It might be the question most asked among fans of "The Crown," but one that may never be officially answered: has Her Majesty the Queen watched the Netflix series based on the early years of her reign?
One person who hopes not is Claire Foy, the award-winning actress who portrays the monarch.
“I would hate the idea of her watching it,” Foy admitted in the October issue of Town & Country. “When you’re playing a real person, you never want to be ghoulish. I don’t want to pick apart a person. I want to invent someone. So I would hate for her to watch it and think I overdramatized anything.”
And what if Her Majesty approves?
"I decided a long time ago that she’d never see it,” Foy said. “If she ever rings me up and tells me that she’s watched, then I will think differently.”
According to the Daily Express, the Queen has indeed seen the series. Her son and daughter-in-law, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, are fans of the series and suggested the Queen tune in.
"It has been a longstanding arrangement that they [Edward and Sophie] drive to Windsor at the weekend to join the Queen for an informal supper while watching TV or a film," a royal source told the British paper. "They have a Netflix account and urged her to watch it with them. Happily, she really liked it, although obviously there were some depictions of events that she found too heavily dramatized.”
Other members of the royal family have declared themselves fans.
The Queen's granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, reportedly told fellow guests at a party that she found everything about the series to be fantastic. "You feel very proud to watch it," the princess said.
Eugenie's cousin, Zara, and her husband, Mike Tindall are "addicted to it," Tindall said.
"She’s brilliant, the one who plays the Queen. I think it’s a great show in terms of how they delivered it.”
Foy and her co-stars will not reprise their roles after this season; instead, new actors will be cast to portray the royals in their later years.
Season two of "The Crown," which picks up in 1956, premieres Dec. 8 on Netflix.