'The Crown' Forces Fans to Explain Landline Phones to Their Children

Fans of The Crown have noted how much technology has changed in the three decades since the events of Season 5 took place.

For instance, Princess Diana is shown fearing that her landline phone has been bugged by British intelligence after hearing a clicking sound on the line. Meanwhile, her private secretary, Patrick Jephson, reminds her how difficult that would be to do when calls are routed through a central switchboard.

And a phone call between Prince Charles, played by Dominic West, and Camilla Parker Bowles, now the queen consort, is picked up by "radio hams" and sold to a newspaper.

Parts of the show's storylines could seem somewhat confusing to younger viewers more accustomed to cellphones.

U.K. lawmaker Jess Phillips, a Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, tweeted: "Watching The Crown and educating my son about how people could listen in from a separate phone in the house.

"He didn't even realise that if someone called every phone in the house would ring," she continued. "Not sure how I feel about period dramas being set in my lifetime. In a years time a parent will explain to their 10 year old kid that people used to spend loads of time on a site called Twitter..."

Among the incidents in Season 5 is a now infamous private telephone conversation between Charles and Camilla that is acted out almost word for word. Nicknamed "Tampon-gate," the encounter was captured in an audio recording leaked to the press in which Charles, who was still married to Diana, told Camilla he wanted to be inside her pants.

In the real recording, Charles said, "Oh, God. I'll just live inside your trousers or something. It would be much easier."

Camilla replied, "What are you going to turn into, a pair of knickers?" Charles responded, "Or, God forbid, a Tampax. Just my luck!"

In the 1990s, amateur radio enthusiasts known as "radio hams" would scan the airwaves recording things that interested them. One of them picked up the conversation between Charles and Camilla and sold it to the British press, which resulted in one of the most famous royal scandals in recent history.

Diana's close friendship with James Gilbey was exposed in a similar fashion when radio hams picked up a conversation in which he spoke to her using the affectionate name "Squidgy," although that incident is not featured in The Crown.

Telephone technology continued to play a role in the lives of royal family members when Princes William and Harry were both the target of phone hacking by a since shuttered U.K. tabloid, News of the World.

The newspaper's royals editor, Clive Goodman, was sentenced to four months in jail in 2007 after intercepting William's voicemail messages with the help of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

More recently, Harry launched a civil lawsuit against the newspaper's publisher, Rupert Murdoch-owned News UK, alleging phone hacking and naming News of the World, which closed in 2011, as well as The Sun, its daily sister paper.

News UK lawyers have conceded that Harry's phone was hacked by News of the World but say his claim is out of time and have admitted no wrongdoing in relation to The Sun. The lawsuit came in 2019 and led to a flurry of filings in 2021 before falling silent for more than a year.