Kate Whiting talks to Imelda Staunton about meeting the Queen and working with Burt Reynolds on the Isle Of Man.

IT’S not often a British actress can say her latest film has been given the royal seal of approval, but then Imelda Staunton is not just any actress.

The Bafta-winning stalwart of stage and screen recently met The Queen at the Royal Film Performance of A Bunch Of Amateurs, which co-stars Sir Derek Jacobi and Burt Reynolds.

“She did say afterwards ‘you must have had a lot of fun making it’, so I think she found it quite funny, which was good,” says Staunton, with a smile.

The red carpet premiere also gave Staunton a chance to natter with Her Royal Highness about that most British of interests – the weather.

“We filmed it in the Isle of Man in February, which was pretty bloody grim, so it was cold and we did talk about that,”

she recalls.

The British comedy centres around ageing Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steel (Burt Reynolds), whose incompetent agent lands him the role of King Lear in Stratford-Upon- Avon – or so he thinks.

It’s only when Jefferson arrives in the UK that he realises he’s actually signed up to play the lead for an amateur dramatic society’s version of Lear in Stratford St John, Suffolk.

Staunton, 52, is wellloved for her ability to ease effortlessly between more serious dramatic roles, including her Oscar-nominated portrayal of Vera Drake, and more comic parts in pieces like last year’s acclaimed Cranford.

In Amateurs, she plays Mary, a member of the Stratford Players and the starstruck owner of the B&B where the egotistical Jefferson has to stay.

“She’s crazy about him, just thinks he’s marvellous. She’s pathetically flirty and ridiculous and really thinks he’s the bees knees. She protects him and adores him and she’s so excited that he’s there in her house.”

So is there a glimmer of romance between the pair? “She’d love that, but I can’t tell you,”

Staunton says coyly.

As the media frenzy around him grows, Jefferson slowly accepts he’ll have to knuckle down and perform in King Lear for the sake of his flagging career, but there’s a serious challenge for the role from Nigel (Derek Jacobi) – the Stratford Players’ ousted leading man.

“There’s a brilliant double irony there, because you’ve got Derek Jacobi, who could of course play King Lear, but he’s playing an amateur who thinks he’s the star of the whole county - and it’s funny, because he gets his comeuppance,”

Staunton reveals.

London-born Staunton made her name as a stage actress. Her film career took off in the early 90s, with roles in Peter’s Friends, Much Ado About Nothing and Sense And Sensibility. But it was in 2004, as Vera Drake, that Staunton really made an impact on the international film scene, gleaning a Bafta Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

But Staunton says the role didn’t change her life dramatically.

“You’ve got a slightly higher profile and you get more scripts, but it doesn’t mean quality comes in – quantity comes in. You’ve got more to sift through, which is a very lucky position to be in, but I have to be careful that I don’t just take what’s offered. I start rehearsals soon for Entertaining Mr Sloane in the West End. So I’m doing stuff that I hope will stretch me.”

We’ll see Staunton on the big screen again next year in Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, as the mother of the man behind the most iconic music festival of all time. Herself a mother to 15-year-old Bessie with her actor husband Jim Carter, Staunton found it hard being away from home for the long US shoot.

“I don’t go away very much, so that’s the longest I’ve been away, so yes, it’s difficult,” she says. Staunton refuses to be drawn on her daughter’s acting ambitions, even though the whole family appeared in Cranford.

While awaiting to see if Cranford will film again in the spring, Staunton has had time to reflect on the reaction to her ludicrously funny village gossip, Miss Pole.

“Oh God, every day there was something in the news, I was very surprised.

You know every Monday morning, Terry Wogan was saying ’what about Cranford?’ and I wonder why it got hold of people...

“I think it’s because the body of the piece was this group of women who made decisions and stuck to them and had principles that are sort of lacking in society.

“And it was funny, really good fun.”

■ A Bunch Of Amateurs opens in cinemas tomorrow