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A series of new photos taken on set during filming for the sixth and final season of The Crown, which premieres Nov. 16, have given hints as to how the series will tackle the culminating tragedy of Princess Diana’s 1997 death in a road traffic accident in Paris.
Season 5 ended with Elizabeth Debicki as Diana packing to go on holiday with Harrods’ heir Dodi al-Fayed, and season 6 kicks off with Diana on that vacation while Prince Charles (played by Dominic West) is in Scotland with their sons Prince William (Rufus Kampa) and Prince Harry (Fflyn Edwards).
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The show recreates an iconic scene of the Scottish holiday as it was photographed at the time.
Enjoying a more glamorous and distinctly sunnier holiday, meanwhile, Diana is with Dodi in the South of France headed for his yacht (which, in real life, recently sank).
Executive producer Suzanne Mackie told Netflix: “From the second she steps onto that boat and [you begin to see] some of those iconic images of her on the yacht, it does take you immediately to the whirlwind that was the press speculation around that romance."
Elizabeth Debicki plays Diana while Khalid Abdalla plays Dodi. Abdalla said that the research team gathered photos to chart their romance, adding: “Their relationship, from beginning to end, was six weeks. That’s one of the things that very often shocks people.”
Dodi’s socially ambitious father Mohammed is played by Salim Daw.
He told the Netflix website, Tudum: “Momo al-Fayed had his point of view, and he wants his son to be exactly as he wants him to be. And in Dodi’s head, he has another opinion and another point of view.”
