"The Crown" Series/Season 2 (Netflix)

[Svenedin]

I've just finished watching the second series of "The Crown". A lot of photographic references throughout the series. Lots of press photographers using vintage cameras including an episode where many press photographers seem intent on ruining their cameras in the rain in Lisbon, Portugal (Episode 3). Scenes in the darkroom with Princess Margaret and the photographer (she later married) Anthony Armstrong Jones. Unfortunately, some technical errors in the darkroom scenes (a print going from developer to water to fix to being hung up with no wash). Also deliberate comparison of the highly formal photography of the royal portrait photographer as opposed to the more modern style of Armstrong Jones. Anyway, I enjoyed it and recommend it to any who may be interested in that kind of thing.

 

[MattKing]

My wife and I also enjoy this series.
I agree about the darkroom technicalities. The other bit I found strange was Anthony Armstrong Jones' apparent misunderstanding of the role of a Hasselblad on a tripod - he apparently didn't understand that it wasn't supposed to just stand there in the middle of your studio while you work around it with your handheld Leica.
I kept expecting him to rest the Leica on top of the Hasselblad!
More generally, the writing, lighting and cinematography is excellent, and the acting is superb!

 

[Svenedin]

My wife and I also enjoy this series.
I agree about the darkroom technicalities. The other bit I found strange was Anthony Armstrong Jones' apparent misunderstanding of the role of a Hasselblad on a tripod - he apparently didn't understand that it wasn't supposed to just stand there in the middle of your studio while you work around it with your handheld Leica.
I kept expecting him to rest the Leica on top of the Hasselblad!
More generally, the writing, lighting and cinematography is excellent, and the acting is superb!

Yes, he did in fact rest the Leica on top of the Hasselblad! I was a bit horrified to see all of those cameras getting wet in the Lisbon scenes too! I agree the acting was superb and the sets magnificent. I was also pleased that they showed Prime Minister Anthony Eden popping pills left, right and centre. It has long been suspected in medical circles that Eden was taking a cocktail of drugs including amphetamine which accounts for his bizarre and reckless decision to invade Egypt. His medical records were only recently released and they have confirmed the drug cocktail after a gallbladder operation went wrong leading to him being in constant pain from a bile leak.

 

[jimjm]

Earlier in this season, there was one scene (stated to be in 1957) where a photographer was using a Nikon F...

Don't know if British journalists had access to pre-production Nikons back then, but it seems they jumped the gun by a few years.

 

[Wallendo]

One of the scenes has increased my appreciation of the Leica. Apparently you can just point it in the general direction of your target and get a good image. Armstrong-Jones appears to have been a lomographer before lomography was cool.