Bradford is transformed into Moscow as Netflix recreate the Crown

Bradford’s Little Germany district has been transformed into Moscow by Netflix producers as the streaming service has recreated the Queen and Prince Philip’s 1994 visit to Russia. 

The series, which will return to small screens in November next year, appears to be recreating the historic trip the Queen and Prince Philip took to Russia in October 1994 –  the first time a British monarch had visited the Kremlin.  

Scenes filmed this week show extras setting up around Russian replica police cars, motorbikes and a Rolls Royce. 

Imelda Staunton, 66, will be taking over from Olivia Coleman in the role of the Queen – while Jonathan Pryce, 74, will be playing Prince Philip.  

Over the first four series of The Crown, the Netflix hit has become well known for bending facts to suit its narrative, and while some artistic license is inevitable, some critics have been outraged in its rewriting of history and relationships.     

 Filming for the latest series has taken place across the UK, with London doubling for Lech, Austria – where Princess Diana actress Elizabeth Debicki has transformed into the Princess of Wales on a ski trip.

Elsewhere,  Netflix transformed Burghley House in Lincolnshire into Windsor Castle to shoot scenes for the highly anticipated fifth season of their royal drama – in particular the 1992 fire which devastated Her Majesty.

Today, crews were spotted in Little Germany,  a historical and architectural interest in central Bradford, West Yorkshire. The area has previously been used to film Channel 5’s All Creatures Great and Small.

The Queen’s 1994 trip to Moscow was lauded as historic, with many commentators saying it marked a change from Russia totalitarian past. Prince Philip also visited the state in 1995 on a solo trip. 

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s chief spokesman, Vyacheslav V. Kostikov, said at the time Her Majesty’s visit is evidence of Russia’s break with its totalitarian past.

‘We realise that the British queen would never have visited a Communist country,’ Kostikov said.   

Ironically the scenes are being filmed amid a Russian advance on Ukraine, as Putin said he is not willing to negotiate with Ukraine’s government until military operation is over.

Both the queen and Prince Philip are related to the imperial Romanov family of Czar Nicholas II, who was executed by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918. 

The queen’s grandfather, King George V, the czar’s first cousin, refused to give Nicholas II asylum a year earlier.

Then 68, the Queen was pictured in Moscow wearing a fur coat and pillbox hat, was greeted at Moscow’s Vnukovo-2 airport by First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg N. Soskovets.  

The royal couple stayed in the Kremlin as Yeltsin’s guests. They also attended a performance of ‘Giselle’ at the Bolshoi Ballet , sitting in the ‘czar’s box’ under the coat of arms of the former Soviet Union.

The Crown’s fifth series will see Staunton take over the role of the Queen from Olivia Colman, while Lesley Manville is set to play her sister Princess Margaret, replacing Helena Bonham Carter.

Pryce will take over the role of Prince Philip for the seasons showing the Royals navigating the 1990s and early 2000s while Elizabeth Debicki will take over the coveted role of Princess Diana from Emma Corrin.

James Murray will take on the role of Prince Andrew, replacing Tom Byrne, who played the Queen’s second son in series four.

The final two series of The Crown will cover the Royal Family’s history throughout the 1990s and into 2003 and expects to include the Queen making a speech on her 40th anniversary of her accession in 1992, in which she called the year an ‘annus horriblis’.

She was referring to the breakdown of three of her children’s marriages; Prince Andrew, Princess Anne’s and Prince Charles’ divorce from Princess Diana.

The breakdown of Charles and Diana’s relationship will be a central part of the new series. The fourth series of The Crown, which streamed in November last year, told the story of the early romance between Charles and Diana.