Queen’s night-time habit brought to life by Helen Mirren - and it reflects her life-long passion

The Queen’s night-time habit in childhood might be rather unusual but it was brought to life on screen by Dame Helen Mirren and reflects her life-long passion.  

• Her Majesty was once portrayed by the wonderful Dame Helen Mirren in the 2006 historical drama, The Queen.
• Getting candid about one particular scene, the talented actor has revealed she incorporated the Queens’ night-time habit into it.
• This royal news comes as the Queen's iconic gesture to a comedian as he made an awkward joke at the Platinum Jubilee event was described as 'perfect response'. 

The extended Royal Family are known for their traditions, some of them quite unusual, like the Queen’s bizarre sandwich rule. And it seems that some of Her Majesty’s patterns of behavior in childhood have made their way onto the silver screen. Opening up to Harper’s Bazaar about the monarch ahead of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2022 celebrations, Helen revealed that she read the book written by the Queen’s former nanny, Marion Crawford, or “Crawfie” as she was known. 

It was while making her way through the book that the award-winning actor learnt about the Queen’s night-time habit from childhood.

“The Queen always loved horses, and she had these little toy horses, and Crawfie said she would get up in the middle of the night and arrange them very neatly, so they were all in a row,” Helen told the publication.

She continued, “She said sometimes in the night she’d get up and check that they were still neatly arranged, that their little feet were still in a straight line.”

Upon learning this, Helen couldn’t help but incorporate a version of this orderly behavior into her performance after landing the highly prestigious role of the monarch in the 2006 film, The Queen. 

The historical drama that focused on the tragic death of Princess Diana and the royals’ response and included Michael Sheen as then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“And there was a moment [in The Queen] when she’s on the phone to Tony Blair and she’s got some pens, and I said: ‘I want a shot of her arranging these pens very neatly, equally distanced and exactly lined up’,” Helen explained.

“And it was a tiny detail that the audience will never really know, but you know, and when as a character you walk onto the set, you feel: ‘This is where I live, this is mine'," she added. 

Though as Helen admitted, this was a “tiny detail” in the wider movie, it’s a lovely way of reflecting the Queen’s habit from her early years. And while it’s unknown whether Her Majesty still owns toy horses, she reportedly now owns more than a hundred real life ponies and horses, according to The Telegraph. 

Just last month the Queen was spotted being driven to check up on her horses at Sandringham and she beamed with joy at the Royal Windsor Horse Show on its second day on May 13th. 

Her Majesty's life-long love of horses were also celebrated on the final day when over 500 of them were involved in the A Gallop Through History performance in honor of the Platinum Jubilee.