oung lovers come and go but the Queen remains, adored by millions, immutable in her pomp and circumstance. In the early days of her reign, she appeared to be little more than a wig-maker’s fancy, a bejewelled figurehead with a disdainful sneer. But at some point over the course of the first season of the Netflix costume drama, the remote character of Queen Charlotte stepped down from her pedestal to become a cult figure in her own right.
So it’s quite a moment when the Queen, AKA actor Golda Rosheuvel, arrives at the Guardian offices with an advance guard of hat boxes and stylists. She is starting with a photoshoot, and when I pop my head in to ask if she would like anything to drink, she commands “water” in an imperious voice without moving her head or condescending to shift her eyes away from the camera.