10 details to remember before watching season 5 of 'The Crown'

Each season of "The Crown" focuses on a different time period. Season five moves into the 1990s, which features multiple significant events such as the divorces of Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, and Princess Anne.

The new season also comes with some character recasting. Imelda Staunton now plays the late Queen Elizabeth, who died on September 8, 2022. Jonathan Pryce plays her husband, Prince Philip. The turbulent couple of Prince Charles and Princess Diana will be played by Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West respectively.

Prince Charles (played by Josh O'Connor in season four) and Diana Spencer (played by Emma Corrin in season four) first met at the beginning of season four, while the future king was dating her sister.

Charles eventually dates Diana and, under pressure from the royal family, Charles agrees to marry her. Unfortunately, this does not lead to a happy ending as the couple soon becomes fed up with each other and seeks out their own affairs.

Towards the end of the season, Charles actively attempts to end his marriage to Diana but is denied by his mother, the Queen.

Charles is not the only one with marital problems. In the previous season, it was alluded that Princess Anne (played by Erin Doherty in season four) is unhappy in her marriage to Olympic equestrian rider Mark Phillips (Geoffrey Breton).

In episode four, Anne confirms to her mother that she has been having an affair with her protection officer, but the Queen offers little help other than to tell her to persevere. In real life, Anne got divorced in 1992 and married the protection officer, which is likely to play out in season five.

Anne's brother, Andrew, also got divorced during the 1990s. In season four, we see Prince Andrew (Tom Byrne) finally settle down with Sarah Ferguson, but things might get rocky during the fifth season.

The restlessness Philip (played by Tobias Menzies in season four) displayed in his younger years has passed, and in season four, he was shown supportively standing by his wife and helping her through some tough moments.

In season four, episode four, he sweetly consoled the Queen after she asked him whether her children's marriages had broken down because she was a bad mother to them. He reminds her that she is the mother of the nation and that her children can work through their own problems since they're adults now.

However, it seems that the Queen and Philip's biggest challenges are still to come as season five will cover 1992, the year the Queen famously dubbed her annus horribilis ("horrible year" in Latin).

If you have somehow forgotten the viral fight from the season four finale, one of the main problems within Charles and Diana's relationship is that the future king is in love with someone else.

Camilla Parker-Bowles (played by Emerald Fennell in seasons three and four) first comes into the picture in season three, episode eight, when both she and her future husband, Captain Andrew Parker-Bowles (Andrew Buchan), have an on-off relationship and eventually get entangled with Charles and his sister Anne. Unfortunately for Charles, the royal family gets involved and arranges for Camilla to be married to Andrew.

Charles spends much of season four pining over Camilla and in the season finale admits openly to Diana that he loves Camilla over his own wife.

Diana is deeply unhappy in her marriage to Charles, which she can see no way out of. The intense scrutiny from the press — who analyze and dissect her every movement, outfit choice, and word — only adds to this.

She is shown dealing with this as best she can by spending time with her young sons, William and Harry, and rather sadly, succumbing to her eating disorder, bulimia nervosa.

At the end of season four, Diana is barely holding herself together and is left fighting back tears at the royal family's annual Christmas getaway to Balmoral Castle.

While Diana struggles with the public's interest in her life, season four does see her begin to get used to her role as a princess and the public falls for her.

This creates a divide between Diana and the rest of the royal family since she's more open with the public compared to them. Charles himself gets jealous of the public's love for Diana, especially when she begins outshining him.

The public's love for Diana is part of the reason Charles doesn't divorce his wife outright, attempting to avoid being painted as the villain.

The younger sister of the Queen, Princess Margaret (played by Helena Bonham Carter in season four), was sidelined for much of the last season, although this is explained by the fact that she has sought out therapy to help her work through some of her problems.

Margaret hasn't had the easiest time of things while living in the shadow of her sister. She has experienced many cruelties over the years, including having her hopes of marrying her first love, Peter Townsend (played by Ben Miles in season one), dashed and being demoted from a senior royal to make room for Prince Edward (Angus Imrie).

Season four ended with her discovering that there was a history of mental health issues in the royal family and retreating to a life of entertaining on the private island of Mustique.

The royal family was left devastated following the death of Lord Mountbatten (played by Charles Dance in season four), who was killed by a bomb explosion.

Lord Mountbatten — who was known as Uncle Dickie in the royal household — was on a fishing trip off the coast of Northern Ireland when his boat was blown up by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

While his appearance in the show's last season was brief, Mountbatten's death was shown to have a significant impact on both Prince Philip and Prince Charles, who looked to him for advice and guidance on all matters.

Season four saw the controversial leader Margaret Thatcher (played by Gillian Anderson) in charge of the UK. During her weekly meetings with the Queen, the two were seen disagreeing over international affairs, including the value of the Commonwealth.

By the end of the season, Thatcher is pressured to resign by her own party after they lost faith in her leadership. She attempts to cling to power before eventually accepting her fate.

The Queen ends up honoring the politician with the Order of Merit, and in the final episode of the season, she says goodbye to the PM, who will be replaced by another Conservative, John Major (Jonny Lee Miller), in the new episodes.