The death of Queen Elizabeth II, in addition to having shocked a large part of the United Kingdom and having changed -with greater or lesser impact- the status-quo of the country’s politics after 70 years of reign, is making us remember a good number of anecdotes of the monarch related to the world of cinema and television.
One of them is related to his funny appearance at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics held in 2012 which, let us remember, was directed by Danny Boyle. In her, the Windsor —and her adorable corgis of hers— they shared a scene with James Bond himself played by Daniel Craig.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
However, the original plan did not include the queen, who was thought to be replaced by A double. According to the gala’s scriptwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce to BBC Breakfast, Her Majesty’s stylist was the one who told the team Elizabeth II’s intention to star in the fragment herself after seeing them photographing the clothes he would wear to the inauguration.
“The queen’s stylist was like, ‘Why are you guys doing all this?’ and we were like, ‘So we can make her look like the queen.’ So she was like, ‘Oh, the queen wants to do it herself.’ . He had offered to do it, he wanted to be in the skit.”
Angela Kellywho worked with the queen for 25 years as a stylist, designer, curator and personal advisor, told this story in the book ‘The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe’, according to the medium Hello! .
“There are very few occasions when Her Majesty would agree to break protocol, but in 2011, when Director Danny Boyle contacted the Royal Household, he made a request that she simply could not refuse. She was very amused by the idea and immediately agreed. I asked him if he would like to have a speaking role. Without hesitation, His Majesty replied: ‘Of course, I must say something. After all, you are coming to my rescue.’
I asked him if he would like to say ‘Good evening, James’ or ‘Good evening, Mr Bond’, and he chose the latter after learning about the Bond films. Within minutes, he was at Edward Young’s office to break the good news to Danny. I think he almost fell out of his chair when I told him that the queen’s only condition was to be able to say the phrase ‘Good evening, Mr Bond’.”
The rest is television history and of a rupture of the protocol for the memory.