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Ross King: Will Claire Foy’s exit from royal hit The Queen end in tears?

© PA Photo/Alex Bailey/NetflixThe Crown. (PA Photo/Alex Bailey/Netflix)
The Crown.

I WAS delighted to hear the brilliant Olivia Colman would be replacing Claire Foy as The Queen on Netflix’s glossy drama The Crown.

We’ve yet to hear who will be taking over from Matt Smith as the Duke of Edinburgh, but after this week’s revelations regarding the Royal Family’s tax arrangements, perhaps we should be asking who’ll be playing their slightly dodgy tax advisor!

Last week I had a chat with the outgoing Queen, Claire Foy, at the BAFTA Britannia Awards in Beverly Hills.

She was there to pick up the gong for British Artist of the Year 2017, and was looking incredible with a new shorter pixie-style haircut with raven-black hair.

Her hair is short as she’s just started shooting First Man, playing the ex-wife of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, alongside Ryan Gosling.

She did such a fantastic job of being Her Majesty, though, I wondered if she would miss it.

“No, not at all! I love the show, I love being part of it and everything about it, and now I have to say goodbye,” she told me.

Actress Claire Foy (Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)
Actress Claire Foy (Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)

“Which is sad but it’s also amazing, and it will go on. I can talk about The Crown forever. I’m so proud of it!

“I have no real concept of what Olivia coming in will be like yet.

“I might just end up sitting there on the sofa, crying.

“But I don’t think I will be. I’m so excited about Olivia doing it and I can’t wait to watch it, I think she’s extraordinary.

“It’s not mine, I will let go of it. Who knows, in two years’ time I might be having a breakdown!”

I also got a chance to speak to my old pal Denise Welch, who was there with husband Lincoln Townley.

She was laughing off a few tabloid shots of her which appeared in the British papers of her in a bikini.

She’s more relaxed than me – if pics of me in my Speedos were to appear in public I wouldn’t be laughing. Indeed, no one would.

“I’ve got a big birthday coming up next year, it’s my 60th,” Denise said.

“I feel better entering that decade than I did my 40s and 50s. I’ve turned my life around.

“I’ve been pictured in my bikini in the papers, but I do it to embarrass my children.

“Us older birds get a lot of flak and we’re told we can’t do a lot of things but you know something – there’s life in the old birds yet!”