Danny Boyle: 'Grumpy Queen was a lot of fun'

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle was charmed by The Queen when she agreed to play herself in a 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony skit after telling him she was in a foul mood.

The Slumdog Millionaire filmmaker was stunned when the monarch opted to feature alongside James Bond in the well-received sequence, in which she appeared to jump out of a helicopter and arrive at the ceremony from the skies, because he expected her to pass on the opportunity of having a little fun.

Boyle says, "You do have a moment where you go, 'No, I think we've been hacked by a newspaper... and this is a set up'.

"We went there on the day and we shot the scene in the kind of greeting room... where she meets heads of state, but she lives next door and so she asked me to go in there... and it's just like a regular place; it's cushions and tea trays and newspapers everywhere.

"She said, 'I've been at the dentist's all morning, so I'm not in a very good mood. What do you want me to do?' That was it."

And the director is convinced The Queen just wanted to have a fun day - away from her head of state responsibilities.

He adds, "I think the reason that she did it is I think she wanted a day out of the day job. She wanted some time off... She wanted all her staff in it... She wanted them to have their picture taken with Daniel Craig... and they put it on royal Facebook, or whatever it is."