'The Crown' is 'odious' says Queen Mother's biographer

The Crown has been blasted as 'odious' by a biographer of the Queen Mother.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, William Shawcross, who served as the Queen Mother's official biographer, criticised the Netflix series about the Royal Family for its factual inaccuracies.

Shawcross wrote: "The Crown is an odious series, filled with lies and half-truths encased in lace and velvet."

Read more: Here's why the Royal Family is so worried about the new season of The Crown

He added: "It is astonishingly and deliberately hurtful to individual members of the Royal family, public servants who cannot answer back, let alone sue for damages."

Shawcross went on to criticise series creator Peter Morgan for waging a "campaign of abuse" against Britain's Royal Family and added that he was an "absolute disgrace".

Shawcross, who as well as authoring books on the Royal Family, has covered topics such as the Vietnam War, the Prague Spring and Rupert Murdoch.

Read more: Netflix defends The Crown

He has become an increasingly controversial figure in recent years due to his defence of torture during the Iraq War, support of Roman Polanski and views on Islam.

As well as Shawcross, The Crown was recently criticised by former Prime Minister John Major who will be played by Jonny Lee Miller in the upcoming fifth season.

Major called the show a "barrel load of malicious nonsense" in a recent interview with The Mail on Sunday.

His office also released a statement in which he clarified that Netflix had not discussed the series with him: "Sir John has not co-operated in any way with The Crown. Nor has he ever been approached by them to fact-check any script material in this or any other series."

The statement continued: "As you will know, discussions between the monarch and prime minister are entirely private and - for Sir John - will always remain so. But not one of the scenes you depict are accurate in any way whatsoever. They are fiction, pure and simple."

A spokeswoman for The Crown responded: "The Crown has always been presented as a drama based on historical events.

"Series five is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family – one that has already been scrutinised and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians."

The fifth season of The Crown premieres on Netflix on 9 November.

Watch below: Sir John Major slams The Crown.