Imelda Staunton still wears the clothes she wore to play Queen Elizabeth II

She has now admitted about how she keeps wearing Elizabeth's clothes from the show after getting immersed in her persona, with The Sun quoting her as saying: "It was quite a serious job and quite a serious responsibility carrying all that stuff.

"I finished doing that last May and June and shaking that off - so now I can be up and funny - it's just taken me that time.

"I was doing it day in, day out. I knew in 2019 I was doing it, and I started in 2021, so it was a long time. Four years of her in my head.

"The work that went in, you can see it on the screen, every detail from the set to the costumes. I'm wearing one of her shirts now."

Imelda made the admission at a charity event this week in Brighton while wearing one of the blouses she used to play Elizabeth.

Despite being critically acclaimed for her role as the late monarch, other royal commentators have hit out at her portrayal.

Historian Hugo Vickers, 71, told Page Six the late Queen Elizabeth, who died in 2022 aged 96, was "briefed" on the series by courtiers, while her husband Prince Philip was said to have been left "terribly upset" by an episode that suggested he was partly to blame for the death of his sister Cecile in a plane crash.

He added it appeared the show was unfairly portraying the late queen, hitting out about Imelda's performance: "You cannot escape that they are picking away at the souls of real people. It's vile.

"This queen looks so boring (and) nothing like her at all. The queen always managed to keep her twinkle in her eye and keep her sense of humour even in the most difficult of times - she was not slumped like this woman on TV.

"Imelda Staunton just looks like a bored housewife, a real crosspatch, and so unlike the real queen."