A SEAL OF APPROVAL

Daisy Goodwin reveals what Elizabeth II's personal assistant, Angela Kelly, thought of her play about her life with the monarch

- MIRANDA THOMPSON

Among the audience gathered at a theatre in Leeds for a performance of By Royal Appointment – Daisy Goodwin's play inspired by the relationship between the late Queen Elizabeth II and Angela Kelly, her personal assistant and senior dresser of nearly three decades - was one very special guest: Angela herself.

“She wrote me such a sweet note afterwards to say how much she’d enjoyed it,” Daisy exclusively tells HELLO!. “She felt it was truthful, and that it had made her well up.

“I thought that was so impressive. It takes a lot of nerve to watch something that's meant to be you on stage. She was big enough to see that what I've done was not her, but true to her position. I think she thought it was true to the Queen, so I was thrilled by that.”

The play was a long time in the making for screenwriter and producer Daisy, best known as the writer of the ITV drama Victoria.