Zombie philanderer
The British press' latest campaign of manufactured outrage about 'The Crown' is only just beginning.
Previously | Not waving, but crowning: The coverage of Prince Philip's death shows the diseased state of the British media
The upcoming season of The Crown will be strip-mined for outrage content by the British press and today’s Sun attempts to get a head start. It splashes on the ‘news’ that the show will cover Prince Philip’s close relationship with Penny Knatchbull (Countess Mountbatten) under the headline Weeks after Queen death | Fury Over Crown Philip Slur. The subhead screams, “Netflix blasted for ‘affair’ plotline”.
The ‘exclusive’ is bylined to the paper’s TV editor, Rod McPhee, who I can only assume is suffering from cartoon-style amnesia caused by repeatedly smashing his head into his desk. The very same Roderick McPhee wrote on 18 August 2021 that “The Crown [is] set to infuriate royals by retelling story of Prince Philip’s ‘close friendship’ with Penny Knatchbull”. A day later, Sun feature writer Kate Jackson followed up with an innuendo-rich piece (Inside Prince Philip’s ‘highly personal’ relationship with Penny Knatchbull – the only non-Royal invited to his funeral) which began:
Their friendship spanned decades – and often raised eyebrows.
But the Queen’s death has offered a reset for The Sun. It can now pretend to be angry all over again about the storyline — of which not a moment of footage has been released — and trigger the usual talking heads to be appalled by it. It’ll also be able to rewrite and reprint all those outraged columns about Harry and Meghan’s Netflix deal.
The lede on the online version of McPhee’s story today raises the unsettling prospect of Prince Philip as an undead adulterer:
Fury as Netflix to show Prince Philip pursuing an affair in The Crown weeks after the Queen’s funeral.
It’s appropriate as this is an undead story, dragged from the dirt to shamble on. That front-page screams of desperate Sunday night scrambling in the absence of a splash or the last-minute spiking of something fresher. Even in the desperate world of a declining tabloid, that’s simply not front-page news.
Netflix is being “blasted” again because The Sun rang up the usual desiccated royal commentators to prompt suitably livid comments from them. The Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter — always ready with an outraged quote — says:
Coming just weeks after the nation laid Her Majesty to rest next to Prince Philip, this is very distasteful and, quite frankly, cruel rubbish.
Majesty magazine editor Ingrid Seward — like Arbiter, one of the unintentional stars of a YouTube prank in which commentators offered their thoughts on Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview before it was broadcast — is also quoted:
It’s in exceedingly bad taste. This is fiction. There’s no way in a million years he’d discuss his marriage with anybody.
In print, that “bad taste” quote appears below a subhead from The Sun that reads:
Weeks after she’s reunited with Phil in death, show trashes Queen’s marriage.
And it was all the best possible taste when the very same Ingrid Seward penned a piece for The Sun in 2017 headlined PHIL-ANDERER? Prince Philip may have cheated on the Queen – but ‘Lilibet’ is his only love.
What Netflix presents with The Crown is a fictionalised drama about real people but Arbiter and Seward have no more knowledge of its latest instalments than you and I have. Season 5 of The Crown doesn’t premiere until November 9th. All McPhee and the tremendously enervated talking heads have to go on is the description of a single scene in which:
[Prince Philip and Penny] are seen touching hands as he divulges details of his marriage… He tells her his marriage has “its problems” as they have “grown in seperate directions.”
It’s hardly Red Hot Royal Action.
Of course, MailOnline has picked up on The Sun’s story, giving its rewrite a practically identical headline (The Crown sparks fury with plans to show Prince Philip 'pursuing an affair' with close friend Penny Knatchbull just weeks after the Queen's death - with story line branded 'cruel rubbish' by expert).
