria really did wear the diamond diadem commissioned by her uncle, King George IV, for the christening. (You can see what all of the persons present wore in the portrait from the event.)

Harriet Sutherland is back, and she introduces her husband to Ernst at the reception following the christening.

I like that she decided to go with both a tiara and a ferronniere for the occasion. (When you’ve got a signature piece…) To be fair, the painting of the christening shows lots of ferronnieres in attendance, including some paired with other head ornaments.

But the party takes a turn when Peel informs Victoria and Albert that the worst has happened in Afghanistan. Out of four thousand troops, only a single man survived. He’s just arrived in London.

The military event described in this episode is the retreat from Kabul, which took place in January 1842, almost a year after the christening. (By that point, Victoria and Albert already had two children.)

The survivor, Dr. William Brydon, is immediately summoned to the palace, where he meets with Victoria and several others. She does her best to comfort him. Brydon really was one of the few European survivors of the 1842 retreat from Kabul.

When the public hears about what happened in Afghanistan, the people are angry. Charlotte Buccleuch declares it “a bad day for the country.”

Everyone’s up in arms. The political parties are blaming each other, and Albert has decided that this is the perfect time to once again promote his ideas for a redesigned military helmet. (Come ON, Albert.) Victoria and Wellington agree that it’s time for some pomp and circumstance. She’ll attend the commissioning ceremony for the new HMS Trafalgar.

That evening, Victoria receives a letter from Lord Melbourne. (Rufus, come back!) It’s a chatty note about his orchid-growing hobby, but Albert assumes that Melbourne is influencing Victoria from afar, and they have yet another argument about control, advice, and Victoria’s ability to know her own mind.

At the ceremony, Victoria gives a stirring speech about Britain’s armed forces, even while acknowledging the recent defeat. It works — the people are moved, and even Albert is impressed. (The ship’s launch, which was attended by Victoria and Albert, really happened in June 1841.)

Back at the palace, drama is brewing: young Wilhelmina, in her coral jewels, watches Ernst play the piano.

And in the nursery, all is well. Victoria and Albert are happy once more — and she even admits that his helmet design wasn’t that bad after all.

Our recap of episode two (which aired as part of the two-part premiere last Sunday on Masterpiece) will be published here on Friday. In the meantime — no spoilers for future episodes in the comments!

Jewels on Film: THE CROWN (Season 2, Episode 10)

01.11.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Time for the last bejeweled Crown recap of the season, everyone! We’ve got a sex scandal, political intrigue, and a major brooch finale. (Before you dig in to “Mystery Man,” you can always catch up with previous recaps over here!)

It’s April 1962, and Prince Philip is Feeling Old. His neck is bothering him, so he goes to an osteopath, Stephen Ward, who magically fixes things — and then invites him to a weekend house party with his pals “Christine” and “Mandy.”

Cut to 1963. Ward’s “friend,” Christine Keeler, is being interviewed by the police about her relationships with two men: Yevgeny Ivanov (a naval attaché at the Soviet embassy in London — and, more importantly, a Soviet spy) and John Profumo (the Secretary of State for War). In the midst of the Cold War — the Cuban Missile Crisis happened in October 1962 — this is obviously not a good combination.

Meanwhile, Profumo goes to see Macmillan. (This is the second time we’ve encountered him in the series — he was a guest at the party where Margaret met Tony.) Profumo denies any improper relationship with Keeler. The press has identified him as a “mystery man” in a photo from one of Ward’s parties, but Profumo claims it’s someone else.

Dorothy doesn’t believe him, but Macmillan does, and he defends Profumo in front of the press.

The show tries to handle the Profumo affair in a largely private context — showing people mostly in their homes, behind the scenes, talking about the scandal — but they missed out on some pretty spectacular real-life drama. Ward wasn’t just a friend of Christine; he was accused of basically acting as her pimp. (He may have been something closer to a sexual matchmaker for willing participants.) In March 1963, Profumo publicly defended himself against the accusations in the House of Commons, with Macmillan at his side, detectives from Scotland Yard were trying to find Keeler, who had gone missing. (She had fled to Spain and was found a few days later.) Although the show puts a “mystery man,” photographed only from the back, at the center of the story, the real Profumo affair included a mystery “masked man,” who wore only a mask as he worked as a waiter at Ward’s parties. Rumor had it that he might have been a member of the royal family. (He wasn’t.)

