With a star-studded cast bringing the British Royal Family to life on the big screen, you'd expect the filming locations of The Crown to be equally as spectacular. The crew behind one of Netflix's biggest hits scoured the country to find lookalikes of the royals' most famous residences, but how do they measure up? In the wake of the fourth season, we take a glimpse inside some of the hit series' filming locations and see just how close they come to the real thing... 

The Queen's official London home, Buckingham Palace, dates from the early 1700s when the Duke of Buckingham built a fine mansion in the capital's fashionable St James's district. The townhouse was acquired by King George III in 1762 and lavishly enlarged in the 18th century to become the building we see today. 

Surrounded by the verdant St James's Park and Green Park, the world-renowned palace has 40 acres of private grounds, all of which the crew of The Crown needed to replicate for a number of key scenes across the series.

While Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Phillip, famously call the palace home, Princes Andrew and Edward also use the property as their London residence, while many members of the royal family’s staff live there too. The exterior of Buckingham Palace is an iconic location, with traditions including balcony appearances, royal announcements and the Trooping the Colour ceremony all taking place within the grand gates and further into The Mall. 

The Old Royal Naval College in the London borough of Greenwich, which was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was used as a filming site for exterior shots of Buckingham Palace and its courtyard. Fittingly, the site is steeped in history in its own right and was once the location of Greenwich Palace. The birthplace of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I, it was demolished after the British Civil War and King William III later employed eminent architect Wren to build the Royal Hospital for Seamen in 1694. In 1873, it was converted into the Royal Naval College.

The iconic riverside estate was perfect for filming exterior shots for the series, but the crew also used parts of the interior. The college's Painted Hall, which recently underwent a two-year conservation project, dates back to the early 18th century. Created by Sir James Thornhill, it covers 40,000 square feet of walls and ceilings, covered in striking paintings depicting around 200 figures. The Painted Hall has featured in many banquet and party scenes in the series.

The long-awaited fourth season of The Crown opens in 1979 with the Queen exiting Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour ceremony. With the Old Royal Naval College as a convincing backdrop, it's hard to tell the difference between the real thing and the royal residence's lookalike.

With the location for the exterior shots and banquet scenes sorted, the crew were in need of a doppelgänger for the main interior rooms of Buckingham Palace. Difficult to replicate, the 828,000-square-foot building comprises a total of 775 rooms, which include 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms, none of which are ensuite – a sign of the palace's old-fashioned layout. This photo shows the swish White Drawing Room.

The Queen is usually ensconced in the palace during weekdays, when she conducts official business, including investitures, state banquets (pictured) and garden parties, as well as hosting dignitaries. From the grand scale of the regal residence to the ornate rooms and architecture, it wouldn't be any easy location to fake for the big screen. 

Over the centuries, the interior of Buckingham Palace has been the scene of a number of crucial events. Here, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are pictured after their nuptials in 1947 in the palatial Throne Room with their wedding party. But what stately home could possibly live up to the grandeur of one of the most iconic royal residences when it came to filming?

The interiors of Buckingham Palace feature heavily in all four seasons of The Crown, but without access to the real thing, the team found a number of filming locations that were good enough to represent the royal home. Located not too far from Buckingham Palace itself is Lancaster House, which was the perfect place to shoot some of the interior scenes. Also used as a location for Downtown Abbey, it's sadly not open to the public. 

Built in the 1820s, the lavishly decorated townhouse was commissioned by the Duke of York, but today is managed by the government and used for conferences and hospitality events. A fitting replacement for the palace, many scenes for The Crown have been filmed inside the house, including in the music room, which boasts a lookalike royal balcony and grand Corinthian columns. 

Series three made use of the grand hallway when the Apollo 11 astronauts came to visit the palace too. The grand stately home was also seen back in season one as a backdrop for Princess Elizabeth's wedding day, where group photos were staged in the music room with close members of the royal family. 

Highgrove House in Gloucestershire has been one of Prince Charles’ private homes since 1980 and the country estate makes an appearance in series four of The Crown, or rather its likeness does. In 1987, Charles remodelled the palatial Georgian house, which is managed and owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. 

When the Prince of Wales first arrived at Highgrove House, the garden was sparse apart from an old cedar tree. Over a period of 38 years, Prince Charles has transformed the 15-acre grounds into a tranquil oasis, complete with an organic farm and renewable energy systems.

Prince Charles moved into the estate with Princess Diana following their marriage in 1981, and Princes Harry and William spent many of their formative years there. A rectangular building, the home is made up of three floors with nine bedrooms, four reception rooms, six bathrooms and a nursery wing. 

The 17th-century Somerley Estate in Hampshire stood in for the real Highgrove house in season four of The Crown. Set in the heart of a 7,000-acre estate, a grand home was first built on the site in 1653 by the Okden family. After a fire, the original property was burnt to the ground and the Somerley House that stands today was built towards the end of the 18th century.

The current owners, the 7th Earl and Countess of Normanton, have lovingly restored much of the house, which made it the perfect place to recreate Highgrove on the big screen. The lavish interior includes the 90-foot-long picture gallery and the drawing room (pictured), as well as plush accommodation on the third floor. 

