James Bond actor Daniel Craig’s tribute to Queen Elizabeth
Five-time 007 star Daniel Craig has reflected on the precious moments he spent with the Queen as he paid tribute to the late monarch.
Royals
Don't miss out on the headlines from Royals. Followed categories will be added to My News.
James Bond star Daniel Craig has paid tribute to the late Queen, describing filming with her as “incredible” and how she will be “profoundly missed”.
The five-time 007 British spy, who recently revealed the late monarch was “very funny”, starred alongside the Queen in a comedic sketch to as part of the opening of the 2012 London Olympics.
The skit sees Bond summon the Queen to the event and after her greeting him with “Good evening, Mr Bond”, the pair and some of her corgis walk together towards a helicopter and fly off. The scene ends with a stunt double Queen parachuting into Olympic Stadium. Seconds later the Queen herself appeared in the arena, wearing the same peach-coloured dress as the stunt double.
“What an incredible thing. We will not see the likes of her ever again,” Craig told the BBC, reflecting on the scene at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“To be alive during her reign is something else. [I’m] very saddened, so I suppose good luck to Charles, really.”
Just last week, prior to the Queen’s death, Craig described the 96-year-old as “very funny” during an appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday.
The 58-year-old host asked Craig: “I understand that you may not be able to answer this question, but I’m gonna ask anyway: What’s she like in private?”
“Very funny. Very funny. [She] wants to crack a joke, and [she] cracked a joke about me,” the 007 actor replied.
“We were having our photographs take and she just went: ‘Oh no, he’s the one that doesn’t smile. Fair enough!’”.
Craig revealed the London Olympics skit “wasn’t supposed to be funny. It was supposed to be serious”.
“She (the Queen) was fun, incredibly game. We had a short space of time and I was a bit grumpy as it was my day off and suddenly I am at the Palace with the Queen at her private chamber,” he said.
“And she improvises a little bit. She was supposed to be sitting at the desk and she asked if she could write, so she pretended to write.”
A day later the Queen died, to which Craig responded with a heartfelt message.
“I, like so many, was deeply saddened by the news today and my thoughts are with the royal family, those she loves and all those who loved her,” Craig said in a statement to the PA news agency.
“She leaves an incomparable legacy and will be profoundly missed.”
Queen’s interest in Paddington Bear, 007 sketches revealed
The Queen’s memorable TV sketches alongside Paddington Bear and Daniel Craig as agent 007 were at her own insistence and were not initially planned, it has now been revealed.
The world saw a more playful side to the then monarch when in 2012 she played herself as Craig in character strode into Buckingham Palace to be greeted “good evening Mr Bond” for a sketch to open the London Olympics.
The Queen also appeared in a surprise comic sketch with Paddington Bear, as part of the celebrations earlier this year honouring her 70-year reign.
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who co-wrote the two TV appearances, said he only approached the palace to ask permission to have someone portray the Queen and never imagined she would insist on playing herself.
“She volunteered herself for the Olympic opening ceremony, we didn’t expect her to want to do it,” the 62-year-old sketch writer Mr Cottrell-Boyce said.
“We went to the palace asking for permission to represent her and to know what she was wearing on the day and it was her amazing dresser who said ‘No no she wants to be in it.’
She was game and she was up for that.
“In fact on the day when we were filming, she asked (film director) Danny Boyle if she could have a line because there wasn’t a line in the script, probably because when I was typing the script I didn’t quite know how you would type the character of the Queen, what would you type.”
The monarch also played herself alongside a superimposed beloved children’s character Paddington Bear for cream tea at Buckingham Palace in a secretly prerecorded sequence played at the start of the televised BBC Platinum Party at the Palace event.
The duffle coat-wearing bear from Michael Bond’s books told the Queen how he made sure he always had his favourite treat on him, lifting up his red hat to reveal a marmalade sandwich.
The Queen delighted him by saying she shared his love of the snack, as she opened her handbag to reveal a stash and said “me too”.
The writer said that was real acting since the bear was obviously not in the room.
“She’s acting with someone pretending to be Paddington with false eye-lines and she’s got lots and lots of lines and there’s a real joy there,” he said
“I think two things to be said about it, the joy is really important. It is a fun thing, Paddington, but it’s not trite.
“Paddington stands for a set of values that she stood for as well, for welcoming the stranger, for decency, for politeness in an age that had become very shouty, these were not uncontested values, they are values that she had inhabited and expressed for her whole reign.”
As the world mourns, fans have taken to social media to express their sympathies in only the internet can. See below.
More Coverage
Originally published as James Bond actor Daniel Craig’s tribute to Queen Elizabeth
Join the conversation
Photo reveals truth about Meghan ‘snub’
Royal watchers were quick to accuse the royal family of a brutal act on Prince Harry’s birthday – but new details have now emerged.
Read more
Meghan snubbed in Harry birthday photo tribute
An image shared by the royal family to mark Prince Harry’s 40th birthday has caused a storm amid claims Meghan Markle was cropped out.
Read more