When Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth jumped from a helicopter and unfurled the Union Jack flag to mark the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the world was shocked.
James Bond and The Queen London 2012 performance
Now, author Craig Brown reveals that the moment, created by English film director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting), was inspired by the opening sequence of the 1977 James Bond thriller The Spy Who Loved Me.
In his new book, A Voyage Around the Queen, serialized in Britain's Daily Mail, Brown quotes Boyle, who describes remembering the scene in which James Bond, played by Roger Moore, skis to the edge of a mountain cliff and then jumps off. Luckily, he has a parachute that opens, revealing the Union Jack. And all before the film's opening credits have even started.
Brown writes that Boyle and his team visited the Queen to ask how her lookalike should be dressed for the scene. It was the Queen’s dresser, Angela Kelly, who went to ask the monarch if she wanted to be involved, and the Queen immediately agreed – on condition that she could say, “Good evening, Mr Bond.”
