Queen Elizabeth’s favourite TV shows, from Downton Abbey to Doctor Who – but what does the British monarch really think of Netflix’s The Crown?
Like most of the world, Queen Elizabeth has been in lockdown at home with her husband Prince Philip for much of the past year. And although her home, Windsor Castle, has around 1,000 rooms to roam around in, the British monarch is still known to hunker down in front of the tube to watch her favourite television shows like the rest of us. Which prompts the big question: which shows does the queen finds most binge-worthy of all?
The other inevitable question is: has the queen ordered a box set of Netflix’s The Crown ? Apparently not, but she did grab Doctor Who and Downton Abbey. But a palace insider told the Daily Express late last year that she had at least watched The Crown.
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The queen also thinks that some depictions of events have been too heavily dramatised, says the source.
Some reports however say she loves the series along with her younger son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, who had a long-standing pre-Covid-19 arrangement to Windsor Castle at weekends for a light supper and family catch-up with their favourite television and films.
She is also a fan of Downton Abbey and, according to The Telegraph, she would “point out things they have got wrong, partly because she is familiar with Highclere Castle, where it is filmed”.
The queen is also a long-time fan of Doctor Who, dating back to the 1960s when the programme first aired. Her sons used to watch it when they were young too.
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According to British newspapers, she was not too happy when the show was cancelled in the 1980s, but started watching again when it rebooted in 2005. She even reportedly has a favourite time lord – Christopher Eccleston – who played the ninth incarnation of the doctor.
The Mirror reported last June that a Buckingham Palace source said: “The queen loves the programme and has requested a full set of DVDs.
“She has asked the BBC to send her copies so she can watch the series again during her stay at Balmoral.”
Even before Covid-19, the queen was known to enjoy British soaps, such as Emmerdale – she visited the set near Leeds in 2002 – and Manchester-based Coronation Street has been a favourite for decades. Prince Charles even appeared on a live broadcast of the 60-year-old soap in December 2000.
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When the queen is too busy to watch her favourite TV shows, she records them for later. In 2003, when US President George Bush came to the UK for an official visit, she was apparently cheesed off that she was missing Coronation Street – but one royal fan recorded the shows for her and mailed the tapes to the palace. The queen was delighted, according to BBC presenter Sara Cox, who has related the story to her listeners on her radio show. In recent years, the queen has also enjoyed watching EastEnders.
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Besides the soaps, the queen is a fan of Britain’s longest-running detective series, Midsomer Murders, which has been popular in the UK for the past 20 years. It’s about a small village that seems to experience a high rate of murder. While presenting an award to the person responsible for the programme, she asked if anyone in Midsomer was left alive.
We also know she watches the popular talent show X Factor, and in 2011 she admitted to Mary Byrne, a former contestant, that she never missed a show. The queen reportedly told her that the song she sang was fabulous.
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- Queen Elizabeth asked the BBC for Doctor Who and Downton Abbey DVD box sets and binges on classic British soaps Emmerdale, Coronation Street and EastEnders
- However she was reportedly upset about Netflix’s portrayal of her husband Prince Philip in The Crown