The Crown: Viola Prettejohn as teen Queen Elizabeth & Eve Best as Carole Middleton - who are they?

Viola Prettejohn is not a household name, yet, but that might change after taking on the role of a teenage Queen Elizabeth in The Crown’s season 6 part 2. She follows in the footsteps of Imelda Staunton, Claire Foy and Olivia Colman in portraying the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Viola takes on the role of the teenage Queen Elizabeth, then Princess Elizabeth. The actor is the daughter of TSB Chairman and went to the prestigious St Paul’s Girls’ School in London. 

The Daily Mail reported: “Having started with Diana’s ‘ghost,’ the Netflix drama is set to close with a ‘reconstruction’ of the future Queen having a wild night out on VE Day- and kissing American GIs. The scenes were filmed with the then Princess of Elizabeth played by Viola Prettejohn, 20. Accounts of that night agree that the sisters did indeed slip out of Buckingham Palace for a few hours, in a party of 16. They danced the conga at the Ritz and were home by midnight.”

Eve Best, who is known for her roles in House of Dragon and Maryland, plays the role of Kate Middleton’s mother, Carole Middleton, in Season 6, part 2 of The Crown. Eve was also Dr O’Hara in Nurse Jackie, the Duchess of Windsor in The King’s Speech and headmistress Farah Dowling in Fate: The Winx Saga. The Telegraph reported: “Eve Best is portrayed in The Crown as a meddling ‘Mrs Bennet’ figure who carefully masterminded her daughter’s relationship with Prince William.”

For those of you who are not familiar with the character of Mrs Bennet, she is the mother of Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Bennet, Lydia Bennet, Mary Bennet and Kitty Bennet in Jane Austen’s classic novel, Pride and Prejudice and is renowned for trying to get her daughters ‘married off’. The Telegraph went on to say that “Kensington Palace has declined to comment on the episodes but sources close to the Middleton family suggest the portrayal of Mrs Middleton was unlikely to be well received”.