The Crown Star Josh O'Connor Defends 'Fictional' Scenes About Charles And Camilla

And following the release of the new season on Sunday, cast and crew have defended some of the fictional scenes created by writer Peter Morgan. This morning, Josh O'Connor (who plays Prince Charles) spoke about the show's storylines in an interview with BBC Breakfast.

Defending some of the fictional aspects, Josh said: "Ultimately what The Crown survives on is the understanding that the audience have the intrigue and understanding that this is fiction.

"It is always tricky but you don't want it to be ruffling feathers, you want to be clear as possible that this is Peter Morgan's imagination and his world being created."

In one scene in particular, Peter admitted he "made up" a conversation between Prince Charles and his great uncle Lord Mountbatten - also referred to as Dickie.

In one episode, Lord Mountbatten (played by Charles Dance) slams Charles for pursuing his relationship with Camilla, who was married to Andrew Parker Bowles at the time.

The pair have a tense phone call, before Lord Mountbatten pens Charles a letter. In it, he says: "It grieves me to say you are not working hard enough to reach and to rise.

"The choice of a woman was the issue which the last Prince of Wales came to grief. And it's astonishing to me that 40 years after the abdication, you're making such little effort to conceal your infatuation for another man's wife.

"How could you contemplate such ruin and disappointment to yourself? To your family? To me?"

During episode one of the Netflix show, Charles receives and reads the letter after Lord Mountbatten is assassinated by the IRA in August 1979.

While no record of the letter actually exists, Peter Morgan has defended his decision to create the conversation, insisting that it is a reflection of the truth.

Speaking on The Crown's podcast, he said: "What we know is that Mountbatten was really responsible for taking Charles to one side at precisely this point and saying, 'look, you know, enough already with playing the field, it's time you got married and it's time you provided an heir'.

"As the heir I think there was some concern that he should settle down, marry the appropriate person and get on with it.

"In my own head I thought that would have even greater impact on Charles if it were to come post-mortem, as it were. I think everything that's in that letter that Mountbatten writes to Charles is what I really believe, based on everything I've read and people I've spoken to, that represents his view.

"We will never know if it was put into a letter, and we will never know if Charles got that letter before or after Mountbatten's death, but in this particular drama, this is how I decided to deal with it."

If you're yet to watch, you can binge all 10 episodes of The Crown Season 4 on Netflix now!