Princess Margaret’s tragic romance with Peter Townsend may have been one of The Crown’s best early story lines—two young lovers prevented from living happily ever after because Townsend’s status as a divorcé clashed with the queen’s enforcement of the Church of England’s rules. Oh, how times have changed. In season five’s “Annus Horribilis,” which is devoted to that famously bad year of 1992 for British royals, Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton) finds herself white-knuckling through three of her four children’s separations or divorces, each accompanied by its own tabloid scandal. Margaret, meanwhile, now played by the Oscar nominee Lesley Manville, hears from Townsend (Timothy Dalton) for the first time since breaking off their engagement some 40 years before.

The former lovers reunite at a reception at London’s Caledonian Club, where Margaret smokes from her trademark long cigarette, steals looks at her former fiancé, and shares one final dance with him. During the scene, Margaret—who has been hardened by years of heartbreak—suddenly softens, genuine joy and delight filling her face in a way it hasn’t since season one. But the ball must come to a close—and after hours of singing, dancing, and luxuriating in familiar warm feelings—Townsend pierces their dreamy bubble by handing over the love letters she wrote him, a gesture of finality and closure.

The real-life reunion between the princess and Townsend occurred at Kensington Palace over lunch in the summer of 1992. According to Tim Heald’s Princess Margaret: A Life Unraveled, Townsend was joined by two longtime friends—one of whom “recalled that it was a strange and mildly embarrassing meal as the Princess and Townsend talked quietly and intimately together while the other guests conversed among themselves and pretended that the effectively private conversation taking place in their midst was the most natural thing in the world.” Christopher Warwick’s biography Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts claims that Townsend and the princess followed lunch with a walk through the gardens. “Afterwards, as Townsend drove away, she waved goodbye with a pocket handkerchief,” wrote Heald. “Then, walking back into the apartment, the Princess turned to her private secretary and said words to the effect that he was just as she remembered him except that his hair had turned grey.”

In a conversation with Vanity Fair, Manville spoke about filming creator Peter Morgan’s reimagining of the reunion.

“It’s very tender and very touching. Just seeing them look at each other—that pool of memory and that wealth of love and emotion that they shared together when they were younger is suddenly remembered by both of them,” the actor says over Zoom. “It’s very beautiful. Of course they have this great evening together and she’s very spirited—singing, messing around, and telling jokes—and he’s witnessing that and thinking of all the life that maybe he hasn’t had. It also reminds her about what she was denied and how her life might have taken a different route if she’d have been able to marry him. And how she feels about that, specifically in the light of the queen’s children enjoying a freedom that Margaret did not enjoy—a freedom in terms of who they can be with.”

In the episode, Margaret encourages Princess Anne (Claudia Harrison) to pursue a romance with Timothy Laurence, a former aide to the queen. (Shortly after Anne divorced her first husband, Mark Phillips, in 1992, she married Laurence, making her the first close relative of a British monarch to divorce and remarry.) In another scene, Margaret furiously confronts her sister about refusing her happiness by preventing her marriage to Townsend, speaking to the queen in a way that no other person likely could. 

From the Archive: The Princess and the Photographer

“It kind of hits her that her life has been compromised and she’s not perhaps had the life that she wanted,” says Manville, revealing that it was an actor’s dream of a scene to explore. “It’s all tied up in this time of her life that has to do with a loneliness—understanding that the history of her life has been played out, and this is where she’s left…We can all do that—look back on our lives and think, what if? But she does see it as some sort of injustice that, just because of the time she was born in, and her sister being the queen, she hasn’t been allowed to have, in her opinion, the man she loved and wanted to be with. I find the scene very powerful and shocking and brutal. It makes you feel for Margaret in a way that maybe the audience didn’t quite expect to feel for her.”

To prepare for the role, Manville listened to the few audio tapes available of the princess during the ’90s, including an appearance Margaret made on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs, which is recreated in the episode. She also spoke to several mutual friends who happened to know the late royal, given her passion for the arts.

“Unquestionably, they all said she was a very colorful character, very outspoken, didn’t really self-edit. A night with her, a dinner or a party with her was very spirited and lots of laughs,” says Manville. “And of course, nobody could ever leave until she left, which can be a big problem because she would like to stay up late since she didn’t always have to get up early. She’d happily stay up till three or four o’clock, and then sleep till midday. That was very much the pattern of her life and that’s fair enough—by that point, she didn’t have children to get up for or anything.”

Princess Margaret was famously glamorous, hobnobbing with celebrities and dressing more stylishly than her conservative sister. The episode shows the late royal keeping up this beauty regimen—putting on her makeup in a silk turban and matching silk robe, and even, at one point, washing her plants while wearing full makeup. How else is one supposed to fill a day?

“I loved the fact that she didn’t seemingly have any unglamorous moments,” smiles Manville. “Even when she was on her own at home, she’d kind of make the effort. Even when she’s doing nothing, she’d still put on a lovely turban, some lipstick, and a gorgeous negligee and caftan, and float around looking like that. Later in her life, I think that she hated being ill—of course none of us like being ill—but there was an aspect of it that she hated very much. She felt that her life had very much to do with her looks and her glamor and she hated not looking fabulous.”

Manville is in the midst of filming The Crown’s sixth and last season, which reportedly covers 1997 to 2001, a sad final chapter for the princess. Before Margaret died in 2002, her health declined over a number of years. In 1998, she suffered a stroke. The following year, thanks to a faulty thermostat, the princess scalded her feet in the bathtub. By 2000, according to Heald, “It was widely reported that the Princess had lost the will to live. The burns to her legs were not healing.” Because of another series of strokes, “The sight in one eye had gone and she had virtually lost all movement on her left side. She was only able to move around in a wheelchair and for a while at least could neither read nor write.”

Says Manville, “There are some iconic images of her sitting in wheelchairs with dark glasses. From what I’ve read about that, she hated it because she particularly didn’t want men seeing her like that. It must be very hard to have had that glamorous life and then to feel that it’s on the wane. How do you be that person still when all of those things have run away from you? It’s very difficult for any woman to deal with. But I think when you’ve been in the spotlight as much as she was, that was an extra challenge.”