Return of a royal favourite: Netflix blockbuster The Crown

With cracking comedies, gripping dramas and bigger and better reality shows, Autumn TV has never been so good. 

From Helen Mirren as Catherine the Great to the majestic third series of The Crown and a champions edition of Britain’s Got Talent, there’s a host of superb TV heading your way. 

So, in our first ever seasonal special, we count down the 100 shows you won’t want to miss…

15 THE CROWN 

Olivia Colman is set to reign supreme  

Olivia Colman didn’t consider herself a fan of the monarchy. Then she watched The Crown. 

By the time she had won the job playing Queen Elizabeth II, taking over from Claire Foy, she was besotted with Her Majesty.

Olivia Colman has taken over from Claire Foy as the Queen. Here she is, giving a speech. ‘I’ve been listening to her a lot,’ she says. ‘Her accent is partly historical and partly her own way of saying things. Also, her pitch has changed over the years’

‘I am so slightly obsessed that it has become almost unbearable,’ she whispers. 

‘I wasn’t ever a monarchist but the Queen is an incredibly impressive human being. 

‘She made a vow as a very young woman to serve her country, which is an extraordinary thing to do, and she’s stuck to it.’

The Netflix series, one of the most expensive dramas ever made, has been extraordinary itself for many reasons. It’s won a heap of awards. 

It made stars of its actors. And it has helped the world see the royals in a completely new light.

Now it is starting all over again with a new cast for the middle decades of the Queen’s reign. 

The Durrells star Josh O’Connor says two things helped him win the role of Charles; his sticky-out ears. ‘If I met the prince I’d compare ears,’ he says. ‘His are definitely bigger’

Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret with Ben Daniels as Snowdon. ‘Right up until the minute they were getting divorced, they had a physical relationship,’ says Ben. ‘People said it was like foreplay for them, having a row.’

From the start the plan was to have different actors take the story forward. 

‘You can’t ask someone to act middle-aged,’ the show’s creator Peter Morgan says. ‘Someone has to bring their own fatigue to it.’

The third series opens in 1964, when it was revealed Anthony Blunt, the Queen’s distant cousin, was a Russian spy.

It will cover the funeral of Churchill, England’s World Cup win and the Aberfan mining disaster in Wales. 

Charles Dance appears as Lord Mountbatten, while Helena Bonham Carter has taken over from Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret. 

Margaret’s lover Roddy Llewellyn who is played by Harry Treadaway (pictured) also features

Helena is one of the few to have met her subject. ‘My uncle was very close to her,’ says Helena.

‘She was pretty scary.’ In one of their encounters, at Windsor Castle, Margaret asked her about her acting work. ‘She said, “You are getting better, aren’t you?”’

The Durrells star Josh O’Connor and Call The Midwife’s Emerald Fennell portray the young Charles and Camilla, and creator Peter says he wants to look at one of history’s most famous love triangles in a new way. 

‘People assume Charles cheated on Diana with Camilla,’ he says. 

‘It’s absolutely the wrong way round. He was deeply in love with Camilla and forced to marry Diana.’  Netflix, from 17 November

‘There has been lots of dressing up for me,’ says Olivia of her role. ‘And of course there’s that distinctive hair. There is only one woman with that hairdo.’

Josh O’Connor and Emerald Fennell recreate a famous photograph of the young lovers, Charles and Camilla