The Crown: Who plays Princess Margaret in season 4?

Helena Bonham Carter took over role from Vanessa Kirby

The fourth season of The Crown boasts a very starry cast, including Oscar-nominated actor Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret.

Bonham Carter is best known for her roles in The King’s Speech  and The Wings of the Dove, both of which earned her Oscar nominations.

She starred in the Nineties adaptation of Howard’s End, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Les Miserables and Fight Club, to name a few. Bonham Carter also notably played Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter films.

Bonham Carter took over the role of Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister, from Vanessa Kirby in season three of The Crown.

She received a Bafta nomination for her performance as Princess Margaret, but said she was nervous about following in Kirby’s footsteps.

“Well she won a Bafta too,” she told Radio Times. “So I felt like there was only one way to go and that was down! No, I was really scared at first. I wasn’t immediately like… I’ve got to do it.

“When you play somebody that everyone thinks that they know, you’ve got that hanging on your shoulders and you’ve got another person who’s just won a Bafta on the other shoulder... so it was pretty scary.”

Bonham Carter said she loved researching the role as much as she enjoyed playing the part.

“Playing someone like Margaret, one of the great privileges was meeting all the people who knew her and so closely and also really wanted to talk to me about her,” she said. “They loved her and they wanted to bring their friend into the room.”

After portraying Princess Margaret for two series of the hit Netflix show, Bonham Carter will hand over the role to Lesley Manville for the final seasons.