Tobias Menzies has spoken out about the casting of Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip in The Crown seasons five and six, a role previously played by both Menzies and Matt Smith before him.

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Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Menzies joked that it would be "impudent" of him to offer the Oscar-nominated Pryce advice on playing the Duke of Edinburgh.

"He's a Knight of the Realm now - far be it from me to give him any advice. I'm sure he'll be brilliant," Menzies said of his successor (both actors also starred in Game of Thrones; Menzies as Edmure Tully, and Pryce as High Sparrow).

Menzies (who played the Duke for seasons three and four) continued: "I mean, I can only hope that - I hope he is going to get as much out of playing him as I did. I went on a real kind of journey if I'm honest.

"I hadn't really thought about him [Prince Philip] very much at all before coming to this to the show and playing him, and yeah, I was - the twists and turns really surprised and confounded, and he's a much more unexpected and surprising person [than I realised].

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"I just hope he [Pryce] sort of, yeah, goes on the journey with it. I wish him luck with the voice. I'm sure he'll do something very interesting with him," he added.

Jonathan Pryce
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

In his Big RT Interview published this weekend, Menzies spoke about the recent death of Prince Philip. "Of course, it's an odd cultural position to be in, to be have been the most recent person to have portrayed him at the time when he passed away," the actor said.

"But truly, you know - I never met the man. I didn't know him, you know. We were making a dramatisation of parts of his life. It was quite interesting, because I did get asked quite a bit around that time [of Prince Philip's death] to go onto shows and comment and talk about him, which really didn't feel comfortable at all, because in a very fundamental way, I don't know him."

Tobias Menzies stars in This Way Up season 2, which will air on Wednesday 14th July at 10pm on Channel 4. The whole series will be available on box set on All4 following the first episode airing.

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Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide to see what's on tonight or take a look at our best series on Netflix guide. You can also head over to the Big RT Interview section for more exclusive chats with the biggest stars.

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