Who plays Prince Philip in The Crown season four on Netflix?

Tobias Menzies reprises his role as the Queen’s husband in the fourth season

Season four of Netflix’s hit show The Crown launches on Sunday (15 November), and will introduce a host of new characters, including Gillian Anderson’s hugely anticipated turn as Margaret Thatcher.

With the arrival of Anderson, as well as Emma Corrin as Princess Diana, it’s easy to forget about the longstanding characters we’ve been following in previous series.

Outlander and Game of Thrones star Tobias Menzies, for instance, reprises his role as Prince Philip, after taking over from Matt Smith in season two. 

Menzies had a tough job following Smith’s critically praised performance as Prince Philip opposite Claire Foy’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II.

Menzies has said that Prince Philip is “a pretty hard person to get a grasp on”, but revealed last year in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar that he was keen to defend him from accusations of being a cold father towards Prince Charles.

“The show takes a hard line that it is a very troubled relationship between Charles and Philip,” he said. “And obviously we've heard from Charles' point of view more – his book with Dimbleby [Prince of Wales: A Biography by Jonathan Dimbleby] where he spoke quite candidly about the parenting he received.

“Philip really isn't on record talking about it. In the show, we suggest he was a distant father, sometimes even a tyrannical father.”

He continued: “I want to defend Philip in this regard. There's a real contradiction in the end [because] there are also examples that Philip was a pretty hands-on dad, that he was pretty present, and parented with a lot of humour. You see Charles and Philip laughing. So, I can't really tell where the truth lies.”

Menzies steps back in the new series as the royal drama unfolds between 1977 and 1990, with Prince Philip’s adult children taking the limelight.

In the new series, we witness both Philip and Charles’s reactions to Lord Mountbatten’s death, and how that impacts the tense father and son dynamic.

We also see Philip take a shine to Diana, especially during the early days of her courtship with Charles.

Menzies will be replaced by Jonathan Pryce in the fifth and final season of The Crown.

Season four begins on Sunday 15 November.