How The Crown is planning for death of the Queen

Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II in a still from The Crown season five. Photo / Netflix

Producers of the Netflix series The Crown have a plan in place for when the Queen dies.

Much like the official protocol for the Queen's death, dubbed Operation London Bridge, the show's producers have come up with a plan for what to do if the Queen dies while the series is filming.

"We have our own version of Operation London Bridge," an insider told The New York Post. "This is particularly pertinent for if we are filming. Filming will shut down immediately if we are in production, for at least a week. There would also be lots of discussion about when to restart," the insider added.

Season five of The Crown, starring Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, will be available on Netflix from November.

A sixth season has also been confirmed.

The show and the British royal family have a complicated relationship, with the real-life royals not always pleased with the way their story is being told on screen.

Last year, screenwriter Jemima Khan revealed that she chose to pull out of working on The Crown because of its "disrespectful" portrayal of the late Princess Diana's final years.

The 47-year-old screenwriter claimed she was asked to come on board to help creator Peter Morgan - with whom she briefly dated until February 2021 - with scripts covering the time before her friend died in a Paris car crash in 1997, but she ended up withdrawing from the project and asked for her contributions to be removed.

Khan had never spoken publicly about her friendship with Diana but was keen to help give an "accurate" version of events.

She said: "It was really important to me that the final years of my friend's life be portrayed accurately and with compassion, as has not always happened in the past".