Diana’s ghost in The Crown? Darling, what’s new? She’s the hardest working spectre in showbiz | Marina Hyde

Thanks to psychics and Hollywood actors, she's never wanted for work - and she'll be a real vision in Netflix's prestige' drama

There is spine-tingling supernatural news from The Crown, a TV show that takes itself considerably more seriously than the actual royal family. This has never been a programme that wears the prestige TV" label as lightly as have other jewels of the era, preferring instead to drag it like a 10-tonne weight into every scene while some of the finest actors of their generations pretend to be things like sad about the news", or Princess Anne". Giggling away with a drink and a packet of crisps, I often wonder if I am its only disloyal subject. Surely not? For a long time I couldn't really believe anyone took it seriously and assumed it must be in on the joke of itself - a Nicolas Cage of a show, if you will.

I can't quite decide whether this position has been bolstered or undermined by the high-camp news that the forthcoming final series is to feature the ghost of Princess Diana. According to reports - and it's not out yet, so usual caveats - the ghost appears to both Prince Charles and the late Queen. The Queen sees her while planning the funeral arrangements and starts crying, having been told she taught us what it means to be British". To Charles, who has apparently been shown sobbing over her body in a Paris morgue, Diana's ghost reportedly says: Thank you for how you were in the hospital. So raw, broken - and handsome." Oooh. I'll take that with me. You know I loved you so much. So deeply, so painfully too. That's over now. It will be easier for everyone with me gone." Can this genuinely be the dialogue? I certainly hope so.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist