PLATELL’S PEOPLE: Why can’t The Crown just leave poor Diana in peace? The Netflix show is exploiting her in the most tacky way possible

Ahead of the final series of Netflix’s The Crown, covering the period surrounding the death of ­Princess Diana, its creator Peter Morgan told Variety magazine he recoiled at suggestions he was planning to exploit her death for profit.

Indeed he ‘dreaded’ writing her into the series and considered ‘even avoiding her entirely’.

His sensitivities were such that he insisted: ‘Oh God, we were never going to show the crash. Never!’

Newly released trailers suggest he is true to his word, no Diana in a car crash beside Dodi Fayed in a Paris tunnel. Which is why, I imagine, he ingeniously decided instead to bring Diana back as a ghost.

Morgan claims his apparition of Diana was born of his honest desire for her to ‘continually live vividly in the minds of those she left behind’, adding that ‘she deserved special treatment narratively’.

Well, she certainly got that — as some weird spook.

Why couldn’t The Crown just leave Diana alone all this time after her tragic death? Perhaps Morgan ­realised a final episode without her would be a complete flop

Princess Diana is, and will always be, box office gold — the jewel in The Crown’s crown

In one scene, actress Elizabeth Debicki appears as a dead Diana over the shoulder of Queen ­Elizabeth, who tells her: ‘You’ve finally succeeded in turning this house upside down. It’s nothing less than a revolution.’

Everyone knows that the late Queen’s dignity and restraint would never have allowed her to voice such unutterable nonsense.

Diana also appears before Prince Charles as he sobs over her body in the morgue, and tells him: ‘I loved you so much.’ 

Pardon my cynicism, but what a load of hogwash.

Morgan says he didn’t want to put Diana in the final series, yet he’s exploited her in the most tacky way, as a TV version of Demi Moore ­reliving her lost love with Patrick Swayze in Ghost, only minus the pottery lessons.

A new trailer for the sixth and final series of Netflix’s The Crown has been released. Pictured, Diana’s ‘ghost’ speaking to Imelda Staunton’s Queen

Happy times: During the trailer, scenes play of the Princess singing during a car drive with a young Prince William (pictured together)

Why couldn’t The Crown just leave Diana alone all this time after her tragic death? Perhaps Morgan ­realised a final episode without her would be a complete flop.

Why else would he use one of the final pictures of the late princess to publicise the series — the snap of her sitting forlornly on a diving board above the Med in a swimsuit?

Princess Diana is, and will always be, box office gold — the glittering jewel in The Crown’s crown. 

And, whatever he says, Morgan is using her right to the end and beyond.

As menopause awareness continues apace, researchers claim it’s not just humans but chimpanzees who suffer the change. 

The big difference between us and apes is they don’t bang on about the condition. 

Sarah Jessica Parker, 58, is sick and tired of being asked about ageing, saying the majority of male stars her vintage are not

Ageism is the Pitts!

Sarah Jessica Parker, 58, is sick and tired of being asked about ageing, saying the majority of male stars her vintage are not.

When’s the last time we read about 59-year-old Brad Pitt’s self-care regime? 

SJP’s routine for timeless beauty is Roc Moisturiser, a serum and night cream, but ­definitely no Botox. 

‘I’m an actor, I have to move my eyebrows,’ she says.

The jury is out on that — we haven’t seen her raise an eyebrow since the final episode of Sex In The City back in the Noughties.

The last of the RAF ‘Guinea Pigs’, Jan Stangryciuk-Black, has died at 101, one of the badly burnt WW2 pilots treated by pioneering plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe. 

Scarred survivors like Jan were all accepted by pub goers in East Grinstead, earning it the honorific ‘the town that did not stare’. 

Trebles all round for such wartime heroics. 

Spare a thought for humiliated Harry

Two years after Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview, the ­Sussexes are mocked on US cartoon show Family Guy.

A butler brings a cheque to Harry on a platter as they sunbathe in their ­Californian mansion, ­saying: ‘Sir, your millions from Netflix for . . . no one knows what.’

Once feted in America they’re now ­ridiculed.

Sadly Harry has proved he’s not even an ­interesting Spare part any more — just an object of derision.

 Peter knows Ab’s fab

The search is on to replace Holly Willoughby on This Morning. 

Abbey Clancy at 12/1 is the dark horse. 

Like Holly, she’s gorgeous and happily married with kids. And, if ITV were lucky enough to get hubby Peter Crouch on the sofa beside her, there’d be no chance of her co-presenter being found hiding in the closet. 

A survey concludes humans are more attached to dogs than cats based on how much money they spend on their pets. 

My moggie Ted would like to point out the flaws in that argument — cats don’t need washing, parlour visits, walkers and stupid coats in winter. 

Ted’s sure folk only spend more on dogs because they have to. 

Ken’s revenge on Beeb

After Ken Bruce was forced out of Radio 2, he joined Greatest Hits Radio and took 800,000 listeners with him. 

How apt that the last song he played at the Beeb was The Beatles’ Golden Slumbers with the line: ‘Once there was a way to get back home,’ which he did — but at a station that appreciated him. 

What justification can there be for James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables to have his latest parole hearing in private? His lawyers claim holding it in public would harm his mental health. What about the mental health of James’s mum ­Denise Fergus who’s been grieving for 30 years? 

What about the mental health of James’s mum ­Denise Fergus who’s been grieving for 30 years?

Two reminders of the horror of war: First, Palestinian children writing their names on their hands so that if they’re killed they can be identified. 

Second, the fact that Israeli scientists still can’t name massacred children, with one saying: ‘Babies are harder to identify as they have no teeth.’ 

 Westminster wars

Nearly a quarter of Labour MPs defy Keir Starmer to call for a ceasefire in Gaza — as councillors quit in protest. 

Starmer thought he’d cleared out the Corbynites who hate Israel. I’d suggest he hasn’t.

MAYBE not a great idea, after two by-election defeats, with the Conservatives trailing by 20 points in polls, for Rishi to give a speech on Artificial Intelligence’s existential threat to humanity. 

Many Tory voters consider his robotic performance an existential threat to the Party. 

Rachel Reeves is accused of copying passages of her new book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, from Wikipedia. 

Let’s hope her shadow budget isn’t plagiarised from the woefully inaccurate Wiki. 

 Vogue boss is a big Ed

Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful is named Britain’s most influential black person in the 2024 Powerlist.

He says the list ‘shines a light on black people’ who ‘champion what it means to be truly diverse’. 

Crikey, editing a mag featuring designer frocks for mostly rich white women hardly distinguishes Ed as ­a champion for inclusivity.

Queen of the bonkbuster Jilly Cooper says that ‘at 86 I’ve forgotten how to write sex scenes’. 

False modesty! If the double-entendre title of her novel Tackle! is anything to go by, her bed-spring memories are in good order. 

The NHS is filling newspapers with scary cancer awareness ads. Jolly good but how many of us can get in to see a GP? 

And, if we manage it, what’s the point if we end up at the bottom of a waiting list of 7.7 million? 

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