The Queen’s movie career

As anyone who's recently been gnome shopping in B&Q will know, the Queen will soon be celebrating her Diamond Jubilee.

The sheer volume of tat made in her honour is not the only testament to Her Majesty's enduring appeal though. She's also cropped up in dozens of films and TV projects down the years - 84 to be precise (according to imdb).

HRH's funniest film outing was 'Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!', which saw Leslie Nielson's bumbling cop Frank Drebin foil a ridiculous plot to assassinate the queen.

She was played by Jeannette Charles, who is apparently Hollywood's 'go-to' lady for Elizabeth II impersonations.

Charles has played Her Majesty in 20 movies and TV shows, including 'Austin Powers in Goldmember', where she gives the spy a knighthood, and National Lampoon flick 'European Vacation'. Jeanette is an industry legend, even though we don't think she looks that much like The Queen.

Another actress who's made a good living looking a bit like Her Royal Highness is Elizabeth Richards. On her official website (queenlookalike.com) she describes herself as: "the same height as the Queen… a perfect likeness of Her Majesty.

"She has an extensive wardrobe collection and portrays the Queen in serious or amusing situations, but would never intentionally do anything untoward."

Richards has played Her Majesty in 'What A Girl Wants' and 'Agent Cody Banks 2', as well as dozens of TV appearances, such as 'Big Brother'. She's also available for private functions.

Without doubt the rudest film outing for The Queen was in Sacha Baron Cohen's terrible 'Ali G Indahouse', which saw Cohen's Westwood-alike pull down her skirt and make an obscene comment about her nether regions. It wasn't funny.

Another bizarre royal appearance was hit and miss British comedy 'Churchill: The Hollywood Years', with Christian Slater's buff Winston Churchill wooing Neve Campbell's beautiful Princess Elizabeth. At one point she threatens Hitler with a machine gun: "Let her go or I'll blow your other ball off!" A shocker.

Weirdly The Queen has also been animated a few times. Firstly in the rather lovely 'The BFG', with ickle Sophie implanting a dream into HRH's mind so she helps defeat 'mean giants'. Sounds rather a lot like 'Inception' to us.

Even stranger was Liz's appearance in Pixar flick 'Cars 2', where she was re-imagined as a blue Rolls Royce with a massive crown. Vanessa Redgrave (who we reckon has one of the best voices in Hollywood) did the vocals.

Oh and we almost forgot, Helen Mirren apparently did a decent job of playing her majesty in 'The Queen'. Joking aside, it was a tour de force effort that - it could be argued - helped change many people's opinion of our monarch after her slump in popularity following Princess Diana's death. The role won Mirren an Oscar.