Matt Smith says Queen used to watch The Crown on a projector

The Crown star Matt Smith has revealed that he was told Queen Elizabeth II regularly watched the series based on her life – but that her husband Prince Philip “definitely didn’t”.

Smith, who is currently starring as Daemon Targaryen in the Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, told NBC’s Today Show that he’d heard that the Queen “used to watch it on a projector on a Sunday night.”

Smith, 39, portrayed the Queen’s husband Prince Philip on the show, which was created by screenwriter Peter Morgan and debuted on Netflix in 2016.

Recalling meeting Prince Harry at a polo match, Smith said: “He walked up to me and he went, ‘Grandad,’ because he watched the show.”

However, Smith added that when a friend asked Prince Philip if he also watched the show, the Duke of Edinburgh replied: “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96 last week, over a year after her husband died aged 99.

Claire Foy, who appeared opposite Smith on The Crown, spoke yesterday about the honour of portraying the Queen on screen.

Foy said that the late monarch was a “massive symbol of continuity and dignity and grace”.

The actor, 38, played the Queen for the first two series before handing over the role to Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton.

Speaking to the BBC at the Toronto Film Festival, she said: “I think that she was an incredible monarch. She united people and she was a massive symbol of continuity and dignity and grace.”

Foy added: “My main feeling is just thinking about her as a mother and a grandmother and a great-grandmother, really, and I’m very honoured to have been a teeny-tiny, small part of her story.”