Netflix has confirmed the arrival of its first original show from the UK, a £100m biopic of the Queen.

The Crown, produced by Left Bank in association with Sony Pictures Television, is a new ten-part series which is due to land on Netflix in 2016 and forms a part of the VoD service’s push into original content.

The series tells the inside story of Queen Elizabeth II and her relationship with post-war Downing Street. It is based on the West End play The Audience, and written by The Queen and Frost/Nixon writer Peter Morgan. The series will be directed by Billy Elliot’s Stephen Daldry.

Netflix implied that there was scope for further series, detailing that each season of The Crown would explore the different periods and political rivalries across Queen Elizabeth II’s reign from the age of 26.

The series will be executive produced by Left Bank chief executive Andy Harries, who produced The Queen, alongside Morgan and Daldry. Robert Fox and Matthew Byam Shaw will also executive produce.

Vice president of original content at Netflix Cindy Holland said: “The Crown is storytelling that lives somewhere between television and cinema from Britain’s foremost chroniclers of modern politics, class and society.”

Harries described the series as “hugely ambitious and surprising” and that it “perfectly captures the changes and complexities of a post war world”.

Left Bank had pitched the drama to both the BBC and ITV alongside Netflix and it is understood that both broadcasters were keen to pursue the idea. Netflix won, however, and is thought to have been prepared to pay more than £5m an episode to produce the series.

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