For many, Princess Margaret was a star for her subjects, from a fashion icon to the protagonist of love stories, sexual scandals, and a painful farewell. In The Crown, as in life, she often stole the spotlight from her older sister, none other than the Queen herself. This allowed three prestigious actresses, Vanessa Kirky, Helena Boham Carter, and Lesley Manville to stand out as well.

Even with each one experiencing crucial circumstances in the princess’s trajectory, it is undoubtedly Leslie Manville who won the most moving moment of all, with a performance written everywhere as a prize and one of the most memorable episodes of the six seasons.

The ‘rivalry’ between sisters never came close to what William and Harry experience today because the two were raised together, with loving parents and both had a sense of responsibility and respect for the Crown that were not necessarily passed on to subsequent generations. A vital difference in the reign of Elizabeth II.

Like many before her, Margaret suffered from the supporting and reserve role. With a strong personality (some suspect that she suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder), being in the shadow of an introverted person like her sister caused great suffering for her. Her life was marked by excess, whether drinking, cigarettes, or parties, and The Crown contextualized this trajectory. To the point that, when Leslie Manville joined the cast, in season 5, her sad end was almost a race without obstacles.

Actress Vanessa Kirby, now part of the cast of franchises such as Mission: Impossible and working with directors such as Ridley Scott on Napoleon, was unknown – but promising – when she participated in the cast of the first two seasons of The Crown. It was up to her to ‘introduce’ the princess to generations who had never heard of her or didn’t even think that the Queen had ever been young. I know, a joke, but not far from reality.

In the first seasons Margaret has a clearly bruised ego for being more popular than Elizabeth and yet having a smaller role in the Monarchy. The first conflict, which made her a worldwide celebrity, was being a princess in love with a divorced man. Her romance with Pete Townsend touched the world, which followed each episode with soap operatic anxiety. By choosing the Crown over the heart, Margaret entered a hedonistic spiral to fill the void of her position.

The other, denser phase was in the shoes of Helena Boham-Carter, who knew Margaret in life and, although she was physically very different from her, “incorporated her spirit”, in the phase in which her marriage to Lord Snowdon goes off the rails, The romance with the gardener is news all over the world and she tries to take her own life, in a cry for help with no hope of rescue.

The chemistry between Helena and Olivia Colman was important for the conversation between sisters, somewhat distant and resentful, but always in love. So, when time moves forward and we meet her again in her final years, now with Leslie Manville, the supposed peace of mind frighteningly screams the sadness of decades accumulated in a person forced to be erased.

The episode that marked Margaret’s death had been promised to be emotional for years. Margaret’s physical decline was rapid and very public, with strokes and domestic accidents that affected the appearance of one of the most beautiful women of her time. And with that, the stage became for Leslie to gradually disappear, surrender, and draw many tears from fans of the series.

A grand farewell worthy of Margaret’s greatness and the love Elizabeth felt for her sister. Another gift from Peter Morgan to us.

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