"The Crown", Season 3: More Hunks, Fewer Gay People

I loved the first two seasons of The Crown: the inner workings of Buckingham Palace in the 1940s and 1950s, as young Queen Elizabeth gets her first taste of power.  No references to gay people, no beefcake to speak of, not even many cute guys.  But you hardly noticed amid the beautifully realized sets and costumes.

I couldn't wait for Season 3, which extends the story into the 1960s and 1970s: the Queen (now played by Olivia Colman) struggling to maintain the facade of respectability as the winds of change sweep around her. The Beatles, Carnaby Street, youth protests, psychedelic drugs, the Wolfenden Report, the rise of the Gay Rights Movement in Britain. 

Except none of those things appear.  The winds of change involve threats to royal prestige: a new prime minister from the anti-royalist Labor Party; nationalistic fervor in Wales; and endless (but rather dull) financial problems.

But wait -- there were lots of prominent gay people in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.  Prince Charles himself was the subject of constant gay rumors.  Surely there's some reference?

Nope.

But at least there's more beefcake.

Episode 1: The Queen's art advisor, Sir Anthony Blunt (Samuel West), turns out to be a Russian spy.  He's also gay, but the fact is not mentioned.

Episode 2:  Britain needs a bail-out from the U.S., but President Johnson is playing hard-to-get.  As a last resort, the Queen sends the wilding Princess Margaret to dinner at the White House, where he enjoys her drunken antics and hands over the money.  Best line: Lyndon Johnson: "You can't screw a man in the ass and expect him to send you flowers." I guess not.  The top usually sends the flowers.

Episode 3: The Queen responds to the October 1966 disaster in the Welsh mining village of Aberfan: a mudslide engulfed a school, killing 116 children and 28 adults.  Way too sad for me; I didn't watch.  But Jack Parry-Jones plays one of the teachers.

Episode 4: Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice, who has been living in a convent in Greece, moves into Buckingham Palace.  Oh, no, the mother-in-law.

Episode 5: England is in a financial crisis.  The Queen bonds with her new race horse manager (John Hollingworth, left).

I'd date him.

Episode 6: With Wales clamoring for independence, Prince Charles (Josh O'Connell, left) is ordered to spend a semester studying Welsh at a university in Aberystwyth,  so he won't be entirely clueless in his role as Prince of Wales. 

Charles is a shy, sensitive young man whose best friend is his sister and who would really prefer to be an actor.  All sorts of gay stereotypes --  but nothing comes of it except a little buddy-bond with his Welsh Nationalist tutor.

Episode 7:  The 1969 moon landing results in Prince Philip getting a midlife crisis.  Look for Andrew Lee Potts as Michael Collins.

Episode 8: Camilla Shand's boyfriend, Andrew Parker Bowles (Andrew Buchan), dumps her for Princess Anne, so she revenge-dates Anne's brother, Prince Charles.  Isn't there any room for Charles-Andrew in this love rectangle?

Episode 9: A coal miners' strike.  Meanwhile the family breaks up Charles and Camilla.  So much for the gay rumors.

Episode 10:  Princess Margaret starts an affair with Roddy (Harry Treadaway, top photo), which leaks to the tabloids, and results in divorce.

The show is nice to look at, but becoming somewhat tedious for those of us not enthralled by British economic history. And would it hurt to include just one reference to gay people: "The tabloids are saying that Charles is what????"