The streaming platform Netflix has unveiled the official trailer for The Crown, the most expensive television series ever produced.
Filmed in Britain, the 10-part drama, about the early years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, had a production budget of about £100 million, roughly $US130 million.
That equates to around $US13 million per hour, a figure which eclipses TV's previous record-setting high price-tag shows, such as The Get Down, Game of Thrones and Rome.
According to its marketing material, the series looks into the "personal, political and deeply private world of Queen Elizabeth II's struggle to reconcile her personal life and public role".
It stars Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II and former Doctor Who star Matt Smith as her consort, Prince Philip.
It also stars John Lithgow as Sir Winston Churchill, Victoria Hamilton as the Queen Mother, Jared Harris as King George VI, Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret and Dame Eileen Atkins as the Queen's grandmother, Queen Mary.
The trailer opens with then-Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, in Africa, when news comes that her father has died and she has become Queen.
She is asked by an aide what her "regnal" name will be, that is, the name she will use as Queen.
Contrary to modern custom, many earlier monarchs changed their names upon taking the throne; the Queen's own father, for example, whose name was Albert, ruled as King George VI.
"Let's not over-complicate matters unnecessarily," she declares. "My name is Elizabeth."
The trailer also includes scenes from Elizabeth's marriage to Prince Phillip, including a scene where Prince Philip is advised that "the titles are not the job, [the Queen] is the job."
Several scenes in the trailer touch on the difficulties Elizabeth and Philip faced in the early days of their marriage as he adjusted to the realisation that she outranked him.
In one scene he offers to escort Elizabeth off the plane when the couple have returned to London in the wake of King George VI's death and Prince Philip is advised that the Queen must walk first, and un-escorted.
"I beg you make an exception for me," Philip says in another scene, asking to be excused from kneeling before his wife, who is also his Queen.
Elizabeth replies: "No."
Other scenes hint at the clash between Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret, over Princess Margaret's request – ultimately denied – to marry the divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend.
The series also explores the influence on Elizabeth of her grandmother Queen Mary, a historical figure who is generally seen to have rebuilt the British monarchy into a resilient monolith at a time when many European monarchies fell.
"I have seen three great monarchies brought down through their failure to separate personal indulgences from duty," Queen Mary warns Queen Elizabeth in one scene.
"You must not allow yourself to make similar mistakes," Queen Mary continues. "The Crown must win, must always win."
Though Netflix is not billing the series as "the most expensive ever made", it is almost certainly the most expensive on a per-hour basis.
Comparisons between programs are difficult because many US series, which are typically the more expensive series produced, have escalating costs as they age.
Shows such as ER and Friends, for example, would have come close to $US10 million per episode in their final seasons but only because those per-episode costs included off-the-scale salaries for the series stars.
Recent headlines proclaimed Netflix's The Get Down the most expensive series ever, blowing out its costs to around US$120 million.
But on a per-episode basis – 12 episodes were produced – that comes in at around $US10 million per hour, which puts it in the same class as shows such as HBO's Rome and Game of Thrones.
In terms of actual scale of production, the HBO series Rome, which cost roughly $US9 million per episode, was the record holder until The Get Down and The Crown were produced.
HBO's Game of Thrones and older series such as Netflix's Marco Polo and the Starz series Camelot were produced on roughly similar budgets.
The Crown was written by Peter Morgan, whose credits include The Queen and Frost/Nixon, and the stage play The Audience, about the Queen's weekly prime ministerial audiences.
It was directed by Stephen Daldry, whose credits include Billy Elliot and The Hours, and produced by Andy Harries, who produced The Queen.
The series launches internationally on Netflix on November 4.
