Andrew Morton says watching episode about his Princess Diana biography in The Crown was like 'seeing a ghost'

Princess Diana's biographer, Andrew Morton, has labelled Elizabeth Debicki's portrayal of the royal "uncanny".

The Australian actress plays the Princess of Wales in Season 5 of The Crown, which features one episode dedicated to how Morton secretly worked on the book with Diana, using a mutual friend as a go-between.

Watching that episode left the Diana: Her True Story author "shaking" and he said "it was like seeing a ghost".

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"I was shaking watching that. It was like being taken back 30 years to when I was interviewing her for the book," he told the US Today Show.

Speaking about Debicki's highly-praised portrayal of the princess in the Netflix drama, he said, "Her mannerisms and speech patterns were identical to the late princess".

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"For me, having worked so closely with her, it was like seeing a ghost. It was really uncanny," he said.

In an interview with People magazine to promote his new biography on Queen Elizabeth, Morton doubled down on his praise of Debicki.

"I found Elizabeth Debicki's depiction of Diana unnervingly accurate and authentic," he said.

"She had her speech pattern and mannerisms down pat, and I found the scenes very moving as it brought back a raft of deep-seated memories from that tumultuous time in the early 1990s."

The biographer also said he was shocked by the revelations the Princess of Wales entrusted him with in the book.

"She talked about a woman called Camilla [Parker Bowles]. I'd never heard of her. Talked about bulimia nervosa — I'd never heard of it — and she talked about suicide attempts," he told the publication.

"I was staggered."

The 1992 release was written with the princess's co-operation, as the royal recorded secret tapes for Morton at Kensington Palace.

These were smuggled in and out by Diana's friend Dr James Colthurst, who through the process became a friend of the author as well.

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