I mean, the show went for full graphic nudity in the royal wedding episode — but they didn’t go for the scandalous gold on Profumo, of all things?

At the palace, there’s drama of a more domestic sort happening. Elizabeth’s aunt, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, visits to complain about one of her fellow royal residents at Kensington Palace. Margaret and Tony won’t stop renovating their apartment, and the noise is driving her mad. She complains stylishly in pearls and a brooch.

Margaret was indeed renovating her apartment in early 1963, and Marina was her next-door neighbor. The press asked plenty of questions about why the construction was over budget (and who was paying for it). During the renovations, a fire broke out in the palace roof, causing slight damage to Margaret’s under-construction apartment and to the roof above Marina’s apartment as well.

After Marina departs, pearl-clad Elizabeth gets happier news: she’s pregnant again! But she’s also dealing with low iron levels, and her doctor wants her to rest. (She would have gotten this news in the summer of 1963.)

Elizabeth rushes to tell Philip the good news, but finds only a member of his staff. He tells the Queen that Philip is away at yet another house party. (Does anyone else feel like we’ve seen this exact storyline on the show about three times already?)

Stephen Ward is brought in to police headquarters for questioning. (This happened in April 1963.)

We cut to the offices of the News Chronicle, the same fictional paper that broke the story of the Townsend affair in season one. They’ve heard that Ward is spilling the truth about Profumo’s relationship with Keeler to the police.

Sidenote: can we start a petition that the show not film basically every scene in darkened rooms in front of bright windows next season?

Also sitting in the News Chronicle offices: Tony, who is now the Earl of Snowdon. He and Margaret have just learned that they’re expecting their second child, but he’s looking for a foreign assignment to get him out of town. He tells the editor that “absence” is the key to his marriage.

(Still mad we didn’t get a Mustique honeymoon episode. You love soapy drama, show! Mustique IS soapy drama.)

Margaret, who is firmly in renovation mode, shares her own happy news with Elizabeth. (Margaret gave birth to Lady Sarah Chatto about five weeks after Elizabeth had Prince Edward.)

(Historical trivia: Margaret lived in Apartment 1A, which is now occupied by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.)

Margaret’s snippy about Aunt Marina’s noise complaints, and because she never misses an opportunity for an insult, she sniffs about Marina and Philip coming from the same “refugee” family.

Elizabeth, wearing one of the production-created brooches, chides her sister for her comments.

But Margaret takes the chance to point out that there’s a rumor going around: that the “mystery man” in the party photo is actually Philip.

So we’re right back to where we were at the beginning of the season: the Queen is queasy about the possibility of her husband’s flagrant infidelity. Not a lot of emotional progress (or plot development) happening on this show.

Profumo has admitted that he did have an affair with Keeler, and the news of his subsequent resignation rocks Macmillan’s government. (This happened in June 1963.) Macmillan goes to the Queen to hand in his own resignation, but she stops him cold.

It’s just not a convenient time: she’s pregnant, and it’s not an uncomplicated pregnancy, and she needs to take a leave of absence. Macmillan has to stay to hold down the fort. In the meantime, she’ll deputize the Queen Mother to help out with ceremonial duties.

(I got all excited in this moment, thinking we’d see the Queen Mum actually do something. How naive I was! She gets one non-speaking cameo at the very end of the episode. Ugh.)

Elizabeth goes to talk to Philip, but he’s packing again to leave, this time for Switzerland.

And we get yet another scene of the two of them silently simmering in their own resentments.

On the train to Balmoral, still in her pearly uniform, the Queen is thoroughly downtrodden.

