The Queen gave a 'brilliantly-timed comic performance,' says writer of Paddington movie made to mark Jubilee

• The Queen had brilliantly comic timing when making a film with Paddington Bear, the writer has said.
• The Queen appears to share tea, and a love of marmalade sandwiches, with the iconic character.

The Queen gave a "brilliantly timed comic performance" in her Platinum Jubilee sketch with Paddington Bear, according to one of the people involved.

The two-and-a-half minute short movie had already gone viral after it was released in June this year, but began to be widely re-shared as the world reacted to news of her death at the age of 96 on Thursday.

Entitled "Ma'amalade Sandwich Your Majesty?," it was released to mark her 70 year-reign and was a complete surprise to the British public.

Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce praised her comic acting skills in a BBC interview. With Paddington rendered in CGI, the Queen had to deliver her lines to a stand-in, he said.

"That wasn't an easy task. Paddington is not really there," Variety reported him as telling the BBC. "That's technically an amazing performance, actually. It's a brilliantly timed comic performance."

In the movie, the Queen has tea at Buckingham Palace with Paddington, the well-meaning and gentle but accident-prone bear. She remains unflappable as Paddington drinks tea directly from the teapot, nearly breaks it, and accidentally squashes a cream cake.

When Paddington, abashed, finally offers her a marmalade sandwich from inside his hat — one of his most distinctive habits — the Queen politely refuses, and produces her own sandwich from inside her handbag.

The scene then cuts to crowds outside the palace readying for her Jubilee celebrations, and the Queen then starts to tap her teacup to the rhythm of "We Will Rock You" by Queen — something that Cottrell-Boyce had believed would be too incongruous.

"In those script meetings, I was very adamant that we shouldn't end with her tapping the cup," he told the BBC. "I thought, she'll never pull that off, it's too much to ask.

"But she pulls it off brilliantly. She's glowing in that moment, isn't she?"

The idea for the movie "came from the palace," he said.

"Paddington embodies so many of the values that she stood for," he said. "Paddington is all about kindness, tolerance, being kind to strangers, politeness. And those are values she's embodied throughout her life and that's why we are feeling so sad today.

"It was not purely a cute thing to do. It was significant, I think. That's why it was resonated so much."

Cottrell-Boyce said he believed the Queen may even have seen the movie as a farewell.

"She was approaching the end of her life, she knew she was, this is a sign-off," said Cottrell-Boyce.

The Paddington movies have been hailed as modern classics, with "Paddington 2" briefly knocking "Citizen Kane" off the top spot on Rotten Tomatoes.

Tufayel Ahmed contributed reporting.