I should have been moved to tears. Instead, I burst out laughing.
The sixth and final season of The Crown (Netflix) addresses the death of Lady Di, which I remember like it was yesterday, even though it happened on August 31, 1997.
It should have been moving, dramatic, sensitive.
Instead, the series shows… the ghost of Lady Di, nonchalantly interacting with the Queen and Prince Charles!
Ridiculous! All that was missing was a sheet with two holes in place of the eyes!
- Listen to the Culture and Society column with Jean-François Baril and Sophie Durocher via Radio QUB :
GHOST SCALE
What a disappointment! Not only are we resorting to this stupid process of bringing the dead back to life, but the dialogues between Lady Di’s ghost and her ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law are completely insane!
Peter Morgan, the creator of the series, even imagined that the ghost of Dodi Al-Fayed (Diana’s lover, who also died in Paris in 1997) appears to her father, Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Oh my godas they say at Buckingham Palace!
Dodi appears in front of his father to reproach him for being a bad father. Diana appears in front of Charles to tell him how handsome he was when he went to see her at the morgue. And Diana appears before Queen Elizabeth to tell her it’s time for her to listen to her people.
But what are these stupid dialogues?
I’ve always hated it when a dead character reappears in movies or TV series. It’s always struck me as a lazy narrative process, for uninspired screenwriters.
But when applied to very real public figures, the process is even more grotesque!
Faced with the outcry raised by his use of “ghosts”, Peter Morgan had to justify himself in an interview. “It was a way of showing that he continues to live brightly in the minds of those who remain. Diana was unique and that is what inspired me to find a unique way to represent her. It deserved special narrative treatment.” Ah, for being special, it is special.
But then why did he give the same “narrative treatment” to Dodi Al-Fayed?
Speaking of Dodi, why did the author make up dialogues between him and Lady Di on the fateful evening, implying that he had proposed to her?
Although, according to the British police investigation, “there is no indication that the Princess of Wales intended to be engaged to or marry Dodi Al-Fayed.”
DODI VS JOHN
In the series, Dodi Al-Fayed’s father complains that “nobody talks” about his son’s death. And he asks: “Why do they hate me? Is it the fate of the Arabs to always be hated by the West?
First of all, it is false to say that no one talked about Dodi’s death. Second, it’s not because she was Arab that the spotlight was on Lady Di! That’s because the princess was the most famous and loved person on the planet!
Even if Dodi had been named John Smith, his death would have been overshadowed by the death of the “people’s princess”.
Maybe Lady Di’s ghost should visit us again to clear things up.
