Tampongate is 'The Absolute Best Scene in The Crown ,' Says Olivia Williams
Netflix Olivia Williams and Dominic West in The Crown
Olivia Williams is standing by The Crown's depiction of "Tampongate."
The British actress, 54, who plays Camilla Parker Bowles in season 5 of the hit Netflix drama, told The Times Saturday that the show's reimagined conversation between her character and the then-Prince Charles and Camilla is "the absolute best scene."
"I think the writing and the way this episode is structured is so brilliant," added Williams about how director May el-Toukhy portrayed Charles's cheating on the late Princess Diana.
"I would like to make it illegal for anyone to comment upon the inclusion of this conversation who doesn't actually watch the episode," she continued.
"If you decide because your principles are so high that you're not going to watch the episode and then you choose to comment, your opinion is of no value. What this episode does is an extraordinary piece of film-making."
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Splash; Mrs E Wilson/Shutterstock Camilla Parker Bowles and Olivia Williams
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"Tampongate" occurred in January 1993 when a real-life phone conversation between Charles and Camilla was leaked to The Sunday Mirror. During the six-minute chat, Charles told Camilla that he wanted to "live inside" her trousers and then joked that he could be reincarnated as a Tampax tampon.
Amid giggles, Camilla — who was married to Andrew Parker Bowles at the time — later added that she "desperately, desperately" yearned for him too.
According to The Sunday Mirror, the transcript was taken from a 1989 conversation between the pair and was originally published by the British tabloid The People with the tell-all headline "Charles and Camilla — the tape."
It remains unclear exactly how the recording reached the newspapers, but The Crown imagines the private call was intercepted by a wandering wiretapper in real time and sold for profit.
Dominic West, who plays Prince Charles in the new series of the show, recently spoke about the sensitive material.
"I remember thinking it was something so sordid and deeply, deeply embarrassing [at the time]," West told Entertainment Weekly of his perception of the headlines when the news broke nearly 30 years ago.
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Netflix ; Tim Graham Photo Library
On Oct. 21, Netflix agreed to include a disclaimer on The Crown's season 5 trailer and Netflix page, following criticism from figures including Dame Judi Dench that it would be "cruelly unjust" not to preface each episode with a statement pointing out that the program is a work of historical fiction.
Despite this, Williams stands by the show and its "fictional dramatization" of Charles's affair and the wider reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
"I don't want to be contemptuous of people who get it confused, but it's not a documentary," she told The Times. "My mum's a criminal barrister and she always said, 'Were you there? Were you in the room? Did you see it happen? No, then everything is hearsay.'"
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RICK RYCROFT/AFP via Getty
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While describing her stance on the royal family as being "pinko lefty," Williams has also met Camilla in person and describes her as being "very funny".
"I quite like that they were there to represent us but couldn't really justify it in terms of all men being born equal," she told The Times. "But, of course, when I met her I gushed."
The Crown's season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.
