So, farewell to The Crown. All of it was true, apart from the bits that weren’t | Stephen Bates

Those who follow the royals were unsurprised, and those who don't were entertained. But I'm not sure it moved the dial

After seven years, six seasons, 60 episodes and enough airtime to last you continuously from now to next Sunday, Netflix's mammoth, popular and sort-of acclaimed series The Crown ends with the release of the last four episodes today.

That takes the saga up to 2005, so the reign of Queen Elizabeth II still had another 17 years to run, but writer Peter Morgan and the series' makers have decided enough is enough. Discretion has shrouded the final years, though they do give Her 80-year-old Maj, played by Imelda Staunton, intimations of mortality, and even visitations by her younger self in the shape of Claire Foy, the young queen in seasons one and two, and Olivia Colman's mother of the nation from seasons three and four.