I’m playing Prince Philip as a fictional character in The Crown, says Jonathan Pryce

The actor who stars as the Duke of Edinburgh in the latest series of The Crown said he is playing him as a “fictional character”. 

“I’m not being Prince Philip, I’m being my version of Prince Philip, who in my head has to be a fictional character because it’s not a documentary, it’s a drama,” Jonathan Pryce said. 

The award-winning actor’s remarks came after months of mounting calls for a disclaimer to be played at the start of each episode stating that The Crown is a “fictionalised drama”.

The fifth series of the show launched on Netflix last Wednesday and has proven to be its most controversial yet, but Mr Pryce insisted the dramatisation has been “the value of The Crown”. 

Mr Pryce was speaking on the latest episode of The Crown’s official podcast, released on Friday.

He said that he and Peter Morgan, the writer of the Netflix drama, made “incredible assumptions” about Prince Philip and “his inner life”.

“This has been the value of The Crown anyways, that they present an image usually sympathetic to what that person may or may not be thinking and feeling,” he added.

“I always rely on the script,” the actor said, explaining that he doesn’t have videos of the late Duke of Edinburgh “sitting at home pissed off in any way about his life… so that’s where there’s the invention”.

The 75-year-old added: “I’m not a great reader - I don’t read for pleasure - and I tell myself that Peter Morgan’s done all this work and what I am presenting is the script.”

He also said that he has no regrets about saying yes to the show, even though he initially wanted to turn it down.

“I didn’t think I’d want to be involved with it initially, but it was meeting Peter Morgan and him talking about how the arc of the character would go in the next series - series five - I trusted him,” the actor explained.

He added: “The rest of the series is so incredibly well-made and produced and I don’t regret saying yes at all.”

The latest podcast was a discussion about Episode 2: The System, in which the Duke of Edinburgh is portrayed trying to convince Diana not to go ahead with Andrew Morton’s book about her marriage to Prince Charles in order to protect the Royal family.

As well as an interview with Mr Pryce, director Jessica Hobbs revealed on the podcast that Mr Morton was a “brilliant consultant” for the show’s writers on this episode.

“He was very fair and very clear about the process…about [Diana’s] level of engagement [with his book] and her care with what to say and what not to say,” she said.