The second episode of The Crown season six, “Two Photographs,” begins with interviews with two photographers: Mario Brenna, a real Italian paparazzi, and Duncan Muir, a royal photographer. Both Brenna and Muir talk about their roles and their work, and the episode juxtaposes Brenna’s paparazzi shot of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed kissing on the Jonikal, Mohamed Al Fayed’s yacht, with Muir’s photoshoot of Prince Charles and his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, at Balmoral.
Muir, who is played by Scottish actor Forbes Masson, introduces himself as follows: “My name is Duncan Muir. I’m 57 years old. I’m a professional photographer working out of Ballater, near Aberdeen in Scotland. My bread-and-butter work is traditional portraiture: Weddings, graduations, that sort of thing. But my passion, and what I’m best known for, is photographs of the royal family. Where the Queen goes, I go.”
Only problem? No photographer named Duncan Muir really existed. So while Brenna definitely took the snap of Diana and Dodi, to our knowledge, Duncan Muir did not exist. Rather, it seems as if Muir is based on other photographers of the era.
The aforementioned Balmoral photoshoot that the fictional Muir takes in the show was, in reality, taken by Tim Graham, an established royal photographer. (There’s a C-SPAN interview with Graham from 1989 that is similar in tone to the faux interview in The Crown with Muir.) Other royal photographers of the era that Muir could be based on include Kent Gavin, Anwar Hussein, Tim Rooke, and Jayne Fincher.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the news writer for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