In episode four of season four, the Queen plays a visit to her son at his new home, Highgrove House. In this still, Olivia Colman and Josh O'Connor, who play the Queen and Prince Charles, can be seen standing outside Somerley House in one of the most iconic shots of the series. It's reported that a crew of 120 took around two weeks to film three minutes of air time, mixing props with Somerley's own furniture to gives the scenes an authentic feel. 

Balmoral Castle is the Queen's beloved Highlands holiday home. Unlike Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyroodhouse, which are owned by the Crown Estate, it is the personal property of the Queen and is said to be her favourite place to stay. Balmoral has been a royal residence since 1852, when it was acquired by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria.

As an escape from her hectic schedule, the Queen normally spends her summer vacation at Balmoral in August and September. Balmoral is pretty frugal – as far as fairytale castles go – and is rumoured to be more than a little draughty in the winter months. Most of the castle itself is out of bounds to the general public aside from its grounds, though the entire estate is closed in the summer when the Queen is in residence. 

A place for the family to relax and enjoy a good dose of fresh air, the Queen usually takes part in walks on the moors with her dogs, as well as going horse-riding on the 50,000-acre estate. She has even been spotted ferrying the Duchess of Cambridge up to the grouse moor to join the Duke of Cambridge on a shoot, and has hosted many guests and dignitaries over the years on the estate. 

To match the stunning backdrops of the Balmoral Estate, the cast and crew of The Crown headed up to Ardverikie House in Newtonmore in the Scottish Highlands. The regal building was the perfect fit for Balmoral with its Scottish baronial architecture, towering turrets and breathtaking rural scenery.

Encompassing a vast 38,000 acres, the estate has been in the same family for almost 150 years and has undergone a number of transformations across the decades. Unlike Balmoral, the public are welcome to explore the grounds on foot, with six holiday cottages available to rent if you fancy experiencing the big-screen doppelgänger for yourself.

A key location in season four, Ardverikie Estate appears in 'The Balmoral Test' episode, in which Margaret Thatcher and Lady Diana Spencer meet the extended royal family for the very first time. In previous seasons, it's also been used as the backdrop for royal family gatherings. 

Windsor Castle is thought to be the Queen's favourite official home. The 1,000-room castle, which is located just outside of London in Berkshire, dates from the 11th century. It's one of the Queen's official country residences and although some formal engagements are usually conducted at Windsor, it's essentially her place to unwind.

Having substituted Windsor Castle for Belvoir Castle in seasons one to three, the fourth series saw the filming location for the iconic royal residence moved to Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire. A magnificent Tudor mansion built by the Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, it's one of the UK's largest and grandest surviving houses of the 16th century.

Adorned with sumptuous décor, the state rooms at Burghley are ideally suited to play the opulent interiors of Windsor Castle. The most famous of the heavily decorated rooms is the Heaven Room, which sits in the South Wing and boasts ceilings and walls covered in scenes from ancient mythology.

Burghley House’s Heaven Room makes its appearance in season four in a scene where Lady Diana Spencer, played by Emma Corrin, chooses her engagement ring. In 1981, the soon-to-be Princess was ushered into a private room after a dinner with the Queen to make her selection, which was seen as a modern move at the time. 

Much like Balmoral, Sandringham House in Norfolk is one of the Queen's private homes. This Grade II-listed country house sits on a massive 20,000-acre estate that lies within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Described as 'the most comfortable house in England', Sandringham featured the latest domestic technology following its rebuild in 1870. 

The house dates from Elizabethan times and was snapped up by Queen Victoria in 1862 as a gift for her son, the future King Edward VII. He rebuilt it in 1870 in suitably sophisticated style, with a ballroom added in 1881 and a guest wing constructed in the 1890s. As well as the main house, the spacious estate includes several well-appointed houses. The Georgian Anmer Hall, for instance, is the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Catherine. 

Her Majesty spends Christmas at Sandringham and typically stays until February. It is from here that she has recorded many of her famous annual Christmas Day messages to the nation. The royal clan usually heads up on Christmas Eve to begin the festivities, which last until the New Year, although their celebrations are likely to be much smaller this year. Here, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip can be seen with their children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, at Sandringham in 1970. 

In season four of The Crown, Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk doubled up as the royal family's rural Norfolk hideaway. A good double for the Queen's private country retreat, the two buildings have similar roots – both are originally Jacobean stately homes that were extensively remodelled in the Victorian era. 

For filming, the hall needed to be completely revamped and repainted before the cameras started rolling. It took a reported 12 days to prepare the hall and dress it for three days of filming. Scenes were shot in the ground floor reception rooms, as well as outside in the estate's gardens.

Someleyton Hall crops up throughout series four of The Crown, with the royal family's famous Christmas celebrations captured here too. The ornate wooden staircase and elegant reception areas were decked out for the festive period later in the season, as the on-screen royals gathered in the library of Somerleyton Hall. We'd be hard-pressed to spot the difference between these real-life royal residences and their lookalikes!

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