The hit show recreated Princess Diana’s performance of Phantom of the Opera’s “All I Ask of You,” which she filmed and gave to Prince Charles as an anniversary present.
Though The Crown is currently in a lull, between season four’s end and season five’s anticipated air date in 2022, Netflix just released a never-before-seen clip to tide fans over.
In the deleted scene from season four, Emma Corrin stars as Princess Diana, watching her own full performance of Phantom of the Opera’s “All I Ask of You.” By extension, viewers get to see the princess’s musical number in its entirety.
In the series, viewers primarily saw Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles’s reactions to the video, as Corrin’s voice soundtracked the scene.
O’Connor’s Prince Charles was made deeply uncomfortable by the tribute, which Diana hoped would mend their faltering marriage. The deleted scene, however, shows Diana waking up in the night, plugging the tape into the VCR, and watching the full performance. The scene cuts to the musical number—costumes, theater, and all.
Though some aspects of The Crown are fictionalized, this scene was closely tied to true events. Princess Diana really did film herself performing “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera, and shot the video on the musical’s West End set. When Corrin found out about this project, she was “shocked,” the actor told Vanity Fair.
“That it’s exactly as it happened in the series—as in she hired the West End set, got a film crew in, and filmed it for Charles. Which is mental,” Corrin said.
Annie Sulzberger, head researcher for The Crown, confirmed the story. She told The Telegraph, “We did not make this up. There were a number of [press] reports on this, enough to make us feel comfortable including it in the show. It’s a story that pre-existed the writing of the script.”
Though Diana, much to Charles’s dismay, loved performing, Corrin had a bit more trouble filming the scene. They were exhausted from filming the “Uptown Girl” ballet sequence the day prior and broke down on set.
“I did about two [takes] and I had a complete panic attack, had a nosebleed. I had a proper, like, a proper breakdown,” Corrin told Vulture. “I went downstairs and they were so sweet. They were like, ‘You don’t have to do it. You can do it tomorrow.’ And I was like, ‘You can’t do it tomorrow! We’ve hired a theater!’ They were very lovely, but I did it. I did it a lot of times.”
