Keira’s spooked by her mangled Mandarin...

Keira Knightley had to learn some Mandarin for her latest film, but it ended up being all Greek to her.

‘it did take some practising,’ the 34-year-old Oscar-nominated star told me.

She had to learn some phrases for her portrayal of Katharine Gun, the real-life Government Communications Headquarters (a British intelligence agency) translator, who, in 2003, turned whistleblower to expose lies about the build-up to the invasion of iraq.

Production staff working on Official Secrets — which was being shown at the BFi London Film Festival last night, tonight and again on Sunday (it goes on general release next Friday) — sent her a recording of someone speaking the necessary phrases in Mandarin. ‘i was listening to it and listening to it, and i think everyone at work was getting really annoyed because i was listening to it what seemed like ten million times,’ Keira (above as Gun) told me. ‘i felt quite cocky about it — i thought i’d cracked it. But when i listened to myself saying it, i realised that there’s a tonal thing that we don’t have,’ she explained.

Gavin Hood, who directed the cracking film, which also stars Matt Smith and ralph Fiennes, asked her to record it again.

‘a lady came in and read it out, and i recorded it phonetically. i can’t say that i was a natural Mandarin speaker — well, i clearly wasn’t, was i?

‘ They were getting really annoyed with me at work, and i just didn’t realise how difficult it was going to be,’ Keira added.

She needn’t have worried. Her post-production work has wiped away any blemishes, and it now sounds as though Keira was translating away in the ancient language as if to the Mandarin born!