The Crown (TV Series)

Smoke and Mirrors (2016)

Alex Jennings: David, Duke of Windsor

Photos 

Quotes 

• Duke of Windsor : Oils and oaths. Orbs and sceptres. Symbol upon symbol. An unfathomable web of arcane mystery and liturgy, blurring so many lines no clergyman or historian or lawyer could ever untangle any of it.

  Party Guest : It's crazy.

  Duke of Windsor : On the contrary. It's perfectly sane. Who wants transparency when you can have magic? Who wants prose when you can have poetry? Pull away the veil and what are you left with? An ordinary young woman of modest ability and little imagination. But wrap her up like this, anoint her with oil, and hey, presto, what do you have? A goddess.

• Duke of Windsor : [narrating about Queen Mary]  Mama took ill in the afternoon, then began haemorrhaging in the early hours. Doctors plied her with tranquilizers and morphine to ensure there was no suffering. In the end, she passed in her sleep. I was sad, of course, but let's not forget how she clung to such hatred for me, her eldest, till the last. I'm afraid her blood ran as icy cold when she was alive as it does now she's dead.

• Tommy Lascelles : [about the Duke's wife]  It is my duty to inform you on behalf of the Royal Family and the government, with whom we have worked in close consultation, that she will not be offered an invitation.

  Duke of Windsor : Oh, that's madness. The pusillanimity and vindictiveness knows no limits.

• Duke of Windsor : My Lord, Archbishop, what a scold you are. And when your man is down, how very bold you are. Of Christian charity, how very scant you are, You Auld Lang Swine, how full of cant you are.

  Archbishop of Canterbury : [protests] 

  Duke of Windsor : A rhyme composed for your perfidious predecessor at the time of my abdication. I find the sentiment oddly applicable to you, too.