Macmillan isn’t having a good time, either. After his wife talks about seeing him parodied in Beyond the Fringe, a comedy revue that played in London in the early 1960s, he goes to see it himself. Stars of the show included the actor Dudley Moore and the playwright Alan Bennett. Including it here is fudging the timeline just a bit: the show premiered in the UK in 1960, and by 1963, the original cast was performing the show on Broadway in New York.

Already made a fool of by Profumo, Macmillan has trouble seeing himself parodied on stage.

(In 1962, the Queen herself went to see Beyond the Fringe, and the Andrew Marr biography reports that “she was much amused by its acidly satiric portrait of Macmillan.”)

The trio of shame is completed by Stephen Ward, who is on trial for vice charges stemming from his house parties and his alleged prostitution activities. The closing statement, describing Ward as filthy and depraved, was scathing. The show follows the actual wording of the prosecution.

Before the verdict can be given, abandoned by his friends and facing public shame, Ward overdoses on sleeping pills. (This happened on July 30, 1963.) In real life, he died a few days later; the court found him guilty of some charges in absentia.

An interesting note: the Profumo files are still classified. They’re not due to be released until 2064, a full hundred years after the scandal. Some have speculated that the files remain secret to avoid embarrassment for people mentioned within the pages — including, possibly, Prince Philip. Rumors? Reality? We won’t know until almost half a century from now.

When the police search Ward’s apartment, they find drawings of Prince Philip, making a public link between the scandal and the royal family.

The drawings were real, but the show leaves out a few details. In 1961, Ward was commissioned by the Illustrated London News to create portraits of members of the royal family, including Philip, Margaret, and the Dukes of Kent and Gloucester. He made the drawings at Buckingham Palace, and they were on public display during Ward’s trial, not hidden away in his home.

But in the show, these are Top Secret Evidence. Michael Adeane gets a call about the portraits, and he has to go wake the Queen — who is napping in her pearls — to break the news that Philip has been linked to scandal.

Adeane tells her about the drawings as tactfully as possible, and tells her that they’ll take care of the situation.

In reality, one of Ward’s friends tipped off Sir Anthony Blunt (who was serving as the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures — until she learned in 1964 that he was a Soviet spy), who tipped off Adeane about the exhibited portraits. A few days later, an unnamed man bought up every royal portrait in the exhibition, apparently eager to help avoid the royal embarrassment that could come from further association with Ward. Copies of the portraits have survived.

In Show World, though, this is one more piece of damning evidence about Philip’s character. Adeane says they were at a loss to link Philip to Ward — until they realized that they were both members of Baron’s lunch club. (This was apparently true — but since Ward had already visited the palace to draw several royal family members, it wouldn’t have been a revelation.)

And then things get even more complicated, because Elizabeth is summoned to London by Macmillan, who is recovering from the removal of a benign tumor.

Just like Eden, Macmillan uses his health problems as a convenient reason to resign. He also “advises” the Queen to appoint a specific person as his successor: Lord Home, a longtime friend of the royal family. (This puts us in October 1963.)

What the show only briefly acknowledges is this: Macmillan used the Queen to help pull off a piece of political maneuvering. Many thought Rab Butler was the natural person to follow Macmillan as PM, but Macmillan and others in the Conservative Party preferred Home. He advised the Queen to summon Home before the party could form a collective final opinion about their choice for the next prime minister. Following Macmillan’s advice, the Queen met with Home, asking him to try to form a government. It took a few days to then convince everyone in the party to fall in line behind Home.

Marr writes that the Queen’s bedside visit to Macmillan (who lived until 1986) “was a clear and obvious ‘bounce,’ which gave Home a royal stamp of approval before full or systematic advice had been taken from the party.” He also notes that Macmillan’s maneuver was “the final example of a still relatively young Queen being used by her politicians rather than protected by them,” and argues that “the Queen would grow wilier” as a result of her experience.

Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to see this as part of the Queen’s emotional journey in this season, rather than yet another episode of her mopily wondering whether Philip is philandering?

