Economic Principals has been working his way through The Crown, an hour an evening, starting with its first episode. The Netflix series is a remarkably deft telling of British history since 1936, when Edward VIII abdicated in favor of his brother, George VI, placing George’s elder daughter in line to become Queen Elizabeth, upon her father’s death in 1952. EP hasn’t yet arrived at Season Four, in which Gillian Anderson plays Margaret Thatcher.

Another season or two will be required before show-creator Peter Morgan and his team arrive to tell the story of the 2016 vote to leave the European Community. EP is looking forward to the season after that, the one whose story-line begins next week now that Brexit is finally taking place. Another twenty years or more may be required for the nation to regain its equanimity.

Of this much, at least, EP is certain: given the Arthurian legends, the Canterbury Tales, the plays of Shakespeare, the novels of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Churchill’s speeches, the BBC’s Upstairs, Downstairs and now The Crown, there will, indeed, Always Be an England. For those who have finished the series, comedy, too. Happy holidays!

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