I’ve fallen in love with the Monarchy, says The Crown actress Olivia Coleman

There’s a hefty weight of responsibility that comes with playing Britain’s longest reigning monarch.

Who happens to still be very much alive, and possibly watching…

Knowing Elizabeth II might be settling down with snacks, the pressure to ease accurately into the character of the nonagenarian on the throne for 67 years must be overwhelming.

Every detail has to be perfect – and that includes nailing the Corgi handling.

“Good dogs, good dogs,” pleads Olivia Coleman on the set of The Crown.

The Oscar-winning actress has taken on the second, middle-aged, reincarnation of the Queen in the third series of the Netflix hit, following Claire Foy’s much-praised portrayal.

She’s desperately trying to entice two golden balls of fur to stay at her heels as the cameras roll.

“I love dogs and they are hilarious,” she laughs.

“Prince is very well behaved…” (aptly named)… “and Lily’s a little bugger.

"They’re lovely and I always have my pockets full of dog snacks to try and make them like me more.”

Ahead of the show’s release in November, Olivia is amid the splendor of Lancaster House, part of the St. James Palace complex which allows its magnificent state rooms to stand in for Buckingham Palace – while the exterior of the palace and its courtyard have been constructed at Elstree Studios.

Olivia, fresh from success playing another Queen, Anne, in The Favourite, seems just about to have got the Queen’s best friends wrapped around her stately little finger.

The Queen, who is known to often have a tin of similar treats on hand, would surely approve.

But who knows, of course, whether she approves of the rest of the show?

Olivia, 45, certainly hopes so. She’s rather fallen for Her Majesty since playing her.

She admits: “Through doing this I have to say I’ve fallen in love with the monarchy a bit.

"It’s not a job I’d want, but I think the Queen certainly is a solid rock for us all. If you’re going to tell a story about a human being, she is the most extraordinary.

“She made a vow as a young woman in her twenties, and she stuck to in into her nineties.

"And I just think she’s remarkable that she’s managed to sit it out through all sorts of good years, bad years, terrible years.”

We meet as she steps out from a scene in which the Queen chats with Sir Anthony Blunt, the art historian who was Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures.

Later, Elizabeth was devastated to learn he had been a Russian spy and stripped him of his knighthood.

Olivia adds: “It’s one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done because everyone knows the Queen’s voice and knows what she looks like.

“When Claire Foy handed over the mantle she was incredibly encouraging.

“She did the most exquisite job… For the first couple of weeks I copied everything she did and I tried to imagine how she’d do it, because I was such a fan.”

In fact, the actress has taken every detail seriously, even admitting listening to the boring Shipping Forecast during some scenes, to help her capture the deadpan expression of the Queen’s emotional reserve.

The Crown has so far concentrated mainly on the relationship between a young Elizabeth and Prince Philip, delving into their personal life.

The new series, which will cover the period between 1964 and 1977, brings in a whole new cast including a young Prince Charles, Camilla Parker-Bowles, a girlish Princess Diana, and an older, but no less colourful, or promiscuous, Princess Margaret, played by Helena Boham-Carter.

There’s plenty of reason for Liz to demand ‘Orf with their heads’, but she hasn’t done so quite yet, perhaps because the show is so very clearly top drawer.

The deluxe drama reportedly costs £50million a series.

Helena, who has taken over from the award-winning Vanessa Kirby as Margaret, has the added pressure of a family connection.

The actress, whose great-grandfather was Herbert Asquith, the Liberal prime minister, actually met her through her uncle, Mark, a Liberal politician and governor of the Royal Ballet, who was her pal.

The actress recalled: “She was pretty scary. At one point, she met me at Windsor Castle and she said: ‘You are getting better, [at acting] aren’t you?’.”

Admitting she was “daunted”, she reveals she consulted one of Margaret’s former lovers, her hairdresser Roddy Llewellyn.

Her fling with him is said to have contributed to the breakdown of her marriage to photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones.

And Helena took another, more novel approach, too. She sought spiritual help by consulting a medium. And the advice she received? Smarten up.

“I know it sounds bonkers,” she says with a laugh. “ I thought I should just try and talk to Margaret and try to get it from the horse’s mouth as it were.

“And one of the things that this ghost, if she was there, said to me, was that she approved of my casting, but she was slightly worried that I wouldn’t be neat enough or brushed up enough or scrubbed up enough!”

We will watch as Helena and actor Ben Daniels, who plays Armstrong-Jones, continually row as he objects to playing second fiddle.

That, however, was all part of their chemistry.

Ben says: “That was kind of foreplay for them. A lot of the time they would have a massive, massive row, and then great sex afterwards.”

Viewers can also expect to revel in the early days of Charles and Camilla’s relationship, as we watch them bond over the Goon Show, and see Charles advised by divorcee Wallis Simpson, who married the abdicated Edward VIII: “Don’t turn your back on love. And watch out for your family.”

And Josh O’Connor, who plays Charles, says he’s learnt a lot about the prince.

Charles, he says, constantly has in his head the fact that in order for him to have meaning in his life, it requires his mother to die.

“So, you know what that does to the psyche of a man,” he explains.

This time around the show’s writer and creator Peter Morgan has been able to rely on more on informants and palace sources for research.

He explains: “Through back channels people have come forward, willing to talk much more frankly because I think they trust the show.

“As we are getting closer to the present, more and more people are still alive.

“I’ve been given much more information about the real nature of the Charles/Camilla relationship.

"I thought long and hard about whether to explore that stuff but given that Camilla is almost certainly going to become queen and Charles is certainly going to become king, I think it’s important.”

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