Spencer (2021)

Description

December 1991, the British royal family prepares to spend the Christmas holidays at the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. Among the attendees is Diana, Princess of Wales, whose marriage to Prince Charles has become strained due to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. As the sizeable staff of Sandringham Estate, led by the capable Major Alistair Gregory, prepare for the royals' arrival, Diana drives around the Norfolk countryside. On the verge of a breakdown, she avoids heading to Sandringham until running into Royal Head Chef Darren McGrady. She notes that the long-abandoned neighbouring estate, Park House, used to be her childhood home. Diana arrives to an apathetic reception on Christmas Eve. Her sons William and Harry are excited to see her, but she does not attempt to socialise with the royal family, who mostly ignore her. Diana's only friend at the Estate is Royal Dresser Maggie, who encourages her to at once combat the royal family and fulfill the obligations expected of her. Diana finds a book on Anne Boleyn in her assigned bedroom. She begins to have dreams about Boleyn (including a hallucination of her at a Christmas Eve dinner where she imagines herself destroying a pearl necklace given to her by Charles and eating the pearls in soup), eventually coming to believe that Boleyn's ghost is haunting her in her capacity as a fellow abandoned royal wife. Diana tries to visit her childhood home but is stopped by royal guards, who initially mistake her for an intruder.