Danny Boyle has revealed that the Queen was very keen to have her photo taken with Daniel Craig when they filmed their Olympic sequence. When the Oscar-winning filmmaker was asked whether the Queen got a souvenir snap of her and the bond star, he replied: "Absolutely! Yeah. But she was very, very keen and insistent that her staff did as well. I liked that about her very much. "You thought, ‘Yeah, that’s decent, looking after them like that’. And we had a lovely afternoon filming with the two of them."
The director, who masterminded the critically-acclaimed opening ceremony, said he believes the Queen took part in the Olympic sketch because of its lightheartedness compared to all the formality of the Diamond Jubilee. He told the Radio Times: "She knew the Jubilee, obviously in the same year, was going to be very formal. And you have an instinct when you perform in public. You just have instincts. And I’m sure that was part of the instinct, 'Let’s change it, make it different'." "I think she also must have known, because I was involved, that they were going to make it like a People’s Games… so there was a chance to take a risk with it."
He continued: "She wanted her staff to have a day out with a movie star. And so we did. Daniel Craig came and he’s a movie star! He’s James Bond! Everybody can get their picture taken." Their famous scene became one of the most talked about moments of the Olympics and was met by huge cheers inside the Olympic stadium. It was later revealed the Queen had kept other members of the Royal family in the dark. Prince William said at the time: "To be honest, we were kept completely in the dark about it, that's how big the secret was."
