Womble rubbishes Queen!

OLIVIA COLMAN has been garlanded with awards, but as the current monarch in Netflix’s The Crown, she fails to win approval from an admirer who could claim to be King of Wimbledon Common — creator of The Wombles pop group, Mike Batt.

‘She’s an absolutely phenomenal actress, with a wonderful range,’ Mike, 70, tells me. ‘But in The Crown it seems she only has one expression — dour — and rarely sparkles like the real Queen.’ Mike adds: ‘None of the cast has got the royal accent right — for instance pronunciation of the vowel sound “ou” as in “round to our house”.

‘Fully paid-up posh people pronounce it almost as “rynde to ire hyce” with a very slight flattening orff.’ Madame Cholet never had these troubles.