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Kudos to The Crown’s casting directors: they have an uncanny ability to match up British acting talent with their royal or political doppelganger.
Even if the star isn’t an obvious physical match though (Gillian Anderson, for example, might not have immediately sprung to mind as a dead cert to play Margaret Thatcher), they’re always able to pull off a convincing performance — with or without the help of some wigs and prosthetics.
After series three’s major casting shake-up, designed to realistically portray Elizabeth II and co as they moved into middle age, season four sees just a handful of crucial new characters arriving on the scene, the most anticipated surely being Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana.
Here’s how the cast of series four measures up to their real-life counterparts — scroll through the gallery above to look back at familiar faces from past seasons, too.
Princess Diana - Emma Corrin
![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2020/11/12/17/princessdiana1211b.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Playing the people’s princess is no mean feat (remember that critically panned biopic starring Naomi Watts?) especially when it’s your first major screen role, but Corrin manages to make it look easy. Plus, she pulls off the Eighties pageboy hairdo, which is arguably an even bigger challenge.
Margaret Thatcher - Gillian Anderson
![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2020/11/12/18/margaretthatcher1211a.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Surprisingly, Anderson didn’t wear any prosthetics to aid her transformation into the Iron Lady — though the hair and make-up team did toy with the idea (and even tested out some fake teeth), they decided to just let Anderson’s performance — and her massive wig — do the heavy lifting.
Prince Charles - Josh O’Connor
![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2020/11/12/17/princecharles1211a.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
O’Connor did a brilliant job of painting the young Prince of Wales in a sympathetic light in series three. Now that Diana is on the scene, our loyalties may start to shift — but O’Connor still manages to ensure that Charles doesn’t turn into this season’s panto villain.
Queen Elizabeth II - Olivia Colman
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Last year, Colman joked that one of her directors on series three informed her that she walked more like a “farmer” than a Queen before mastering royal poise. Ouch. With a Golden Globe win and an Emmy nomination under her belt for her performance in that season, it’s safe to say she passed her deportment lessons with flying colours.
Prince Philip - Tobias Menzies
![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2020/11/12/17/princephilip1211-2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Menzies returns as the Duke of Edinburgh, who doesn’t take as prominent a role in series four (no episodes dedicated to his love of outer space this time, sorry) but still manages to steal the scene with some memorably witticisms and a brilliant showdown with his eldest son following the death of their mentor Lord Mountbatten.
Princess Margaret - Helena Bonham Carter
![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2020/11/12/17/princessmargaret1211.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
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Princess Margaret is on slightly more restrained form this series, still dealing with the fallout from her divorce and feeling increasingly side-lined in the royal family. However, she’s still the source of some sharp one-liners and gets to show off some very glamorous up-dos.
Princess Anne - Erin Doherty
![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2020/11/12/17/princessanne1211a.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
The Princess Royal’s towering beehive, surely one of the breakout stars of series three, sadly doesn’t make an appearance this time around, with equestrian Anne more often seen with her hair tucked into a riding cap or headscarf —surely a bonus for Doherty, who previously revealed that the look required her to spend up to two hours in the hairdresser’s chair.
The Crown series four is available to stream on Netflix from November 15