The Crown: Fagan
November 19, 2020 12:22 PM - Season 4, Episode 5 - Subscribe

The Queen has an unexpected caller, as the show takes some time to explore the impacts of Margaret Thatcher's domestic policy while she celebrates the end of the war with Argentina.
posted by nubs (9 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I love the way they used Fagan's chat with the queen to tie Thatcher back into the palace drama. That was a great scene. Too bad it's not real even in the basics (though at the time TV reports said Fagan chatted with the queen for about 6 minutes, in reality she left the room to call for help almost immediately upon seeing him). That actor seemed awfully familiar to me, too, note to self that I should look up what else he's been in.

I'm growing to like Philip's role in this new season as Elizabeth's wall to lean on, her mirror, her confidante. Seems like he's finally overcome his own conflicts and settled into his groove. Is that fictionalized too, I wonder? Or did the royal couple just get so much better at not letting any of their shenanigans go overboard as they grew older?

I'm dying to discuss the next episode, Terra Nullius! Hope the thread is posted soon (or... is it ok for others to make new threads?)
posted by MiraK at 7:51 AM on November 20, 2020 [3 favorites]


I'm growing to like Philip's role in this new season as Elizabeth's wall to lean on, her mirror, her confidante. Seems like he's finally overcome his own conflicts and settled into his groove. Is that fictionalized too, I wonder? Or did the royal couple just get so much better at not letting any of their shenanigans go overboard as they grew older?

I think, as the Queen Mum suggests in the next episode, he learned to bend.

I'm dying to discuss the next episode, Terra Nullius! Hope the thread is posted soon (or... is it ok for others to make new threads?)

I just put it up, but feel free to keep going with them! I'm putting them up as I watch, so I might be going too slow, and by no means do I have any ownership over this.
posted by nubs at 9:06 AM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


I really liked this. It’s funny Phillip mentioned Shakespeare because I had been thinking during the bedroom scene that the people complaining about accuracy could have no more clear a reminder that this series is clearly intended in the tradition of Shakespeare in its re-imagining of historical figures, accentuated by the use of this “fool” to commentate on affairs. I guess it was very deliberate.
It also reminded me of “A question of Attribution”, a TV drama from years back with another imagined conversation with the queen. It had the same “UK tv drama of the 80s/90s” quality.
posted by chill at 1:50 PM on November 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


A little bit about the real life Michael Fagan. We learn that the fence he scaled to get into the palace was a little more tricky than depicted in the show, that he helped himself to a bottle of white wine rather than red - and that it was the theft of this wine (a criminal rather than civil offense) that he was charged with by the police.

Here is his rather polite cover of The Sex Pistols God Save the Queen.
posted by rongorongo at 12:52 AM on November 22, 2020 [2 favorites]


Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms per wiki so while it's not so surprising that Fagan was able to wander around undetected, it's a miracle that he stumbled upon the queen's bedroom. I didn't know he'd managed to gain entrance twice, security was more than lackadaisical, The IRA were extremely active during this time, the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings happened ten days later.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:32 PM on November 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


I think the Fagan actor was in Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul?
posted by tilde at 8:57 AM on November 25, 2020


According to his IMDB page, no, but he has been in a lot of things (including Sherlock & Game of Thrones, which might be why I found him somewhat familiar). I think he's becoming one of "that guy...who was in that thing" actors.
posted by nubs at 10:12 AM on November 25, 2020 [1 favorite]


Yeah, if you watched Game of Thrones you might recognize Tom Brooke as Lothar Frey, the dopey looking son of Lord Walder Frey.
posted by guiseroom at 9:44 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]


This seemed like kind of a wishful thinking episode? Because apparently this thoughtful conversation about how Thatcher is ruining the country didn't actually happen. Disappointing.

I dunno, the whole thing seemed weird. Dude is kind of a jerk and I'm supposed to sympathize with him, but I can only go so far on that topic.

Thatcher doesn't seem real. Like I'm told Gillian Anderson is somewhere under there, but it seems like we're dealing with some kind of android instead. Not just in the acting either :P

I've heard people bitch about how evil Thatcher is forever, but somehow I just can't feel strongly about it after living through Trump.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:59 PM on July 31, 2021 [1 favorite]


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