The hypocrisy on the part of the Mail titles makes The Sun almost look restrained. In the avalanche of coverage, it produced following Prince Philip’s death, one story, in particular, stood out; it was headlined Carriage-driving friend Penny mourns privately in print and carried the more luxuriously insinuating lead-in Prince Philip's carriage-driving friend Penny Brabourne privately mourns his death after being a regular visitor to Sandringham in recent years online.
The online version’s subheads note Countess Mountbatten was “Philip’s close friend” and that they “shared a love for the exhilarating equestrian sport of carriage driving” as well her status as “a regular visitor” to his home. But the opening paragraphs are where the paper lays it on thick:
As the Queen mourns her beloved husband, one of Prince Philip’s closest friends and confidantes, Penny Brabourne, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, is also grieving.
The Countess was a regular visitor at Wood Farm, the cottage on the edge of the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk where the Prince spent much of his time after retiring from public life in August 2017.
Over the years, the Mail titles had a lot of fun with the ‘friendship’ between the Prince and the Countess. In 2015, The Daily Mail ran a story headlined One's still got it! As he flirts outrageously at 93, friends say Philip's bond with a blonde aristocrat keeps him young. But what DOES the Queen think?
Written by the Daily Mail’s editor-at-large Richard Kay, it began
Who else but Prince Philip, just three weeks short of his 94th birthday, could get a look like this from a beautiful woman? And make no mistake, even at 62, Penny Brabourne remains striking.
Tall, slender and blonde — and separated from her husband — she and Philip have been close ever since he took it upon himself in 1994 to teach her carriage driving.
Gossip about them has never been allowed to spoil their relationship. Indeed, it is said that Penny's enthusiasm for the sport has been crucial in keeping Philip's aged hands on the reins.
Of course, the Mail wasn’t engaged in “gossip”, despite insinuations so heavy they wouldn’t be allowed to cross some old bridges. It wasn’t just asking its audience to read between the lines but dragging them through:
The Queen, sitting just feet away, was relieved to see her husband of 67 years looking so relaxed and contented.
She has always known, and accepted, Philip's fondness for the company of beautiful women, and he has never made a secret of it.
'Flirtatiousness at his age is quite good for him,' says one of the Queen's oldest friends. 'It keeps him chirpy.'
Over the years Philip's name has been linked with many women, from the late Jane, Countess of Westmoreland and Alexandra, wife of brewery heir Lord Tollemache, to the actresses Anna Massey and Merle Oberon.
In the absence of a flashing neon sign reading “get it?”, the piece hammers it home with a quote from a ‘source’ allegedly close to the Queen:
…as [The Queen’s] close friend puts it: 'Some men have certain needs and that doesn't mean they love their wives any the less.'
Then the euphemisms start to break at the seams:
'[The Queen] accepted that he took a lot of amusing,' says a close figure. 'I've always felt his need for amusement outside his marriage had something to do with him being such an active and demanding consort…
Prince Philip, a man who had a very high ‘amusement’ drive.
When Gyles Brandreth published a biography of Prince Philip in 2004, he wrote about several of Philip’s ‘amusements’ and quoted an aristocrat who said the prince “had full-blown affairs, and more than one”. The Daily Mail was not appalled, The Sun didn’t call for Brandreth to be hanged from a lamp post with one of his ugly sweaters.
There are three reasons that The Crown will continue to drive this outrage stories from the tabloids: It’s American — how dare they inspect our royals’ dirty laundry! — it’s paid Harry and Meghan an awful lot of money, and it drives clicks. The Sun, The Daily Mail and the other rags running after this story aren’t worried about the feelings of the dead Queen or the undead lothario Prince Philip; they just know that Harry, Meghan, Netflix and The Crown are SEO gold.
And why does the fact that Prince Philip was involved in a lot of affairs other than those of state matter now he and the woman who tolerated his cheating are gone? Because the British press’ taste for nods, winks and innuendo continues even while it sells fairytales about the remaining royals. If you don’t read the international press, it’s hard to peg when our papers are only telling part of the story.
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