"He was wearing rouge!" So says an incredulous Winston Churchill after meeting with King George in Netflix's The Crown.
To be fair, King George is almost dead from lung cancer and nobody is more unforgiving of weakness, physical, or otherwise, than Churchill. So the King gets himself made up for their meeting - a bit of rouge, yes. And powder. Only, instead of looking like a man with a terminal illness he ends up looking like a man with a terminal illness wearing makeup.
![Claire Foy, centre, and Matt Smith, right, in a scene from The Crown.](/web/20161209060216im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/n/u/4/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt58vt.png/1481105283562.jpg)
That's The Crown for you, the most expensive television series ever made, costing Netflix over 100 million pounds.
I confess I thought that the formative years of Queen Elizabeth's reign would be nothing better than a sexed-up Downton Abbey. But it's actually the (English) Godfather. You know that thing where you can never go against the family because the family isn't really about love or blood but rather absolute obedience to a ruthless super power? Yeah, that.
But The Godfather was full of expression; people scream and yell and cry and kill in that movie. Hey, they're Italian. But what does one do when the entire cast is the very definition of a stiff upper lip and must appear perfectly attired at all times?
![Claire Foy in Netflix's The Crown.](/web/20161209060216im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/u/z/r/k/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gt58vt.png/1481098368561.jpg)
The answer, dear ones, is makeup. There aren't any magical special effects, although, FYI: two people were responsible for "dental" on the show. I mean, it wouldn't be a series about the Royals without their teeth.
In her youth, when Elizabeth is full of verve and totally besotted with Prince Phillip, they give her face freckles, and highlight her cheeks to make them glow. But as the Queen takes on more responsibility, the actor playing her, Claire Foy, frequently has dark circles under her eyes. Now, in a regular TV series, these would be hidden, but it's a brilliant choice to let them stay and get deeper, along with facial lines, and grey hair, as her rule continues into her mid 40s.
In her dramatic scenes where she must confront heads of state, Elizabeth wears a bold red lipstick, bordering on orange. But in the most emotional scene of the series, she has a deep red lipstick that bleeds, ever-so-slightly, over the edges of her mouth. Such a fascinating, and subtle touch. As she grows older, her eyes have less and less makeup, until, in the final scenes, her hair is completely off her face, revealing a high forehead and clear, stark blue peepers.
It's deeply reminiscent of how royals have been depicted in renaissance portraiture. Which is entirely the point, isn't it? What better way to convey the magnitude and historical significance of her role?
Princess Margaret, Elizabeth's sister, is portrayed as the foil to her Highness. Where Elizabeth is bland and steady, Margaret is flighty and tempestuous. The actor, Vanessa Kirby, is never without Margaret's eyeliner and signature mascara. She wears it how Margaret did too – in that slightly clumpy fashion. The Princess is far more hip than her sister, which means that she follows the trends through the years, wearing a dark, matte lip in the late 1940s, and going lighter until the early 1960s, where it's frosted pink. Margaret's hair is always done, whether in a chignon or set in curls, but its rarely neat – another little subversive clue about the character.
The rest of the cast don various wigs and sun spots, to convey age and so forth, but it's ultimately a show about those sisters, and, given the limitations of the characters, the makeup does a sterling job of showing us what the royals, bless their hearts, simply could not do. In my mind, it was worth every penny.