Tomorrow, we’re going to post about Queen Elizabeth’s other favorite breed, but for now, we reprise one of our personal favorite videos ever, this one featuring the Queen, her Corgis, and our favorite martini drinker:
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said at the time that the Queen was “very happy” to take part and was “delighted to be asked to be involved in something so exceptional.” The scenes were filmed in the quadrangle, the Grand Entrance, the East Gallery, the Audience Room and the West Terrace, and included the Queen’s dogs, 13-year-old “Monty,” (previously owned by the Queen Mother), nine-year-old “Holly,” and a third corgi, “Willow.” In the helicopter scene, the Queen was played by Julia McKenzie, famed for portraying Miss Marple, and the two parachutists seen leaping from the helicopter were Gary Connery and Mark Sutton. Daniel Craig, however, was reported to have been grumpy during the shoot.
The commercial was the prelude to the Queen’s opening of the Olympics when she told the world, “I declare open the Games of London, celebrating the 30th Olympiad of the modern era.”