IT took a couple of days but I have finally managed to get started on the second series of the Crown.

All eight episodes of this second outing for the lavish, extremely expensive, drama about our current Queen’s reign from the very beginning, arrived on Netflix like a shiny televisual Christmas present last week.

Since our view of what constitutes top TV viewing can sometimes be quite far apart - the fact both me and my husband genuinely like this is something of a triumph.

It is probably the fact it marries historic fact with a kind of soap opera feel - human relationships, disappointment, duty, love and death are all here in spades.

The one question, however, we and probably everyone else lapping this melodrama up are asking ourselves is - how much of this is actually true to life ? It is pretty personal with the relationship of the Queen and Prince Philip very much dissected and laid bare.

The suggestion of his having had numerous affairs, his jealousy and inability to understand her duty are all waded into.

As are her interactions with her sister Margaret - who so far is being painted as a sad and bitter woman. I can’t imagine they are all cosying together with a sherry to watch this but equally it surprises me no-one is addressing the issue since the Crown suggests the press secretaries barely slept as they were spending so much time trying to deflect negative stories.

I do recall the videos we used to have to watch in history lessons when I was in secondary school - and I definitely would have paid a lot more attention if they had been like this.

What strikes me, as we head into this second series, is just how long she has been on the throne and just how many massively important periods of time she has overseen. Claire Foy is once again mesmerising as Elizabeth and Matt Smith really does embody Philip.

But it is the supporting cast and the pulling out of the smaller stories that make this must-see television.

The focus on Philip’s assistant and the break-down of his marriage and the impact Margaret’s failed romance with Peter Townsend had.

It is no secret Foy will be replaced by Olivia Colman in the next series, as the Queen enters into middle-age and while I don’t envy her having that act to follow, she is probably the safest pair of hands there is.

I would like to say I will be clearing the television schedule in order to binge watch the rest of the series this weekend - but there is the small matter of a glitter ball trophy winner to be decided. So the Queen will just have to wait.