From Coral to the Queen

2:42pm Friday 9th May 2008

THERE'S actually something quite regal about actress Diana Quick, which is apt considering that she is now touring the country playing none other than the Queen.

Diana, who is best known for playing Julia Flyte in the television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, arrives in High Wycombe this week appearing in Alan Bennett's Single Spies.

"Wouldn’t it be awful if I came on as the Queen in bright red nail varnish?"

Actress Diana Quick

The award-winning comedy, which also stars Nigel Havers and former EastEnders actor Jack Ryder, features two Bennett plays, An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution.

In the first, Bennett re-enacts the real meeting between double agent Guy Burgess (played by Havers) and the Australian actress Coral Browne. Having accepted an invitation to lunch at his seedy Moscow apartment, Coral finds a man longing for society gossip and a new suit from his London tailor.

In contrast, A Question of Attribution is an imaginary encounter between Queen Elizabeth II and the disgraced art historian Anthony Blunt (also played by Havers), who in real life was publicly humiliated as the traitorous "fourth man" of the Cambridge spy scandal.

Diana tells me: "Above all, I absolutely loved the script and knew I wanted to do it. Bennett's writing is funny and witty and elegant. I've always been a great fan and am very tickled by his obsession with the Queen."

The talented actress adds: "I've actually met her several times, but of course whenever you meet royalty they are just public faces and you don't get to see their real personalities. The great strength of Bennett is that you see more of the Queen's private self."

Remembering fondly back to the first time she met the Queen, while still a student at Oxford University, Diana muses: "We actually had quite a long conversation.

"She asked me what all these students were complaining about, what problems they faced, and so I proceeded to tell her, in great detail.

"I actually got told off by her equerries afterwards for being quite so frank!"

Now many years later, Diana's encounters with the Queen are no doubt standing her in good stead for her latest role.

She explains: "I've also spoken to a lot of people who know her personally and my impression is that the Queen is not only hugely dutiful, which we all know, but that she's also very witty and dry and has a huge sense of fun.

"I think she was rigorously trained for her responsibilities and it took the whole trauma of the Charles and Diana divorce for her humanity really to come out.

"Bennett has managed to put all of that into his play."

Playing the Queen has also presented Diana with some unusual challenges, such as perfecting the monarch's accent as well as her posture.

She explains: "The Queen has been trained over many years to be a figure of rectitude.

"She must sit without fidgeting, always keep her hands still or by her side, and be able to stand for hours on end. We are all so free in comparison."

Diana's other challenge comes when she has to transform swiftly from one role to the next.

"I have to have two complete make-ups," Diana tells me. "My Coral Browne character is very different.

"She is chic, sensual and wears all these couture dresses.

"So after the first act I spend all my time whipping off my nail varnish, tearing off my stockings and stilettos and putting on my queenly pumps."

She adds with a laugh: "I always have to check myself though. Wouldn't it be awful if I came on as the Queen, still wearing bright red nail varnish? Could you imagine?"

Looking back over her career, Diana has been a familiar face on both television and film. Most recently, she starred as Joanna Lumley's mother-in-law in Sensitive Skin and opposite Kris Marshall in Catwalk Dogs.

She also has a number of acclaimed stage performances to her name, including the award-winning Mrs Rochester, Mother Courage and Peter Hall's celebrated production of You Never Can Tell. Diana's next production after Single Spies sees her taking up the mantle of Maria Callas in a play about the late opera singer's life.

But as a young child, Diana tells me acting was probably the last career option she would have considered.

"I didn't think about it at all," she tells me. "If you had asked me, I wouldn't have said acting because it didn't seem achievable and I didn't really know anyone in that world. But looking back, I used to act all the time. I was always in plays or forcing my siblings to act with me."

Her break came along when she was 19 and still at university, with a part in the BBC's The Wednesday Play.

"It was absolutely thrilling," says Diana. "I did think that's it, I've cracked it. I realised it was an incredible piece of luck."

Now her 23-year-old daughter Mary by her long time partner, actor Bill Nighy, has followed in her parent's footsteps and recently starred in the 2006 film, Marie-Antoinette, opposite Kirsten Dunst.

Away from the stage, Diana's other passion has been tracing her family history. She has written a book, out next year, about her father's family, who originally came from India and Pakistan.

But for the next few weeks at least, her efforts are well and truly focused on Single Spies.

She adds: "I love the theatre, especially comedy. There is something addictive in making people laugh."

Single Spies arrives at Wycombe Swan from Monday, May 12 to Saturday, May 17, 7.30pm. Matinees Wednesday and Saturday 2.30pm. Tickets: 01494 512000

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