Dame Helen to reprise royal role

Dame Helen Mirren is returning to royal duty to play Queen Elizabeth II on the West End stage.

The actress, who won an Oscar for her lead role in the 2006 film The Queen, will star in The Audience, which reunites her with the film’s writer Peter Morgan and is based on the monarch’s weekly audience with the Prime Minister.

The play imagines the meetings, which are held in the strictest confidence, between the Queen and political leaders from Winston Churchill to David Cameron.

It will be directed by Billy Elliot film-maker Stephen Daldry and will run at the Gielgud Theatre from February.