The historical drama tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the royal family. Each season covers roughly one decade of her reign, the first spotlighting the 1950s, and the newly released second season highlights the '60s . Not only is it a history lesson for everyone watching, but it's also a look behind the curtain into their personal lives as major events in history were occurring. "I feel like it's a lot of new information for people in England for people anyway, because I certainly didn't know about that time in history in the way that I've learned about it because of the show. I think that's something that's really wonderful about it actually; it makes people interested, including me, in things that I had no idea about. I had forgotten all those prime ministers," Kirby said, with Smith wholeheartedly agreeing.