As the world collectively mourns Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) in The Crown Season 6, Part 1, a father sits alone in his grief. “There’s no mention of you anywhere, as if only one person died,” Mohamed al-Fayed (Salim Daw) says to a vision of his dead son Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) in Episode 4 of Season 6. 

The groundbreaking series has always relied on historical research to tell the story of the British royal family, but creator and showrunner Peter Morgan deviates from reality by including scenes of Diana and Dodi posthumously appearing to their loved ones. While Diana shares a conversation with a grief-stricken Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton), Dodi and his father, Mohamed, have a long-overdue heart-to-heart. 

“When people die, there is a certain energy of them that remains very close — and there are ways in which they speak,” Abdalla tells Tudum about the scenes. “There are things that we always feel that are unspoken, that somehow after death become incredibly resonant and speak in a way, too.” It’s through these visions of Diana and Dodi that Morgan’s characters begin to process their grief. 

In the show, Dodi feels immense pressure to meet his billionaire father’s expectations. Mohamed doesn’t approve of his son’s fiancée, American model Kelly Fisher (Erin Richards), and instead urges him to strike up a relationship with the Princess of Wales, hoping it will lead to a closeness with the royal family. But after his son’s death, he feels shut out by them.

For Daw, the exchange between father and son gave his character the chance to finally voice what he never could when Dodi was alive. “The scene was so hard and so important for me because Mohamed al-Fayed never said ‘sorry’ or ‘forgive me’ to his child,” he says. “He couldn’t say that to Dodi when he was alive, and when Dodi died, Mohamed al-Fayed was so broken and so helpless.” Abdalla likens Mohamed’s moment with his deceased son to something a therapist might suggest as a way of processing something painful: “Write it down in a letter, and don’t send it.”

The scene was first written in English before being translated into Arabic for Abdalla and Daw to perform. Abdalla reveals that they could barely get through the scene without choking up. “The relationship we’ve built over this time filming is one that has brought us so close,” says Abdalla. “That was the last scene we filmed together. And even on the day of filming it, we couldn’t rehearse it.” 

Dodi and Mohamed’s final conversation isn’t just about a father’s grief and remorse — it also addresses Dodi’s erasure from a larger narrative. Mohamed asks himself at the beginning of the scene, “Why do they hate me? Is it the fate of Arabs to always be hated by the West?” In Episode 1 of The Crown’s companion documentary series, Beneath the Crown, host Anita Rani says that “the backlash against the couple that ensued in the press contained racist overtones that targeted Dodi’s ethnicity.” Even in death, Dodi’s story was never given the same attention as Diana’s.

Annie Sulzberger, head of research for The Crown, tells Tudum, “If we were really going to show Diana's death, that means we're showing Dodi's death. If we're going to show Dodi's death, we need to understand Dodi.” 

“Immediately, as an Arab actor, you understand the scale of what’s going on here and why it’s important,” says Abdalla. “Both of us have felt that responsibility to Mohamed and Dodi and what they represent.” The actor believes that this scene returns dignity to the al-Fayeds, adding, “If the idea was that the only people worthy of being honored were exceptional, that cheapens all of us. We are all worthy of that love.”

The Crown Season 6, Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix.

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'The Crown' Season 6, Part 1 Trailer