It was London Luvvies on parade in Leicester Square for the Royal Charity Premiere of A Bunch of Amateurs, starring Burt Reynolds, Derek Jacobi and Imelda Staunton.
The film is about an aging actor who leaves Hollywood for what he believes is a run at The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of King Lear in Stratford Upon Avon, only to find out that it is actually an amateur dramatic society performance in Stratford St John, Suffolk.
Jacobi and Staunton were on hand to welcome Her Royal Highness The Queen to the premiere, but main man Reynolds wasn’t in town. However, co-star Samantha Bond stepped in to talk about the moustachioed one, saying: “it was completely awesome to work with him." She also admitted a rather interesting crush: "When Burt tells stories about Frank Sinatra and the like, I kept thinking, in terms of a game of six degrees of separation, if I’ve kissed Burt (albeit in an affectionate way), does that mean that I have nearly kissed Sinatra? And thereby hangs a dream!”
Also ready for his royal audience was Andy Serkis, who despite being in full black tie still managed to look like a pirate with his slicked back ponytail and hoop earring, plus the “Captain Haddock beard, just to get into character”. Serkis is “gearing up, getting prepared and working on the character, ready to go” for the start of filming on the Spielberg directed motion-capture version of Tintin early in the New Year.