Memories From The Crown

The third episode of The Crown that we watched yesterday evening slipped back to 1936 and ‘The Abdication’ which I featured in an earlier post. This happened six years before I was born, but it was the event that propelled first her father King George VI to the throne and, just a few years later, our current Queen Elizabeth II.

Today I continued to doze away until late in the afternoon I came to life again, and recovered enough appetite to enjoy a dinner of

Jackie’s succulent beef and mushroom pie, roast potatoes and parsnips, crunchy carrots and cauliflower, and tender cabbage

like the Culinary Queen, Becky and Ian, on a tray on my knees while watching episode 4 of The Crown which dealt with the Smog Crisis of 1952 featuring on an earlier post of mine.

73 comments

  1. Well, you look happy and healthy in the photo, so I hope you’re feeling better. I can’t imagine what that smog must have been like. I remember we used to hear more about smog here, and I think there were smog reports.

  2. enjoy watching the crown – I started it a while back and changed to something else for some reason
    – and nice portrait with the food
    🙂 cheers

  3. I enjoyed that entire session of The Crown – have learned more about the abdication, and I hadn’t known anything about the smog crisis until I saw that episode. So well done… But not as well done as that excellent beef pie. Wow, how could one NOT recover with such culinary delights?

  4. My sweetheart is experiencing peak cold at the moment. I dare say you are not fully recovered yet, Derrick, but as Jackie probably knows, seeing you eating something looking as decent a helping as that is the best way to convince your regular readers that you are on the mend. Good news indeed!

  5. Sorry to hear that you’re not well. My husband is struggling with a terrible cough and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn’t end up in pneumonia again. I’ve watched all three seasons of the crown and loved it.

  6. I totally enjoyed the series. Superb performance by all the major actors. Queen Elizabeth the Second is, without a doubt, an amazing woman. She knew how to make the tough decisions and stand firm for securing The Crown.

    1. That is my big takeaway from the show. The Queen was trained to sacrifice herself for the monarchy and she has done that to the best of her ability. Bless her heart. It made me glad to NOT be Queen.

  7. You look like a happy man eating that delicious dinner!

    I read your earlier posts you mentioned. I did see that movie ‘The King’s Speech” with Colin Firth. It was very good! The black out smog was interesting. So the U.K. had a Clean Air Act long before America! It would be 1963 before we saw any legislation in that area.

  8. As you know, I pigged out on the Crown while recovering from gastric bug. I found Series 1 and 2 engrossing, although, as usual, was compelled to fact check to see how much had been altered for dramatic effect. I remember my English “mum” telling me about the smog. Series 3 was good, but not as good, in my opinion. Hope you are better soon.

  9. Yesterday I had little to do, so thanks to you I decided to spend an afternoon watching The Crown. My plans we’re scuppered when Netflix wouldn’t work. My son who is still here from Christmas informed me that the TV and also the Sky box hadn’t connected to the BT Hub since before Christmas. I hadn’t noticed!

    I tried everything I could think of but eventually gave up and phoned BT. Despite saying, yes I’ve done that I had to repeat my efforts all over again but to no avail.
    In the end I asked for a new hub to be sent out and surprisingly the operator agreed to my request!

  10. I sometimes wonder what the world would have been like had Edward VIII remained the king. I also read the evidence that Wallace Simpson was, at best, not 100% a woman. It seems crazy but look at those hands in the photographs, that chin, the shoulders!

  11. You look happy, healthy and ready to feast! YAY for you and YAY for Jackie for taking good care of you! 🙂

    Veggies are always good for whatever ails us! 🙂

    You know I love The Crown and have finished all 3 seasons! I learned so much! 🙂

    HUGS to you and Jackie! 🙂
    How is Nugget doing? TWEETS for him! 🙂

    1. I’m sure you have learned a lot from The Crown – but we have already discovered, after just four episodes, that it contains a fair bit of dramatic licence, if not pure fiction.
      Nugget continues to haunt our back door, where he has his own personal feeder – too close for other birds to risk it.
      Thanks very much, Carolyn. 🙂

      1. The dramatic license/pure fiction doesn’t surprise me. I sometimes wish I knew what was exactly true and what wasn’t. I’ve read biographies about the Queen…but even in bios you wonder.
        Good to hear about Nugget!

  12. Oh c’est quelque chose que j’aurais aimé pouvoir suivre à la télévision
    Je sais que je capte la BBC mais sur quelle chaine etait diffusé cette série?
    ps: ton assiette est … hummmm. Comment dire? …. très apétissante et tu as l’air heureux
    Je profite de mon passage pour souhaiter une excellente année 2020 à toi et Jackie, de garder une bonne santé et de profiter de la vie

  13. Can’t explain the fascination we Americans have for the British royalty. LOL. But I found the series quite entertaining (and even though I know it to be a drama with liberties taken) I did learn a few things. I may not agree with all of her decisions, but I now have a better understanding of why she made them. Wonder how the monarchy will shape up in the next 20+ years? Glad for the return to good health..and happy 2020!

  14. I watched most of the first season of The Crown and loved it, but for some reason got distracted along the way. I enjoyed the actors so much. Now that I am just about done with Downton Abbey, I might go back to it and continue. I’ll keep in mind your thoughts from your most recent post, about how people still alive are portrayed without an opportunity to speak for themselves.

  15. You are looking chipper, possibly even debonair, with a plate full of healthy veg, but do I sense impending disaster? That shirt that looks made for gravy stains. 🙂

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