NETFLIX bosses under fire for making up royal scenes for The Crown have now rewritten the Queen’s historic “Annus Horribilis” speech, The Sun can reveal.
Her Majesty made it in 1992 in London’s Guildhall following several scandals — and just four days after fire ripped through her Windsor Castle home.
In the key passage, she told the nation the year of her Ruby Jubilee was not one “on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure”.
She added: “In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an ‘Annus Horribilis’.”
She went on to thank the public for supporting her and Prince Philip.
But The Crown version, in which Imelda Staunton plays the Queen, instead shows her delivering made-up lines — including acknowledging “the errors of the past”.
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A TV insider said: “Netflix can argue about what may or may not have happened behind closed doors to justify some of their storylines.
“But they’ve essentially rewritten history by changing the speech.
“This will only add to the sense that The Crown is taking huge liberties with the truth and unfairly causing untold damage to the reputation of the monarchy.
“It also feels highly insensitive given that the Queen only passed away last month, and the nation is trying to rally around the royal family.”
The speech was made in November 1992, two weeks before the announcement that Charles and Diana were separating.
The fifth series of The Crown, set to air next month, has been criticised for blurring fact and fiction — yet has refused to screen any disclaimer.
One storyline centres on Prince Philip, played by Jonathan Pryce, growing close to peeress Penny Knatchbull.
He even tells her his relationship with the Queen had its “problems” and they had “grown in separate directions.”
It also emerged Charles, then Prince of Wales, would be shown lobbying PM John Major to help persuade the Queen to abdicate.
Mr Major, now 79, immediately slammed the scenes as “nonsense”.
Stage and screen veteran Dame Judi Dench branded the series “cruelly unjust” in a letter to The Times.
It is feared William and Harry will be further upset by scenes showing their mother’s final moments before dying in a Paris car crash with boyfriend Dodi Fayed in 1997.
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They will also be seen as children following her coffin at her funeral.
Last night Netflix said: “We’ve always made it clear The Crown is a fictionalised drama inspired by historical events.
1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure.
It has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis. I suspect I am not alone in thinking it so.
Indeed, I suspect there are very few people or institutions unaffected by these last months of worldwide turmoil and uncertainty.
This generosity and whole-hearted kindness to Prince Philip and me would be welcome at any time, but at this particular moment, in the aftermath of Friday’s tragic fire at Windsor, it is especially so.
1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. It has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis.
No institution is beyond reproach and no member of it either.
The highest standards we in the monarchy are held to by the public must be the same benchmark to which we hold ourselves personally.
If we can’t admit the errors of our past, what hope for reconciliation can there be.
I pay tribute to my family who, for the four decades I’ve been on the throne, have been my sun and water.
