Right, where actually was the Queen when Princess Diana’s Panorama interview aired?

During Princess Diana and the Queen’s super intense convo in The Crown season five’s Gunpowder, the monarch revealed she wouldn’t be watching the Panorama episode when it aired.

While 23 million people stayed in to watch the BBC interview, the Netflix series showed the Queen looking glamorous at another big, glossy event. She mentioned to Diana that it was her 48th wedding anniversary to Prince Philip, and she wanted to spend the night celebrating instead.

But, did this really happen? And if so, how did the Queen actually spend her night, while BBC broadcasted An Interview with HRH the Princess of Wales?

Photo via Netflix

On 20th November 1995, the Queen really was out with Prince Philip, celebrating their anniversary. While most of the country were watching Princess Diana spill the monarchy’s secrets, others went off to watch the 67th Royal Variety Performance in London.

This was exactly where the Queen went. Usually alternating between herself and the then-Prince Charles, the show happened to fall on the Queen’s year by sheer coincidence – even though The Crown made it look a bit like she’d arranged it on purpose.

Royal Variety 1995 saw loads of British acts performing for the Queen – including all the big throwback acts your nan will definitely know, like Bruce Forsyth, Elaine Page and Cliff Richard.

Photo via Netflix

The woman singing on stage during Gunpowder was an actor called Danielle Fiamanya, who was playing a singer called Carol Kenyan. While we definitely know Carol performed that night; it’s unclear whether she actually did a rendition of Dreamgirls’ One Night Only – but I’m massively hoping she did for dramatic effect.

Royal Variety 1995 was broadcast on ITV five days later, while the Panorama interview was still hugely ingrained in public consciousness.

The Crown season five is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Did Princess Diana and the Queen really have an intense chat before the BBC interview?
• Here’s what The Crown got right about the rocky relationship between Margaret and Diana
• So, how did the royals actually react to Princess Diana’s wild Panorama interview?

Featured image via Netflix.