Queen Volunteered For Bond Olympics Sketch

Danny Boyle, the mastermind behind London's Olympic opening ceremony, has revealed he did not actually ask the Queen to appear in his James Bond sketch - she volunteered.

TV viewers around the world were surprised to see the Queen appearing alongside Daniel Craig in the spoof sequence prior to her arrival in the Olympic Stadium last summer.

Boyle told ITV's Jonathan Ross Show he had originally envisaged a lookalike taking part in the skit.

The creative director of the London 2012 opening ceremony explained: "It was part of the protocol - you have to bring in the Head of State and sing the National Anthem - and we thought we'd (do) something different, so we wrote up this idea of the James Bond idea.

"And we sent it in to them, and we were asking really for permission for them to accept that it wouldn't embarrass them and we'd get a double, a good double, and we were thinking Helen Mirren.

"They came back and said 'we're delighted for you to do it, and Her Majesty would like to be in it herself' - and the surreal thing, 'she would like to play herself'."

The Oscar-winning director went on: "She said 'what do you want me to do?', and I told her and she said 'fine'.

"So we got in and we started doing it and then she said 'don't you think I should say something?' and I said 'yes, OK, what do you suggest?'.

"She said 'I'll do something' and we started shooting and she turned round and she said her lines beautifully."