It was the best-kept secret of the Olympics opening ceremonies, and it seems the common folk weren’t the only ones kept in the dark about the queen’s audacious Bond movie, which culminated in a stunt man dressed as the queen parachuting into the Olympic Stadium.

For in his biography out next month, Seb Coe, the Olympics chief organizer, claims that Princes William, Harry, and Charles were all unaware of the stunt until it was screened. The bio is being serialized in the (paywalled) London Times.

In his autobiography, Running My Life, Lord Coe writes: “Prince Charles looked at me and began laughing rather nervously, wondering where on earth this was going. And when the film cut to the shot of the Royal back, he had exactly the same reaction as everyone else, which was to assume that it was the lady who does the  impersonations. But the moment she turned around and everyone realized, "My God! It really is the Queen!" he began roaring with laughter. As for his sons, they were beside themselves.

“As she started her descent, two voices behind me (William and Harry) shouted in unison 'Go Granny!'"