The Conversation (0)
Sinead Butler
Nov 09, 2022
The Crown Season 5 trailer
Netflix
Season five of Netflix drama The Crown has been released today (November 9) and viewers "can't compute" one particular casting choice in the show.
The ten episodes cover the turbulent events that occurred in the royal family during the 1990s and the show always follows The Queen's relationship with the country's leader - in this season, John Major was prime minister at this time (1990-1997).
British actor Jonny Lee Miller stars as Major and made his debut appearance in the first episode of the season called "Queen Victoria Syndrome."
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Though viewers have since taken to social media to express how they can't believe the actor who previously played the bleach-blonde Scot "Sick Boy" in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting(1996) - an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's 1993 novel - is now playing the formal and serious PM.
Miller also reprised his role in the sequel T2: Trainspotting (2017).
When Lee Miller was portraying Sick Boy in 1996, John Major would've been prime minister - so that fact the actor is now (26 years later) portraying Major has people's mind's blown.
\u201cSick boy has become John Major\u2026 \n\n\ud83e\udd2f\u201d— Aaron Quigley (@Aaron Quigley) 1667984759
\u201cMy head can\u2019t compute Jonny Lee Miller, THE \u201cSick Boy\u201d, as John Major in The Crown \ud83e\udd74\n\n#TheCrown\u201d— Laura Leslie (@Laura Leslie) 1668001031
\u201cI can't believe they cast Sick Boy as John Major. My brain won't compute it. #TheCrown\u201d— Dr Eva Burke (@Dr Eva Burke) 1668008310
\u201cSick Boy is playing John Major. Like this year couldn't get any more mental?! #TheCrown\u201d— Mrs Brightside (@Mrs Brightside) 1668014432
\u201cJohnny Lee Miller. My sexy Sick Boy playing John Major is just all kinds of wrong.\u201d— Louise (@Louise) 1668013697
\u201cJonny Lee Miller as John Major is messing with my head.\u201d— Cappie \ud83d\udcfa (@Cappie \ud83d\udcfa) 1668011742
\u201c@scottygb I'm finding the sight of Sick Boy out of Trainspotting as John Major is completing a sort of weird 90s loop in my head.\u201d— Scott Bryan (@Scott Bryan) 1667635604
Meanwhile, some have declared that Lee Miller is "too hot" to portray John Major after watching his performance in the latest series.
\u201cJonny Lee miller is WAAAAAAY too hot to be playing John Major\u201d— Lady in the streets but taking Zyrtec in the bed (@Lady in the streets but taking Zyrtec in the bed) 1667983289
\u201cUnfair of The Crown to cast the universally hot Johnny Lee Miller as John Major and give the viewing public a minor crisis of attraction\u201d— dr. ppyajunebug, phd (@dr. ppyajunebug, phd) 1668007164
\u201cWatching The Crown new season and am a bit worried that I find John Major oddly attractive\u201d— Kate (@Kate) 1668013421
\u201cSorry but Johnny Lee Miller is far too good looking to play John Major, I\u2019m just not buying into it #TheCrown\u201d— GailR (@GailR) 1668010298
\u201cFor all the talk of Dominic West being too attractive to play Prince Charles in #TheCrown, it was Jonny Lee Miller as John Major that proved the most distracting to us. No matter what wig you put him in, he's gonna stay pretty cute.\u201d— Tom and Lorenzo (@Tom and Lorenzo) 1668010393
Lee Miller spoke to the press ahead of the show's release about taking on the role of John Major and revealed his views did change about the former PM.
"‘I grew up in a very socialist household, a very left-wing household. I’m pretty leftie, and as a youngster at the time, we thought we knew who John Major was and what it was about," the actor said.
"‘He got a lot of flak back in the day,’ he added, ‘[but] the more I learned about him the more I began to like him, and we had a lot of similarities.
"We’re from the same part of the world – he’s from Worcester Park, I’m from Kingston. We both went to state grammar schools, we had theatrical parents. So I had all these things in common, and then the more you learn about the work that he did – my respect for him grew massively."
The Crown season five is now available to watch on Netflix.
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