Claire Foy does get a final moment of steeliness in the face of government pressure in this scene. Wearing the production’s created ribbon brooch, Elizabeth calls out Macmillan on abandoning her when she’d asked him to stay, and then calls him a quitter.

Philip returns to Buckingham Palace in the midst of protests following the Home succession.

He finds Margaret and Tony hanging out inside the palace. Tony’s so avant-garde now, apparently, that he’s sworn off furniture. Chairs are so normal.

Margaret, who wears some of her golden jewelry, is pregnant and ticked off. She and Tony had come to offer support to the Queen in the wake of the Home controversy, but she’s already headed back to Balmoral. And, she wonders, where was Philip when his wife needed support?

Chastened, Philip goes to Scotland, where the Queen ignores him in favor of her roses.

Eventually, the two of them have it out. Philip claims he’s been there for her.

She disagrees. They fight about Ward and the portrait. (Note that the pearl necklace is gone here, which usually means Elizabeth is at her most vulnerable.)

He denies being the “mystery man,” but she presses him further, even getting out the ballerina portrait from the beginning of the season.

He doesn’t fully deny her accusations, but he tells her that he is dependable, and he’s always known that his duty is to support her. He even echoes his coronation oath on his knees. She gives in and embraces him.

We skip forward to March 1964. The Queen is giving birth again, but this time Philip is in the room. He stays at a distance, but at least he’s not playing squash? (This is accurate; unlike the previous three, Philip attended Edward’s birth.)

On May 2, 1964, Edward is christened at Windsor. (The show places the christening in St. George’s Chapel, but he was actually christened in the castle’s private chapel.)

Cecil Beaton, reciting the “scepter’d isle” speech from Richard II, takes a family portrait after the christening.

The whole rowdy Windsor gang is present, and Philip tries to stage manage. (He is apparently notoriously impatient with these kinds of family photos.) The Gloucesters are on the left, Tony and Margaret (with baby Sarah) in the middle, and the Kents are on the right.

1964 was the royal baby boom year: Princess Alexandra had James Ogilvy in February (on leap day!), the Queen had Prince Edward in March, the Duchess of Kent had Lady Helen in April, and Princess Margaret had Lady Sarah in May. Not all of the people depicted here were really present. Princess Margaret gave birth to Lady Sarah one day before the christening, and Katharine Kent had Lady Helen only a week before, so neither of them were there.

Katharine was one of Edward’s godparents, so she was represented at the christening by her mother-in-law, Princess Marina; Philip’s sister, Princess Sophie, was Edward’s other godmother. Edward’s three godfathers were Tony Snowdon, Prince Richard of Gloucester, and Prince Ludwig of Hesse (whose family died so tragically in the ninth episode’s flashback sequences). Edward’s middle names, Antony Richard Louis, come from his godfathers.

Not sure what the Queen’s expression in the midst of all this chaos is supposed to mean. She and Philip are reconciled, apparently, and isn’t that supposed to be the barometer of her happiness in this show? In the real christening photos, she’s smiling.

Anyway: JEWELS. The Queen wears pearls here with a rather good replica of the Emperor of Austria Brooch, which belonged to Queen Mary’s mother, the Duchess of Teck. The real brooch has links to another royal christening: Emperor Franz Josef gave the brooch to the Duchess when he served as godfather to her second son, Prince Francis, in 1870.

The Queen did wear the brooch (and a similar outfit) when Cecil Beaton took the first official photographs of Prince Edward after his birth. But for Edward’s christening, I believe she one of her emerald brooches.

As with season one, we end season two with an official portrait. Elizabeth isn’t Gloriana this time, though, standing remote and alone in her finest jewels. Here, she’s a more maternal goddess, head of a large, complicated, and unruly royal family.

And that’s it for this cast — next season, we’ll have different actors playing the royals. Olivia Colman will play the Queen, and it’s rumored that Helena Bonham Carter will play Princess Margaret. Who would you like to see in the other royal roles?

That’s the end of our Crown recaps for the season — but never fear! We’ll be back next week with a recap of the first episode of season two of Victoria, which premieres in the US on PBS on Sunday.