The Crown's Emma Corrin responds to fierce criticism of her Princess Diana portrayal

While The Crown’s Emma Corrin has largely received rave reviews for her portrayal of Princess Diana, not everybody loves her.

An ex-royal press secretary, for example, accused the show of doing a “hatchet job” in its portrayal of both Charles and Diana.

But Corrin is OK with that.

In an interview with Tamron Hall, the young star reacted to some of the negative responses to her portrayal of the royal.

She said:

I understand why people would be upset because this is history.

Corrin continued: “Even with Diana, it’s still very much fresh, everything that happens. So I do really understand if people would be upset.”

She was keen to remind people that, although based on real-life people, the show is fictional.

Corrin explained:

We approach these people that we play as characters, which is why it's such a joyous job because Peter writes such rich and complex characters.

Peter Morgan, the writer of the show, has recently had to defend creating purely fictional plot lines.

For example, Morgan wrote a whole scene about Lord Mountbatten writing a letter to Prince Charles about his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

That letter, as far as we know, didn’t actually exist.

But, speaking on The Crown’s official podcast, Morgan explained: “We will never know if it was put into a letter, and we will never know if Charles got that letter before or after Mountbatten’s death, but in this particular drama, this is how I decided to deal with it.”

Viewers who are particularly keen on the royals have repeatedly expressed their anger when plots veer too far away from reality.

One particularly angry fan of the show bemoaned the ‘fishing technique’ used.

It’s a tough crowd to please!