I had a call from Malcolm Muggeridge this morning who said watch out for the tests.

Oh, which tests? said I.

The infamous Balmoral tests, he apparently the royal family routinely subject all their guests to secret tests

To find out whether someone is acceptable or not acceptable you or non-you part of the gang or not acceptable, you or non-you, part of the gang or not part of the gang.

Apparently is ruthless. That's bored in itself. Welcome to The Crown, the official podcast. I'm Edith Bowman and this show will follow the fourth season of the Netflix original series The Crown,

episode by episode, taking you behind the scenes, speaking with many of the talented people involved

and diving deep into the stories. Today we're talking

about episode two titled the Balmoro test. Margaret Thatcher and her

husband Dennis are invited to holiday at the Royal Residency in rural Scotland.

Lady Diana Spencer is also invited to join for a weekend, but who will pass the infamous Balmoral test?

Now we will cover specific events and scenes that feature in this episode.

So if you haven't watched episode two yet, well I suggest you do it now or very soon.

Coming up later we'll hear from head of research Annie Salzberger on how the team approached the Charles and Diana story.

We had to go into this series with a level of skepticism about not just the material but

who was writing the material, how it was commissioned that we had not had to do with previous series.

We'll also hear from Head Set Decorator Allison Harvey.

Just in those four perfume bottles you see the decades of when those women were feeling their most fabulous.

But first I was lucky enough to sit down with Paul Wittittington who directed the Balmoral Test.

Now on this podcast we've heard time and time again from everyone involved.

The collaboration between all the departments is key to bringing the story to life.

So I asked Paul what it was like to join the Crown family

as a new director for season four.

...