In fictional terms, various scenes from the hugely successful Netflix series about the British monarchy, The Crown, were filmed in Andalucia |
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The British Royal Family on Screen
by Fiona Flores Watson
The Crown
In fictional terms, various scenes from the hugely successful Netflix series about the British monarchy, The Crown, were filmed in Andalucia, with locations around the region standing in for other, more far-flung royal destinations. Each 60-minute episode costs a rumoured $6-$13 million to film. Here is an overview, province by province.
Season 5 of the Netflix series The Crown aired in November 2022, while the final (sixth) season will be shown in late 2023.
CADIZ
In Cadiz province, San Fernando, Puerto Real, Sotogrande and Jerez, have all been used as locations for the drama.
The University campus of El Rio de San Pedro and the Arsenal de la Carraca, both in Puerto Real, became the port of Nassau, Bahamas, where Prince Charles embarked in Season 3 episode 9.
Playa de los Alemanes in Atlanterra, Zahara de los Atunes was used as Mustique, the Caribbean island where Princess Margaret spent happy times in her villa with friends including her lover Roddy Llewellyn (Season 2, episode 10).
Paseo del Parque, the avenue of palm trees in Sotogrande was Los Angeles, as visited by Princess Margaret and her husband Lord Snowdon (Season 2 episode 2). Video
Near Sotogrande at Guadiario (San Roque) Santa Maria Polo Club's Puente de Hierro ground stood in for the popular polo scene in the Season 2 Episode 6 (Terra Nullius), featuring Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales' 1983 tour of Australia.
Hacienda la Pañuela near Jerez de la Frontera was used as the 19th-century ranch in Sonoita, Tucson, where Princess Margaret and her husband stayed in Season 2 episode 2, while Santo Domingo convent in Jerez de la Frontera stood in for a hospital in Greece (Season 3, episode 4).
A villa in Algeciras is where scenes from episode 9 of Season 4 were filmed, including the pool scene in which Charles watches his children and Diana bathing when he is making decisions about his life following the skiing accident in Klosters.
Jerez’s historic city centre and airport appear in Season 5.
MALAGA
Torremolinos Palacio de Congresos (conference centre), in Malaga province, stood in for LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) in the 1960s (Season 2 episode 2).
Various locations around Malaga province, as well as Almeria, double for Australia in Season 4 episode 6, Terra Nullius (Noman's Land) about the couple's four-week tour of Australia in 1983. You can see Hotel Malaga Palacio and Calle Molina Lario, where crowds cheered Prince Charles and Diana in Brisbane. The scene was filmed from above by a boom-mounted camera on the hotel's roof terrace. La Concepción Botanical gardens in the city stand in for Adelaide with the couple's car tour .
The Puente de Hierro (Iron bridge) in Cártama became Darwin in the the same episode, although Puente de Hierro in Guadaiaro, San Roque Cadiz is also cited.
A meeting with Bob Hawke, the Australian Prime Minister, at his Canberra residence was actually shot at the Palacio Monte Miramar in Malaga's residential Limonar district. Interiors of the palace were also used to recreate his offices and also the room for the scene where Diana hears Charles talking to Camilla on the phone.
Castañón de Mena military residence in Malaga's Teatinos district was the location for the pool in Sydney where Diana met a swimming team; her visit to a hospital in Brisbane was filmed at the residence's rear entrance; and the front steps were used for the couple's arrival at a party in Tasmania. Almost impossible to detect, as it was added in post-production, Cortijo de Torres' open-air auditorium was the setting for Charles' speech at the Sydney Opera House.
In episode 8 of Season 4, the Miramar Grand Hotel in Malaga appears in several scenes: we see the exterior and its terraces when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher talks from her hotel room to her husband Dennis telling him about the different views she and the Queen have on the application of apartheid sanctions against South Africa. The scenes in which the minister revises the various drafts of the condemnation text were also filmed in a hotel room.
Filming of Season 5 took place in Puerto Banus, on the Costa de Sol. Some theories claim that it could stand in for St Tropez in 1997, where Diana holidayed with Dodi Fayed, but this will be featured in the sixth (and final) season.
SEVILLE
In Seville, the hotel Alfonso XIII was used as Los Angeles for Margaret's tour of the US (Season 2 Episode 2), and Plaza de las Americas with its Popular Arts and Customs Museum in Parque Maria Luisa was used as the Alexandria of Mohamed Al-Fayed's youth, as well as Casa de Pilatos, both for Season 5 episode 4.
The town of San Juan de Aznalfarache was used as 1950s Greece, in the episode about Princess Alice, also known as Alice of Battenburg, Prince Philip's mother (Season 3, episode 4).
ALMERIA
The bright red geological formations of Llano del Búho, near Tabernas Desert in Almeria, was used for the scene at Ayer’s Rock (Uluru) in Australia’s Northern Territory in Season 4 episode 6, along with digital imaging of Uluru itself.
Nothing more exciting than a car park in El Toyo, Retamar was seen in Season 4 as various airports where the Prince and Princess of Wales landed or took off with young William during their trip to Oceania in 1983.