You wouldn't know it, but a real-life moment in the history of a Burnaby high school is featured in the final season of The Crown, now streaming on Netflix.
Season 6, Episode 5 "Willsmania," features Prince William trying to cope simultaneously with the very public tragedy of his mother's death and his sudden status as a teen heartthrob.
Central to the phenomenon was a trip to B.C. by Prince Charles and his sons in March 1998, just six months after Princess Diana's death, when Prince William was 15 years old.
In one scene in The Crown, Episode 5, Princes Harry and William talk about "official visits" their father has planned for them, including a visit to "a school for the Deaf."
That school was the B.C. School for the Deaf, which shares a campus with Burnaby South Secondary at 5455 Rumble St.
The Burnaby South and BCSD building had been developed as a Year 2000 school, one that would take education into the 21st century, with state-of-the-art technology, including monitors in all the halls and classrooms in place of a PA system.
The princes' tour of the school on March 24, 1998 included formal recognition of BCSD, a walk-about through the school's science lab, the launch of a Royal website in the school’s computer lab and a speech in the school’s ultra-modern theatre, according coverage in the NOW.
But it's hard to imagine they noticed much during the visit besides the hordes of screaming teen girls brandishing "I love Will" and "I'm here for William" posters.
The scene, as described in the March 25, 1998 edition of the NOW, was reportedly every bit as chaotic as the scenes in The Crown.
Women of all ages screamed out Prince William's name as the lanky 15-year-old blushed, bowed his head and shook hands with some of the 4,000 onlookers who had gathered outside of the school, a NOW story said.
"He's just so hot," squealed Crystal Fuller, 14, according to the article.
"I told him how cute he was, and he just bowed his head and said 'Thank you,'" Tasha Aspinal, 14, told the NOW. "That showed me he's not stuck up and doesn’t think he's all that. He's so fine."
Aspinal said she'd dump Leonardo DiCaprio for Prince William "in a second."
William, meanwhile, "looked uncomfortable with the sex symbol role, shaking far fewer hands than his father and brother," according to NOW reporter Steve Braverman.
He noted the young princes had been handed flowers just a few months earlier at their mother's funeral, and now girls were handing them their phone numbers.
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