Ghost Diana, and all the controversy surrounding her, has finally arrived. Episode four of the final season of The Crown, “Aftermath,” picks up directly after the worst has occurred, as the royal family reels and regroups at the untimely death of Diana Princess of Wales. The episode’s director, Christian Schwochow, stopped by the Still Watching podcast to chat about helming the incredibly emotional episode, tastefully tackling traumatic moments for the royal family, and making Diana as “un-ghostly as possible.”  

The German director helmed Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s divorce episode in season five of The Crown, and forged a special connection with Elizabeth Debicki, who portrayed the people’s princess. “I think everybody who worked on The Crown realized that this is a very special artistic collaboration between me and Elizabeth,” Schwochow tells Still Watching cohost Hillary Busis. “I was asked to come back for the final season very early. And then Elizabeth and I decided we want to complete Diana’s journey together.” 

This journey culminates in season six of The Crown, when Diana dies in a car accident alongside her lover, Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla). Schwochow says that early on The Crown, creator Peter Morgan made the decision not to show the crash or Diana’s dead body on the series. “Very, very early we decided we will never see the crash. We will never see Diana’s dead body,” says Schwochow. But despite not appearing on camera, Debicki was present as Diana for a scene in which Dominic West’s Prince Charles saw her body, in order to “get the truthfulness of the emotion.” 

“There’s a scene when Prince Charles comes into the hospital in Paris and sees Diana’s dead body,” he says. “We don’t see it. He sees it. But Elizabeth Debicki was there on the day to be a partner for him…. We have to tell the story, and we want to tell the story. But in the most respectful way.”

Schwochow  says that the same care was used for the moments when the royal family found out and in turn delivered the news of Diana’s death. Onscreen, these moments are underscored by music, but free of dialogue. “Of course when we shot them, I had dialogue,” says Schwochow. “But the decision was made very, very early in the process that we observed these moments from a distance out of respect for the family, and not to exploit the drama that they all went through.”

From the Archive: The Diana Mysteries

After her death, Diana appears as a spectral presence to her ex-husband, Prince Charles, and his mother, Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton). While certain members of the royal family have reportedly found the inclusion of ghost Diana to be “incredibly hurtful,” Schwochow defends the decision to include her. “We had, we had many conversations about these scenes,” says Schwochow. “I totally got Peter’s idea that it would be great to have a moment for the characters, but also for the audience, to see Diana again.” Schwochow is quick to clarify that he doesn’t really consider Diana to be a ghost in these moments, but rather a memory. “The way we approached it visually was to make these scenes as—I don’t know if this is a word, if this is correct English—as un-ghostly as possible.”

He goes on to say that he wanted to make Diana “absolutely realistic.” “Don’t play any tricks,” he continues. “Don’t add any flavors to make it something bigger than life. Just treat her as a normal character.” Schwochow admits that he felt somewhat nervous about the scenes going into filming. “I was worried,” he says. “But the moment we were filming them, we all felt on set, ‘This is absolutely right.’”

For more on ghost Diana, you can listen to the full breakdown of “Aftermath” below. And as always, send questions and comments and musings about The Crown season six part one to Still Watching at stillwatchingpod@gmail.com.