Queen Elizabeth II was never one to shy away from magical moments celebrating key moments in the UK. On this day in 2012, the late Queen, who died in 2022, shocked the world after appearing in a skit alongside Daniel Craig as his iconic character of James Bond.

During the skit, directed by Danny Boyle, the fictional spy escorts the Queen from Buckingham Palace to the Olympics in a helicopter. An actor playing the Queenthen jumps out of the aircraft with a Union Jack parachute. As well as the iconic moment being kept a secret from the public, it was also kept hidden from her own family.

Earlier this year, production stage manager Sam Hunter told broadcaster Kirsty Wark: "The Queen never told her family she was doing it."

He then added that the Queen had requested this, adding, "That was one of the stipulations when she agreed to be part of it."

According to Sam Hunter, when you view the ceremony, you can see the surprise in the faces of her family members.

Speaking previously on The Jonathan Ross Show, Danny Boyle said that it was the Queen who suggested playing herself - with him previously having had a well-known actress in mind.

Upon asking the Palace for permission to play out a clip including Queen Elizabeth, and wanting to make them aware that they wouldn't "embarrass them", Mr Boyle told Jonathan: "So we wrote up this idea of the James Bond idea, and we sent it into them [the Palace].

"And we were asking really for permission for them to accept that it wouldn't embarrass them, and [that] we'd get a double, a good double.

"And we were like thinking, you know, Helen Mirren, you know, who could we ask [and] and who's a good actor?"