Jared Harris tells Ed Power about starring in major new Netflix series The Crown, and wondering what his republican father, Richard Harris, would have made of it all

EUROPE’S monarchies were adept, until World War I at least, at clinging to power — or extending it — by any means possible. Murder — poisoning was a favourite — and marriage were common tactics. Marriages often bordered on the incestuous but such delicacies were easily overlooked in the pursuit of territory or the consolidation of power.