The Crown: The Netflix show is the most expensive TV series ever

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It takes a lot of cash even to fake the British royal family's abundant wealth, apparently.

Netflix's ambitious new series The Crown is the most expensive TV series to date, costing the streaming service over $130 million (via Daily Beast). A lavish - and thoroughly British - affair which sees the reunion of the creative team behind 2006's Oscar-winning biopic The Queen, starring Helen Mirren. Screenwriter Peter Morgan and producer Andy Harries are here joined by Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry.

Taking its basis from Morgan's 2013 play The Audience, the series is set to trace the reign of Queen Elizabeth II from her early years to the present day, balanced over the course of six seasons of 10 episodes each. The show promises to tell, "the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century."

The first season revolves around the Queen (Claire Foy) as she prepares to take the throne aged 25, after the sudden death of her father King George VI (Jared Harris); balancing her marriage to Philip Mountbatten (Doctor Who's Matt Smith), while trying to forge a working relationship with Winston Churchill (John Lithgow) in what was a fraught time for Britain.

The production saw the recreation of Queen Elizabeth's wedding dress - as seen in the first episode - cost roughly $35,000; though, by comparison, Elizabeth paid for her own dress by saving ration coupons to pay for the material, as was the practice of other brides in 1947. The production also saw 7,000 costumes and a lifesize replica of Buckingham Palace.

Speaking about the series, Morgan said: "The Crown is not only about the royal family but about an empire in decline, a world in disarray and the dawn of a new era. I am beyond thrilled to be reunited with partners from film, theatre, and television for this epic project and delighted to be working for the first time with Netflix."

The Crown arrives on Netflix on 4 November.