Matt Smith is to go from being a Time Lord to a royal after being cast as a young Prince Philip in new Netflix show The Crown.
The former Doctor Who star will play Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh opposite Wolf Hall’s Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II and John Lithgow as Winston Churchill in the first original UK commission for Netflix.
The Crown is inspired by the award-winning West End and Broadway play The Audience, and follows the story of Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne and her relationships with the various prime ministers over the years.
Netflix is believed to be splashing out 100 million dollars (£63 million) on the exciting new drama, which they say “tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century”.
Each season will focus on a different decade of the Queen’s reign, with the first series centred around her coronation and her fledgling relationship with Churchill.
The Queen writer Peter Morgan and Stephen Daldry, who directed Dame Helen Mirren in The Audience, are both on board to create the show.
The first 10 episodes of The Crown will premiere in all Netflix territories in 2016.
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